Beall's to blog with its new face of fashion

Kim Ulmer, a 36-year-old Tampa mother of a 3-year-old, has been chosen as the new face of Beall's, the moderately priced department store chain. She'll appear in print ads, TV morning shows and on Bealls.com offering family fashion tips tailored to appeal to today's more practical shopper. She'll be offered as a resource to the state's plethora of fashion chat blogs and host her own blog at beallsflorida.com. That puts her among the first in a slew of retailers about to try interacting online directly with customers in the ever-growing fashion blogosphere. Ulmer and Lana Cain Krauter, president of the 82-store department store group based in Bradenton, talked about it all with Times staff writer Mark Albright.

Betty Crocker, Nicole Miller and Martha Stewart have all been used to provide a human face and personality for brands. How did you choose Kim?

Krauter: We were talking with some recognizable celebrities. But when the economy slumped so deeply, we realized we needed someone real, someone who shares the life experience of being a young mom and trying to make ends meet. Kim was perfect. She has the background of being a model and a fashion-savvy stylist for 16 years in France, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong. She had lived the Neiman Marcus and Saks life before returning to settle down in Tampa, raise a family and make all the tradeoffs as a parent.

Ulmer: For me, it's like coming home. I modeled for Beall's, Maas Brothers and Robinson's of Florida ads as a kid. So did my husband (a Tampa firefighter), who was a model for Beall's at 8. Modeling was a career that took me around the world, but I became a stylist in the fashion industry and learned how you can make a wardrobe pop. With the right touches and accessories, you can create a new outfit for less than 100 bucks.

You'll work directly with Beall's apparel and accessories buyers. You'll promote "Kim's Picks," value-priced outfits that get prominent real estate in stores. So much of your advice will be about what Bealls is trying to sell. Will your blog be scripted?

Ulmer: Initially. But I know enough about the subjects to talk spontaneously about trends, fabric and how to pull together a wardrobe inexpensively. For a while I was an expert presenter for a cosmetics line on HSN. Plus, we'll have a lot of how-to advice, like eight ways to tie a scarf.

Krauter: The blog is going to be a learning experience for us. We'll have her blog fashion tips and respond to shopper questions now and then. Then we'll see how live blogging evolves.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.