ThredUp: A Site to Lose Your Shirt Over

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

Ever have one of those times when you opened your closet and couldn’t find anything to wear? Last fall, this is just what inspired Harvard Business School alum, James Reinhart, to start a company based on helping others with this predicament.

ThredUp, based in Cambridge, MA, is a peer-to-peer online clothing exchange. It’s not like eBay or Craigslist where things are bid on or sold based on looks. On ThredUp, users cannot see pictures of inventory, but only enter specific information into the database about what type of item they’re looking for.

It’s like getting Christmas presents, co-founder Chris Homer says. People generally know what you like, but don’t have a specific list.

At the moment, the site boasts a variety of high-end brand men’s and women’s shirts ready for purchase. Why no other clothing items yet? The focus right now is getting the whole method working to perfection, Homer says, though the next step is to expand the site to kids’ shirts (hopefully during Spring 2010).

For $25, you get three envelopes in which to place the shirts you’re ready to exchange. Have a shirt you hate to iron or a tee you’re just plain tired of? Exchange it for something better. But remember, you get what you give. The FAQ section of the site clearly says to only trade items that are in style, specifying “No MC Hammer pants please.”

If you gets a bad item, or “dead thread”, make sure to fill out a review on the item. If it’s bad quality, or a “dead thread”, the sender gets a mark against them and the receiver is put back into the queue (at or near the beginning) for a chance at another item.

We want people to do “the least amount possible to make the most successful trade”, Homer says.

With more than 4,000 people signed up from across the country- access for people in the states of Alaska and Hawaii are being worked on- ThredUp is quickly growing in popularity, and therefore in inventory.

To start, register on the site , add each item you want to get rid of to your “closet”, set a minimum number of preferences and purchase your first package of envelopes. And then start “ThreddingUp”.

I can’t wait to see what these self-proclaimed knitwits do next.

From Vogue to Twitter- Three #NYFW Bloggers Discuss The Changing Scope of Fashion Week Coverage

Posted on by Ashley Laurel

Ah, Fashion Week. The freshest high fashion looks draped on sexy models. Camera flashes blinding those lucky enough to sit front row. Fashionistas swarming to New York in skyscraper high heels to catch a glimpse of Anna Wintour or Phillip Lim. And, wait… the Internet?

The Internet, or more accurately, social media, is becoming increasingly infused with high fashion marketing techniques. And this year, social media plays the biggest role yet in Fashion Week history.

New York-based Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of MyItThings.com Yuli Ziv has found that in the past year alone, social media based fashion marketing has increased due to three factors: the economic situation (which causes brands to get innovative with their marketing), the platform for brands to directly interact with customers and the image control brands can maintain by responding to customers’ complaints or questions.

Crosby Noricks, founder of PR Couture: a blog focusing on fashion PR, marketing, social media and promotion, agrees that social media is playing a growing role in how fashion brands are marketing themselves.

“As brands work hard to build their following on sites like Facebook and Twitter, there are new opportunities to engage directly with the brand. Whether that is a photo contest, live chat or a design your own handbag contest, individuals begin to own a piece of the brand and to tell their part of the story,” San Diego-based Noricks says.

However, others are also adding to the story.

This year, more than 80 bloggers have teamed up to cover New York Fashion Week through InsideTheTents.com, a site dedicated to exposing the world to what really goes on inside the Bryant Park Tents through technologies like Twitter, Flickr, live blogging, and video streaming.

Nadine Kam, features and style editor for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and fashion writer/stylist for HI luxury magazine, is one of these bloggers. Kam, who’s been doing fashion writing for about 12 years, covered New York Fashion Week as a blogger two years ago.

“This time around, I’ll also be adding a video component to my blog and I may do some live Tweeting,” Kam says.

Noricks, who’s attending New York Fashion Week as a blogger for the first time (and also part of InsideTheTents.com), followed the site’s coverage last year and found it very informative.

“InsideTheTents does a great job of providing a format to showcase all the great content that comes out of Fashion Week in a way that legitimizes the voice of the fashion blogger and respects their contributions,” Noricks says.

Hawaii-based Kam finds that social media has allowed her to quickly stay up to date and in touch with the fashion centers of the world, and she believes that it will help everyone keep up to date with Fashion Week this year.

“I think Twitter will be indispensable this year in getting out last-minute party, fashion tweet-ups and event notices,” Kam says.

Follow Yuli Ziv, Crosby Noricks, Nadine Kam and other InsideTheTents.com bloggers on Twitter to keep up to date on their Fashion Week adventures.