Fashion returns to New York Fashion Week with an ambitious live event.
“VOGUE World: New York” will include a fashion show and street fair, taking place on September 12 at a yet-to-be-disclosed location in Manhattan.
While the official goal is to celebrate the publication’s 130th anniversary, it also represents another opportunity to promote the brand. Fashion beyond traditional communication channels.
The fashion show will be broadcast live and will feature looks from the Fall/Winter 2022 collections from a variety of designers, including Balenciaga, Valentino, Gucci and Dior, but also major US brands Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch, plus de Bode, Brother Vellies, Conner Ives and others. Fashion models and “personalities,” meaning celebrities, will walk the runway or perform, though the company declined to share names. Fashion Contributing Fashion Editor Alex Harrington is designing the show, with Bardia Zeinali directing, Benji B musically supervising and Bureau Betak staging. Snap Inc. is collaborating with an augmented reality experience for attendees.
Along with the parade, guests (a mix of industry insiders and consumers, who can purchase tickets online) will be invited to shop at a street fair, stalls stocked with limited-edition items made specifically for the event, as well as clothing and accessories. brought in by stores like Moda Operandi, Mytheresa, Net-a-Porter, Nordstrom and Ssense. (Fashion said a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the CFDA/Fashion Fashion Background.)
Tickets are between $130 and $3,000; higher levels mean more benefits, such as the opportunity to meet face-to-face with Fashion editors. Certain levels also include a membership for Fashion Club, a new content subscription that normally costs $25 per month (or $250 per year). (Fashion Current club members also get early access to tickets beginning August 11.) A representative of Fashion he declined to share how many tickets will be available or the expected total number of attendees.
This is not the first time Fashion has used New York Fashion Week as an opportunity to create a blockbuster event. In 2009, Fashion’s Night Out was launched as a reaction to the financial crisis: a way to encourage wary consumers to shop again. (Though it became a global phenomenon, the message—drinking is good—eventually fell out of fashion, and the event was discontinued in the US in 2013.) In 2010, Fashion hosted a show at Lincoln Center, designed by Tabitha Simmons and Edward Enninful, that celebrated American fashion designers and helped further promote Fashion’s Night Out.
But “VOGUE World: New York” combines editorial execution with commercial opportunity. Along with Vogue Club, the publication has launched other initiatives in recent years to boost revenue in an effort to offset declines in traditional print advertising. As well as creating sellable content around the Met Gala, it has Forces of Fashion, an annual insider conference. There’s also Vogue100, an even more expensive membership club that gains access to Anna Wintour, Fashion Global Chief Content Officer and Global Editorial Director.
Creatively, “fashion is changing, designers don’t do one specific thing anymore – magazines have to do the same thing, we have to do much more than make a magazine,” American said. Fashion creative editorial director Mark Guiducci, who spearheaded the new project. He said that beyond scope, what sets this apart from previous efforts is the combination of online and offline access. “Even if you’re not in person, you’ll be able to experience it as if you were there,” he added, noting that the live broadcast will be produced by the team behind the MTV Video Music Awards.
The global mix of designers and talent involved also reflects new realities. Over the past year, several European luxury brands have staged shows in the US market, with Fendi and Marni planning to do so in September. Fashion it’s offering brands like Dior and Balenciaga, whose baby blue dress was worn on the latest US cover. Fashion by retiring tennis star Serena Williams, yet another platform to get in front of those consumers. But he also talks about the globalization of Fashion brand: Under its restructuring, Wintour has control over publishing operations around the world, and Guiducci believes the event could be replicated in other markets, as was Fashion’s Night Out.
The test will be if Fashion manages to make “VOGUE World: New York” entertaining both online and offline. This year the main sponsor is Smartwater, with the support of Banana Republic.
Source: www.businessoffashion.com