One of the things I love about the Internet is how it's accessible in
so many ways. Computers, tablets, mobile phones, and even gaming
systems (I can attest to having web access through my Wii) are the most
popular ways by which web surfers do their browsing, research, shopping,
work and socializing. Because there are so many ways to access the
Internet, there are so many different ways fashion companies can connect
with consumers to create hype for their products.
Today, having a presence on the web is about more than just having a webpage.
Social media used to be about connecting people with people. Now it's
connecting people with brands, organizations, educational institutions,
causes, and any other thing you can think of. Utilizing social media has
practically become a requirement for brands looking to get all of the
visibility they can muster, with the added benefit of not paying a cent.
That's not to say that advertising budgets can go out the window in
favor of free publicity on social media, though.
For a rapidly-growing lifestyle brand like Michael Kors,
connecting with their target market via social media is the way to go.
Web-savvy Millennials with money to burn and a love for affordable
luxury fashion are already dialed in and ready to pay attention.
Michael Kors has a presence on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Pinterest. One of my favorite ways to get my daily MK fix is through Instagram. Here are a few of my favorite recent posts from Instagram:
One of the things I love about Michael Kors product is the abundant use of
color. To get my MK color fix, I take a quick browse through the Michael
Kors profile on Pinterest. I can't help but love how The Color Edit board
is so deliciously colorblocked with inspiration and MK product. I love
color, but I also love tidiness and having everything in order, so this
page appeals to my senses and sensibilities. Click through to check out how blue
transitions into green... gorgeous! I happen to be in the market for a
spring/summer handbag, and anything in green or blue would do!
If
you're ever looking for a new hashtag to follow on Twitter, I would
recommend #JetSetGo. Sometimes you get a random person tweeting about
how they're on their 13th flight of 2013... But
at least half of the time you're led to tweets from Michael Kors, and
tweets about Michael Kors. I love the tweets with photos!
Then of course, there's Facebook which features many of the same photos from the prior three social media sites, and YouTube which has some great behind-the-scenes videos, as well as footage from runway shows.
All of this stuff is on top of the budgeted advertising plan... it's a
ton of work keeping multiple social media pages fresh and interesting
(as many bloggers know, and new bloggers will find out!). As someone who
follows MK on Instagram, I admit that every time I see a new picture I
get really excited. It keeps the brand at the front of my mind and makes
me want to go shopping! This is precisely what retailers want, because
when consumers have a little extra cash to spend, retailers want to
capture share of wallet before their competitors do. Putting effort into
social media as a way to promote fashion is arguably the most important
way to get consumers' attention today. Welcome to the new norm!
When tasked with finding and sharing a digital look book, I instantly thought of one of my favorite bloggers, Kendi Everyday. She started a personal style blog for fun and ended up with enough followers to leave her job in marketing to pursue blogging full time, and has since opened a small boutique in her hometown in Texas. This girl is practically a celebrity in the blogging world. This year she hosted the Gap Styld.by event at their Lincoln Square store in NYC during Fashion Week, and has been participating in their Styld.by campaign where she takes a Gap item or two, styles them up and photographs them to share with the world.
Kendi has a knack for working with what she already has in her closet. In the past, she has put herself on a strict diet of just 30 articles of clothing - tops, bottoms, dresses and shoes - and found creative ways to re-wear these 30 items over a period of 30 days (called "remixing"). Fossil apparently loved the idea, because they brought her in for a their 2011 holiday lookbook and asked her to do something similar with their product. Here are a few photos from the lookbook:
I'm sure you can see some of the items made multiple appearances in these first 12 photos - the leather shorts, the metallic brogues, and the cable knit sweater, to name a few. The look book is no longer available on Fossil's website, but they do have all 30 of the photos up on their Pinterest board! Kendi even blogged a little bit about the experience.
