Tumblr has become the go-to platform for many fashion bloggers (think What I Wore and LookBook.nu). With its built-in tagging and sharing options, and simple-to-use mobile app, bloggers can quickly update content on this platform that fills the gap between what Twitter and WordPress offer.
Last year, Rich Tong joined the startup as Tumblr’s Fashion Director and with that, Tumblr began a very happy relationship with the fashion industry. In fact, Tumblr CEO David Karp said last year that about 20% of the top 1,000 blogs on the site were fashion related.
It was only a matter of time before the fashion brands followed the bloggers.
Bergdorf Goodman’s Social Media Manager, Cannon Hodge, recently told Mashable that the brand’s 5th/8th blog is more editorial, while The Swipe “gives a very private glimpse into the most imaginative and creative minds of Bergdorf Goodman.”
Other luxury fashion brands like Kate Spade, Alexander McQueen, Oscar de la Renta, and Jason Wu have worked the platform into their social media strategies.
More affordable fashion brands, like Ann Taylor (the first fashion brand to adopt the platform) and ModCloth have also found success on the site.
And Tumblr really caught my eye during New York Fashion Week last Spring when the startup sent 20 bloggers to shows, and granted them access to the Independent Fashion Bloggers’ Conference, the Bloglovin awards, and the end-of-week part. So Tumblr visitors could stay up to date on the week’s events even more, Tumblr even set up a feed of Fashion Week content at Tumblr.com/nyfw.
But just days before this season’s New York Fashion Week, Tumblr made the news again, but not for sending more bloggers to New York. This time, Tumblr has made some fashion industry people very upset.
So, I am sure you have all heard that Tumblr is sending some bloggers to fashion week again this season. I have also had the pleasure of seeing their sponsorship proposal being shopped around to brands, which I am not supposed to be talking about. I will say this … someone is completely out of their goddamn mind.
Fashion brands have adopted this platform in a big way and do you want to know what fashion brands need from Tumblr? An analytics dashboard! We are on all here managing blogs with the help of Google Analytics, but there is nothing catering to the tumblr only based metrics — reblogs, likes, followers, etc. There is nothing out there to help brands quantify their presence here. What works? What doesn’t? And it’s not about visitors- it’s about engagement in the oh so tumblr way.
They could actually make money from this analytics platform — I would pay for it for my clients. I would absolutely get behind a cost like that on an evergreen basis, which has to make way more money than this flash in the pan fashion week nonsense.
And then Julie Fredrickson of Ann Taylor’s social media team publicly said that nobody reached out to the brand from Tumblr with a Fashion Week proposal despite the brand being the first to use Tumblr and investing major money into the platform. She went on to say that, “It isn’t just Users First, Brands Second. Hell at this point you are Users First, Brands never,” before making a mean jab at Rich Tong, blatantly telling him to do his job.
Coghan and Fredrickson’s public comments showed up after Tumblr published its Fashion Week proposal, which outlines the following prices:
About $10,000 per private blogger event, not including the venue and other costs
$150,000 sponsorship of Tumblr’s New York Fashion Week page (per week)
$350,000 sponsorship for the fashion tagged section of Tumblr (per week)
Unlisted sum for guaranteed product placement in each of the blogs
The main issues: many in the industry believe these prices are ridiculous (especially for initiatives that a brand could directly do themselves) and Tumblr lacks an analytics dashboard so brands won’t know the impact of any of their efforts through the platform this season.
What Now?
Tumblr has some major explaining to do. After all, nobody likes a fashion faux pas.
In less than one week, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week kicks off!!
I was a very happy girl today when I found out that more than 30 runway shows can be viewed live via YouTube. The feed will also offer backstage access, show trends, and pre-season coverage leading up to September 8th.
Source: mbfashionweek.com/
I’m most excited to see Anna Sui, Badgley Mischka, Tibi, and BCBG.
As Michael Kors celebrates his 30th year in fashion, and Steve Jobs steps down as CEO from a company he co-founded 35 years ago, it’s a good time to acknowledge that these two men have a few things in common:
Both are leaders in their fields. Steve Jobs is known for creating slick, minimalist gadget designs and Michael Kors is known for designing chic American sportswear.
Both are the faces of their respected companies. Each personality has become synonymous with each brand.
Both have a penchant for classic black clothing, but definitely started out on the other end of the spectrum. In the 70s and 80s, Steve Jobs wore bare feet around the Apple campus and three-piece suits to speaking engagements. In more recent years, Jobs found one style and stuck to it.
