post.fashionism

Getting Ready for NYFW S/S 2011

So many acronyms right off the bat. As everyone in the fashion industry is well aware, New York Fashion Week is looming on the calendars and it brings along with it a flood of events, shows, parties, and ridiculously well-dressed people. For fashion bloggers getting ready to brave the nexus of it all, here’s a list of tidbits that you might find pertinent. I’ll be updating it as time goes on, so feel free to come back and check it out!

EVENTS

IFB Evolving Influence Conference | link to site

Fashion Week is intended to be a showcase of the new designer collections for the upcoming season, but it’s also a giant networking event with the industry’s most interesting and relevant figures. Of course, this is also a great chance for fellow fashion bloggers to get to know each other and become friends. I attended this event last season and it was a major blast. Jennine, who plans the conference, is amazing; plus, I got the honor of being able to help out backstage. I’ll be helping out again with the conference, so be sure to say hi to me if you plan on attending.

The best part of this conference is that it kicks off NYFW. The event starts the morning of September 9th and consists of a series of panels and then an after-party. Yours truly will be arriving in the US from China, then taking a bus to NY in them morning of the day from Philly, then arriving at NY around 8AM, then running over to the IFB conference hopefully in time to help set up for the day. Phew!

You can learn more about the event here, along with a detailed schedule and instructions to purchase tickets. This is definitely worth the investment! Let me know if you’re coming. We’ll meet up for sure!

Note – They are giving away an iPad during the IFB Conference. I am praying to the fashion gods I win this.

Also – just to be totally fair here, Chictopia also has a similar event going on that you can learn about here. I haven’t gone before, because the ticket price is so expensive (the IFB Conference was even cheaper last season), but I know it will also be a really valuable experience. Their lineup is also impressive as well.

Fashion’s Night Out | link to site

A public celebration of all things fashion and an excuse to literally shop till you drop, Fashion’s Night Out promises to be a fun-filled night whereby the boundary between exclusive party and public mayhem blurs. Designers and stores will be holding events for the masses to be graced by the designers themselves as well as celebrities.

Oftentimes, we bloggers get so caught up in the drama of show invite acceptances and rejections, that we forget that the purpose of these shows is to celebrate the designers and their creations. But in the face of PR squabble and self-chatter on the internet, it can be easy to forget that the designers and their retailers are a major component of the industry . FNO offers to be an excellent reminder of why we’re here as well as a grand time too.

You can see a listing of all the public events here.

TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS

Writing Effective Event Invite Request Proposals

Most of us won’t have blogs that have instant name recognition. As such, we have to sell ourselves to the various PR firms that represent the myriad fashion designers in the industry. Becca from Free Honey asked about what kind of information should go into these pitches and what’s the most effective way to grab those invites. Firstly, I’ll preface this by saying that the most important factor really lies in how influential your blog and your identity is within your respective field. There’s not substitute for having a lot of readers and being a mover within the industry. But that being said, you can definitely improve your chances with PR firms by convincingly, easily, and quantifiably demonstrating your influence. When I write pitches, I always include the following information about myself:

Basic blog information – Name, URL, Purpose, Writers for the blog
Basic biographical information – Do you have any special traits that make you more relevant? For example, I consulted for Macy’s and BCBGMAXAZRIA in the past and created a national sales campaign for the former and a local marketing campaign for the latter. Both are relevant for PR firms to consider.
Basic metrics on your blog – The key here is to not information overload. I always attach a media kit with more information. In the email – where attention spans are low and you need to grab attentions quickly – I talk about reader demographics, press mentions, and traffic volume.
Social media influence – I also put in a quick word about my influence on other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

So how do you get data on your blog? I compiled some amazing resources I use to check for influence.

Blog Influence:

In no real order of preference, I recommend you use Alexa.com and Quantcast.com. However, there is no real substitute to installing your own analytics to your blog, such as Google Analytics or any other free system, to gain real granular insights on your blog. General metrics looked for are unique visits, returning visits, depth of visits, and visitor demographics (gender, location, age).