One of the things I love about this partnership is that Fossil brought in a normal person - not a fashion stylist, but a personal style blogger (who happens to be popular) - and used her creative thirty-for-thirty idea for their holiday look book. Their product is a natural fit with Kendi's own style, and she is an easy catalyst for reaching their target market. Realistically, most consumers in Fossil's target market can't afford to buy an entirely fresh closet based on a look book. By using Kendi's remixing trick, consumers can easily pick and choose items which mix well together as well as with items they already have at home. At the same time, Kendi benefits from the partnership with increased visibility to Fossil customers who might not have heard of her prior to the 2011 holiday look book.
I personally haven't really had a taste of what a "real" trunk show is. I know that in New York City, designers often bring collections to retailers to allow them to take a look at merchandise before it is available for sale to the public. For example, I remember seeing Pnina Tornai do several trunk shows at Kleinfeld on the show Say Yes to the Dress (GREAT show, by the way!). I'm sure designers do trunk shows in Boston fairly frequently - I remember a Minnie Rose trunk show in one of the boutiques in Greater Boston, but it was way outside of my price range. Too bad, because I loved that ruffled shawl Kate Middleton was spotted wearing to the grocery store a few days after her wedding! That said, I likely am not in the target market for designers hosting trunk shows in my area.
I realized that I have actively participated in a type of trunk show, though. I sold lia sophia jewelry for a couple years, which entailed bringing jewelry to someone's home or other venue and basically run a party for a hostess and her friends to purchase jewelry. In fact, lia sophia jewelry is the whole reason I started blogging back in 2010! Lia sophia is a family owned company which publishes catalogs twice per year - the styles are very diverse, and quite a bit of fun!. I own a ton of lia sophia jewelry, but haven't purchased any for a while so I decided to take a look at the company's YouTube channel to see what's up for Spring/Summer 2013. I found this great video which touches on the themes they're using for the warmer months of this year, including wedding/bridal, springy floral jewelry, layering necklaces, and summery jewelry.
Competitor, Stella & Dot, also has several videos about their jewelry, trunk shows, and trend reports. You can check those out here. Let me know what you think of these two companies' similarities/differences! I'm personally still a huge lia sophia fan, but I have been known to purchase the occasional Stella & Dot item. I've even broken all of the rules and bought Silpada! All of these jewelry companies operate like trunk shows - a representative of the company offers to set up shop in someone's home, and that someone invites all of their friends and family to come shop the collection. There are usually incentives for the person hosting the show at their home, such as free jewerly and awesome discounts. Have you ever been to a jewelry party? Here are some pictures of what these various parties look like (lia sophia, then Stella & Dot, then Silpada):
I think these jewelry parties are important for fashion because they bring inspiration and advice to women who might not necessarily know how to accessorize an outfit, and they allow women to shop for jewelry in a comfortable home environment with friends they can trust for honest fashion advice. My favorite customers were always those who walked into one of my parties saying, "I don't wear jewelry," and ended the night with a $250 order. I learned a lot about the jewelry in the time I spent selling it, and found creative ways to wear some of my favorite pieces. I loved sharing those different ways with my customers. In fact, one of my all-time favorite necklaces can be worn nine different ways (keep scrolling for a link to the post!). All it takes is one well-trained advisor to help a shopper find their perfect piece of jewelry.
In the interest of exploiting my early blogging days and providing you with a good laugh, I will leave you with some links and old pictures from my early blogging days. I'm mildly horrified at how awful these photos are, but it just goes to show that this little old blog has come a long way!
When I began researching fashion show videos for this blog post, I felt like I was looking at the same stuff everyone else has already seen. After all, New York Fashion Week wasn't that long ago, and Paris Fashion Week just ended last week, so I decided to try a different tack. I Googled "important fashion show," and one of the results caught my eye - Versailles '73: The Fashion Show That's About To Be Everywhere..., a post on Racked.com. I will admit, I was intrigued by the title mainly because Versailles is somewhere I have always wanted to visit. Every time I watch the movie Marie Antoinette, I find myself looking up flights to France to see if I can swing the airfare, and I fell in love with Versailles all over again when Dior filmed their J'Adore commercial featuring Charlize Theron in a staged fashion show in the Hall of Mirrors at the Chateau de Versailles.
On to the important stuff - important video fashion show!