Source: Reality Pod
And though he tried many fads during his younger years, Michael Kors admits that he now always wears the same thing. “I always pack two black jackets, loads of black T-shirts, loads of white jeans. I feel a little fresh and glamorous and graphic”.
Source: The Budget Fashionista
While these two men may not have been too daring with color in their wardrobes lately, they’re both true American icons and their little black numbers have only helped elevate them to cult icon status. Their legacies will live on for years to come.
On a related note: check out @TheRealTimCook feed for exciting updates as Tim Cook takes on Steve Jobs’ former role.
Big name magazines have created blogger networks to better partner with some of the most elite fashion bloggers. Network must mentions include Lucky Style Collective (founded, Feb 2011), Glamour’s Young and Posh (founded, Feb 2011), and Vogue’s Influencer Network (founded, July 2011).
Featured Bloggers
Magazines are increasingly featuring bloggers’ style as a way to show style trends through already loved industry favorites.
Lucky Magazine seems to have it just about right with their post about current blogger style. “Blogger Style: The Pieces That Click“, is about must-haves for fall, including ideas from the bloggers of From Me to You and That’s Chic (my favorites of the bunch).
Magazine Blogs
Many magazines, and online newspapers, have included fashion blogs within their publications over the past few years.
Random, yes, but Marie Claire’s Diary of a Fashionista blog gives the magazine’s staff a chance to cover just about anything fashion related. From last week’s Project Runway episode, to the closing of the McQueen show in New York, to Ferragamo’s online trunk show, this blog focuses on the “now” factor as its theme.
In these three ways, magazine and blogger efforts merge in an attempt to get their names out there, stay relevant, and loved.
While I’m very excited about seeing my favorite bloggers get featured on magazine sites, I can’t help but be wary of such collaborations. Stay tuned for a post about this topic soon.
Whenever I go shopping for clothes in San Francisco I tend to just focus on the area around Union Square. Two reasons: I know what I want and where I want it there, and I’m usually short on time. But it’s nice to know that I can cut down on time even further by using ShopNear.Me.
The App’s Usability
ShopNear.Me a new iOS app that gives users information about sales and arrivals at stores they care about. Users can also set up alerts for their favorite stores, and browse the app by products so as not to miss out on a great piece by sticking to their usual stores. Without waiting until there’s time to visit new stores on a whim, users can browse products in their San Francisco neighborhood of interest for goodies they love. Though right now the app features mainly boutiques in Hayes and the Marina, the team is working to expand coverage into the Mission and SOMA.
And the best part, is that coming soon, users will be able to reserve items while on the go.
You won’t have to be torn between seeing an alert go by about beautiful shoes you don’t want to miss out on or attending a startup’s launch party. You can do both!
The Team
I recently had a nice chat with co-founder Yuan Zhang, whose role entails business development, marketing, PR, raising funding, and investor relationships. Phew! But she said it doesn’t feel like work.
According to Zhang, shopping is “a visual experience”, and this app fits that desire of consumers. There are apps out there that list store directories, or sites like Yelp, where users can write reviews of their shopping experiences, but no real visual way to find out what’s inside stores in the area quickly. (Talk about finding a perfect niche in need of some help).
Other team members include Programmer Ben Wong and Designer Loc Ngo (co-founders of Startuply), and Programmer Steve Zu (formerly of social gaming company Lolapps).
The Boutique Perspective
To get the boutique perspective, I took a quick trip to meet with Marissa Olson, Owner of Chloe Rose, a women’s clothing boutique on Union Street.
Olson, in no way new to fashion, or online marketing, said what first drew her to using the app for her store was that she was approached about it.
She finds that to keep her store running smoothly and market online, she does what every boutique owner should do- she has a checklist of promotional things she does. She updates Facebook and Twitter at least once a day if possible and ShopNear.Me when new items arrive in the store.
ShopNear.Me really offers a “store front” to boutiques. With the pretty pictures and thoughtful search options, I’m excited to watch this app take off.
Between my boyfriend’s new Gear Ring (that I’m obsessed with) and my friend Bryan asking me for wedding band suggestions, I decided to do a post with the coolest techie rings I could find.
Source: Kinekt Design
Gear Ring
Price: $165
The ring, created by Kinekt Design, is made from stainless steel and when you move it, the gears can glide forwards and backwards all the way around. I love how intricate this ring is, without being gaudy. *Bryan, apparently many people have considering using this as a wedding band. See the post on Fashionably Geek here.