Social Media Influence:

If you’re running also on YouTube or Facebook, you can gain insights into your profile/page with the in-house platform analytics program provided to you for free by the respective websites. If you are using Twitter though, it can be harder to measure your influence. Here are my favorite sites for Twitter:

twitinfluence.com // The most comprehensive and transparent Twitter influence ranking website, I use twitinfluence to grade my own Twitter page as well as use the ranking generated by the site on my press kit. I love how the process is quite transparent and is calculated in a methodologically rigorous manner. Also, it ranks you on multiple dimensions, which is important. I find that one-score-fits-all methods to really oversimplify one’s influence measurement. It’s also usually harmful for most bloggers and only helpful for the already super-influential few.
tweetreach.com // A unique look at social influence that provides an additional angle I use in my press kit comes from tweetreach. It can approximate, based on statistical extrapolation, how many far your tweets penetrate for every 50 updates you post. This is important because it not only can determine how many first-hand readers consume your content (ie – followers), but also other Twitter users based on historical retweets of your updates.
klout.com // While I find twitinfluence sufficient enough, and I generally distrust one-score grades for influence, Klout is an exception. Their system is pretty intuitive and user friendly. They provide some rich analysis and offer a double-binary measurement of influence on an x-y axis diagram.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Fashion Week Show Calendar, Event Listing, Contacts | link to site

Earlier in August, I posted a calendar of shows to be held during NYFW. Of course since then, the list has been superseded by the official calendar as seen above. However, if you want a really awesome and comprehensive listing of events including both shows on-site and off-site shows (those designers opting to not go through IMG / Lincoln Center), consider this resource here by MODEMONLINE. Even better, this resource contains PR contact emails and other events happening during the week related to fashion.

Google Maps | link to site

Unless you know New York City like the back of your hand – and even I don’t know the back of my hand that well – you’re going to need some direcion help getting from place to place during NYFW. Google Maps is a great resource for getting from show to show because it is a comprehensive travel solution. The platform not only gives you directions, but it can also tell you the amount of time it takes in transit, public transporation options, multiple location routes (to help you plan for multiple shows), and subway time integration. It’s a powerful tool and you will definitely want to take advantage of!

One mistake I made last season was not map’ing my shows beforehand. I thought that I could use my iPhone to get directions from place to place. There were a two problems with this move.

One, iPhones or any smartphone for that matter drain battery like it’s no one’s business. You don’t want to be stuck in a situation where you have only 10 minutes to get to your next show and you don’t know how to get there because your cell phone died. And trust me, from just the sheer number of tweets you send, you’re phone will be drinking battery juice as much as you’ll be drinking the free beverages provided for NYFW attendees in the Center (Vita-Coco anyone?).

Two, shows can actually be quite far apart. I made the novice mistake of thinking that all shows were closely spaced together. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Make sure to do some planning and figuring out how you’ll get from show to show. In some cases, you will be physically unable to attend two shows, even if they are an hour apart from each other, unless you cab or leave the first show earlier. Also, keep in mind if the event is a show or a presentation. You can come generally anytime during the allotted time frame for a presentation, but you have to be on time to be seated for a show.

SHOWS I AM ATTENDING

Of course, I want to meet all my fellow bloggers and anyone else attending New York Fashion Week. I figure the best way to meet up is to compare schedules and if there’s an overlapping show or time in between to meet up, by all means let’s plan something! These are all my confirmed show, and hopefully I can get some more in the following week. I didn’t include parties in here, but I’m sure I’ll bump into a few of you over the course of the nights we spend in the city rocking away in spectacular fashion.

September 9th |

I get back to the United States with a bazillion bags (I packed for China, Fashion Week, and a whole semester of college) in Philadelphia then bus right away to New York in the morning, run with my bags onto the subway, then attend my first event of the season – the IFB Conference. I’ll probably stay most of the time there helping out and chatting away (and guarding my bags). Come find me for sure!