Versailles '73, also known as the Battle of Versailles (aptly named by the press), is a fashion show which literally defined a moment in fashion history. This was a fashion show hosted by France in 1973 which showcased five French designers and five American designers, and was originally intended to be a fundraiser for restorations for the Palace of Versailles."The French team included Yves Saint Laurent, Dior's Marc Bohan, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, and Emanuel Ungaro. The American side had Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, and Stephen Burrows" (Folan). However, this fashion show became much more than just a fundraiser! The French endeavored to show couture, knowing that the American designers they invited would be more apt to display sportswear and figuring that this would make the French show the better of the two. Apparently, the French team created the most elaborate sets and denied the American team the same luxury. The French team spent 2.5 hours showcasing their designs, whereas the American team got it done in 35 minutes (Cuddy). One article I read, which I couldn't find when I got around to typing up this blog post, claimed that the French team made sure the American team had the worst bathrooms to use during their stay. Talk about petty!
What really made this show a historical event wasn't the designers, the sets, or even the apparel. It was the team of models the Americans brought which included 12 African-American models. This was monumental for the time period, since the Civil Rights Movement had only taken place a few years prior in the United States, from 1955-1968. Putting an African-American woman on the runway was unheard of, especially in France. Seeing an African-American woman strut her stuff down the runway in sportswear was unlike anything the fashion world had ever seen. "In that moment America stood its ground with the French and basically won the night. It established us in the forefront of fashion. Up until that point everyone wanted something French. They had the French fashion industry for three, four hundred years" (Folan). American sportswear finally got the recognition it deserved from the fashion world, and the French realized that Americans weren't just dabbling with fashion, but that they were a force to be reckoned with!
Stills of Stephen Burrows and his clothes from Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution Image courtesy of PaperMag.com
Since this show was put on in 1973, I couldn't find any video snippets to share on my blog. However, a documentary about Versailles '73 debuted last year - here is a link to the trailer on Amazon. My favorite quotes are toward the end of the trailer are, "American sportswear was something that had to be paid attention to," and "There are moments in history that change the course of history, and that was a moment in history that changed the course of the fashion industry." The full documentary is available for download through Amazon - I encourage you to pay $3.99 for the 3-day rental. It is worth it!
The film was actually screened at FIT earlier this month - did you get to see it? In an interview shortly after the screening at FIT, documentary director Deborah Riley Draper explained why these 12 African-American models were such a big deal, "There was a shift in thinking: 'Let's make them look the same so we can let the clothes stand out.' In that sameness, you lose a lot of flavor. The '70s was about experimentation, it was about self-expression, it was about freedom. It was about breaking the status quo, not just in fashion but in everything" (Folan). Unfortunately, this groundbreaking moment in history did not cement a spot for African-American women on the runway. Have you ever noticed how most Fashion Week models have a sameness to them? According to an article on Madame Noire, an audit of models on the 2012 NYFW runways revealed, "Fewer than 10 percent (8.1 percent, to be precise) were black" (Garcia). According to an article on Jezebel, at NYFW this year, "Black models were hired for 271, or 6%" of looks on the runway (Sauers). Here's an enlightening pie chart to give you an idea of the breakdown from NYFW 2013:
Wow! I would say that this is an opportunity being missed, and hopefully some savvy designer will jump on the "Models of Color" bandwagon and hire a more ethnically-diverse group next year. I didn't mean for this post to get so heavy, but there you go. I found this entire subject fascinating, and I hope you learned something from it and enjoyed it as much as I did!
To conclude on a lighter note, since I can't actually post the trailer for the documentary or any other videos about the Battle of Versailles, I thought you might enjoy the Dior commercial set in Versailles' Hall of Mirrors. Charlize Theron is stunning, of course, but I encourage you to keep your eyes peeled for other famous faces and let me know whom you spot!
(Also, I dare you not to groove along to the background music... the song is Heavy Cross by The Gossip.)
This is what happens when you get your tax refund, and thanks to school, it's a hefty refund. A small $70 treat for myself, and the rest goes to school loans. shopping DIET.
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