The silver pie piece is made from a flattened coin from the 1940s. Love the retro piece Rachel Pfeffer incorporated into her design!
Silver Steampunk Ring
Price: $48
Having been a big fan of steampunk for a few years now, I have to say that I have a ring similar to this, with moveable watch gears. This ring, made by LondonsGate, is prettier than mine though due to the detailing on the band.
I can’t tell you the number of times when I’ve been out and about and seen an amazing shoe that I took a picture of to text to my mom or one of my girl friends. In the end, these pictures would either end up saved on my phone or eventually deleted. But now I am able to save all photos to one place, Snapette, where other fashion fans will be able to enjoy my finds and I am able to see theirs too.
Last Friday, I sat down with Sarah Paiji, a co-founder of Snapette, and she told me the story of how this cool new fashion app came to be.
The Story
Sarah Paiji, originally from a suburb of LA, found herself on the East Coast for the past 8 years, including time in school at Harvard and working for Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co and Berkshire Partners. Most recently before Snapette, Paiji was studying at Harvard Business School. It was through an HBS alumni event where she met Jinhee Kim, an HBS alum more than two decades her senior, and more importantly, a woman with a very big idea.
Source: Snapette.com
According to Paiji, the two had a short meeting over coffee, after meeting at a Harvard alumni event. Soon after, Kim invited Paiji to spend her January 2011 term with the Kim family in London… to launch a company. Snapette.
With “no dominant social app yet” in fashion, and mobile being a space with such great growth potential, Paiji decided this was a chance too good to pass up.
After the two recruited a technical person to join their team (and for a month in London), the real work began.
Luckily, a tweet Paiji made about their new app was found by Dave McClure of 500 Startups, a startup incubator located in Mountain View, and soon McClure was inviting the Snapette team to relocate to California and work from the 500 Startups office space.
Just yesterday, 500 Startups hosted its second ever Demo Days, a place for its entrepreneurs to present their ideas to investors and press. The Snapette team presented, along with more than 20 other startups, as the culmination of their 3 month period in the 500 Startups accelerated program.
Think about it, within 8 months, Snapette went from an idea, to a company, and to a company that publications like Forbes and VentureBeat are now covering. That is pretty inspiring.
The App
Paiji describes the app as this: like Milo for fashion.
Source: The Fashionable Bambino
Snapette lets users upload an unlimited amount of content to the app (available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) and browse other users’ finds as well. For now, users can see shoes and bags that others have uploaded from around the world, and content uploaded by nearby stores. Users are able to search by brand, store, description, or “New”, “Near”, and “Hot” ratings of products.
And of course, there is further social integration with sites like Facebook.
Right now the Snapette team is focusing its efforts on working with boutiques in New York, LA, San Francisco, and London, including San Francisco-based boutiques like Heidi Says and Gimme Shoes.
Why stop with shoes and bags? Well for now, the Snapette team decided to just start with those products because “women are passionate about them”, according to Paiji.
Within 6 months, Paiji hopes to see the team add more features to Snapette and figure out whether to decide to focus more on fashion or the social experience.
Having a shirt from the Twitter office is pretty cool. But now it might be fun to step it up a notch and involve Twitter further in my wardrobe. Here are three pretty cool options:
The Twitter handle necklace
I ordered one of these for my friend’s graduation and she loved it. Customers have the option of buying a silver or gold necklace, custom made, to reflect their Twitter handle (or hashtag of choice).
Source: Survival of the Hippest
The Twitter dress
Just this summer, Microsoft Research introduced a dress that displays tweets. How does it work? By way four Lilypad Arduinos, a laptop, a projector, and a Processing sketch. Interestingly, the dress is mainly made out of paper; a nice juxtaposition to the digital words that flit across the skirt. Check out Electricfoxy’s interview with Asta Roseway for more details!
If you’re not sure if you look good in a particular outfit, and need instant feedback, check out the Tweet Mirror, by Netherlands-based Nedap Retail. All you have to do is stand in front of the mirror in an outfit you’re deciding on and take a picture. The photo will be sent to friends on Twitter and answers will be received by cell phone. Last year, this invention was awarded a retail technology prize.
Source: DailyDOOH
Needless to say, Twitter is becoming more ingrained in the fashion industry “offline”. What do you hope to see next?
pretty-innovative.com 