I also plan to drop by Concept Korea later in the night, but not sure what the after-party scene will be like as of yet.

If you plan to say hi, definitely email me ahead of time or twitter tag me.

September 10th |
Guli
BCBGMAXAZRIA (with backstage access)
Duckie Brown (with backstage access)
Ports 1961 (with backstage access)
ALEXANDER BERARDI
Lisa Perry
Academy of Arts
Fashion’s Night Out – I’m still working on this one. But I wouldn’t mind tagging along with some bloggers and engaging in general blogging debauchery wholesome goodness.

September 11th |
Diego Binetti
Vivienne Tam (with backstage access)
I am so glad I get a break on this day. Whew.

September 12th |
ChicSocial (if I can get extra tickets, they already sold out)
Rebecca Minkoff (with backstage access)
MAXAZRIA (with backstage access)
Custo Barcelona
Sally LaPointe (a special friend of mine and one of my favorite up coming designers in the scene)
Vassilios Kostetsos

September 13th |
Carlos Miele
Perry Ellis (with backstage access)

September 14th |
Herve Leger (with backstage access)
Luca Luca (with backstage access)
Tibi

September 15th |
Nanette Lepore
Adrienne Vittadini
Gottex
Rebecca Moses
Althea Harper

Then I leave NYFW a day early to attend the concert back in Philadelphia, for which I actually woke up before 8AM on a college day to buy tickets for – Lady Gaga.

Tagged as: NYFWSS2011

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VMAN’s Wall Street Inspired Spread

in III. LOOK BOOK

VMAN Magazine – “A Day on Wall Street”
Fall’s Sharp and Powerful Look Takes Inspiration From The Financial Cowboys of the 1980’s
Photographer: Josh Olins; Stylist: Jay Massacret
Models: T.R. Pescod, Eric Watts, AJ Abualrub, Sarah Dumont

I really couldn’t miss out on sharing this upcoming spread with you all. After being given the privilege of viewing a snippet of the spread before its release date, I wanted to also share the sneak peek with you all. To be released in its entirety in VMAN’s September 9th edition, A DAY ON WALL STREET promises to be a fashion spread I’ll be check out. Of course, I justify this unusual obsession with the spread due to the fact that I’m currently getting my education at the Wharton School of Business, which is one of the greatest spawning grounds for the world’s finest financiers. I say this with endearing love, for I must admit that working in finance is an appealing career path. But, it seems that a good preponderance of students in Wharton are only interested in finance, and I have to wonder if they have any other aspirations at all. Then again, our finance classes are top notch, so why not?

To my Wharton colleagues and like-minded readers, here’s a spread to you! The brands represented are spectacular and deserving of attention on their own. To name a few: Herve Leger, Montblanc, Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Piaget, Tom Ford, DKNY, Zegna, Dior Homme, Raf Simons, & Hermes.

Tagged as: DKNY, Hermes, Herve Leger, Louis Vuitton, Montblanc, photoshoot, Raf Simons, Tom Ford, VMAN

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Into the World of Jewelry

in I. MY ADVENTURES,II. THE FASHION WORLD

I had the privilege of being able to attend a tour of a well-known jewelry brand based in China, and learn about their manufacturing process from start to end. The brand specializes in fresh-water pearls and has a vertically-integrated business model. They own everything from the oyster farms to the processing to the designing to the retail store. Here’s a visual diary of the day’s tour.

Factory Grounds

I started the day at the factory grounds, where they process and ship out the jewelry. It also contains a showroom of some of their finished products, which I spent a fun half-an-hour exploring. I then left the area to go to one of their oyster farms, so observe how they harvest the pearls.

Oyster Farm:

What amazed me so much about the farm, apart from its vast scale – it being only one of many farms in possession by this jewelry brand – was the number of pearls a single oyster contained. As you can tell from the photos, each oyster can grow multiple pearls in the order of 10 plus. Of course, most pearls are not high quality, and only a few will be of the desired spherical quality. Most of these pearls will be used on cheaper jewelry while the premium pearls are used in higher end jewelry pieces. Each bump you see in the flesh of the oyster is an embedded pearl.

Pearl Processing

I was able to see part of factory where they process the pearls. After separating the pearls by quality, they send lower grade pearls to be drilled for necklaces then stringed. The process for higher grade pearls is different, but I didn’t get to observe that process. The metal welding and designing components of the operation flow takes place on another section of the factory, that wasn’t available for me to visit, but I can only imagine how awesome it would have been to see them meld and shape metal. The stringing and drilling of pearls takes nimble fingers, so human labor is required to process the pearls.

The Showroom:

At the end, the products are shipped to showrooms all over to be sold to consumers. I visited their closest showroom, which is located in a ridiculously large jewelry convention center that features a huge number of local and international jewelry designers. The convention center probably has room for at least 75 showrooms, and I visited a good 20 of them. If you think fashion is expensive, well – let’s just say jewelry shopping is no cheap hobby.

Tagged as: Design Process, Jewelry

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Of the World Expo & Shanghai

in I. MY ADVENTURES

Taking a break from the usual world of fashion to go to China makes me realize two things. One, you cannot escape fashion. China’s massive retail industry and budding fashion consciousness juxtaposed with a large country filled with counterfeits, Engrish, and mass-market apparel makes for interesting observations scenes. And two, if you think fashion is fast paced, then think again. Just going to Shanghai for the World Expo makes me realize how China operates on a much larger scale than most of us experience in the United States – not even NY can really compare to the business and craziness.

Favorite Pavillions

I don’t know how much you are aware of the World Expo, but each country that participates gets to create a pavilion dedicated to itself and its accomplishments. Each building tends to be an architectural feat, and I wanted to share with you some of my favorites that I got to see throughout the day.

China’s pavilion is really something. It’s a giant crowning building that expands upwards as it increases in height. It was also the largest building constructed for the World Expo, with a ride inside the pavilion! Even being so large though, most people have to get up at 4AM to get a ticket then wait until after 12PM in line to get inside. I luckily got to go inside without such a long wait!

Spain’s pavilion focuses on sustainability and natural elements, creating a futuristic wooden structure that I got a glimpse of on the car I was riding. I didn’t get to go inside the pavilion though.

Taiwan’s pavilion is pretty kick-ass if I must say. It’s not that large actually, with the spherical LED screen taking up most of the room, but who wouldn’t want one of these installed in your house? It was storming at the time, so the stark contrast between the dull light and the bright sphere is quite apparent in this photo.

Korea’s modernist pavilion reminded me a lot of Uniqlo for some reason. Anyone else see the semblance?

Russia’s pavilion inspired me because they were able to so effective merge a traditional aesthetic with a modern sensibility, creating a unique architectural form.

Random Fashion Musings

And of course, while most people were too hot to care about dressing up, I always enjoy snapping the fashionistas lurking around. But this time, I had more fun finding people wearing counterfeit items. While I had my doubts every time I encountered a Burberry plaid or Louis Vuitton bag I encountered, some counterfeits stuck out like sore thumbs. The two common mistakes are:

One - misspellings. Even though Domenico and Stefano broke up, Domenico didn’t purposely change his ex-lover’s name on their clothing as revenge.

Two – overtly (and tackily) branded. While usually relegated to the world of branded goods like Volcom and Quicksilver, higher end fashion brands are by no means excluded from this generic go-to design pattern on branded items. But I tend to think that this level of blatant branding is a decent indicator of a poor imitation gone crazy. It’s upside-down, reverse, up, down, in black and white, and all over it place!

Oh – did you know I have my own store in China called “Tony Wear”?

Just kidding.

And now, before I leave for my next adventure, I will depart with an image of the best lunch ever. A seedy alley-way lunch place that serves the best Shanghai steam buns ever. For less than 5 dollars, I got a large feast that even the cheapest food trucks in NY can only dream of. Delicious!