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Lifestyle // Women's

SXSW Interactive Through the Lens of Fashion

These days every member of the fashion media flock wants to be a digital savant, or at least digitally competent. So it’s no wonder that the NMdaily staff crossed paths at SXSW Interactive with the likes of Burberry, Lucky, Teen Vogue, Lyst, trend forecaster WGSN, fashion PR powerhouse KCD, and our sister store Bergdorf Goodman. Below is a recap of just some of what we learned and discussed amid the massive, diverse 5-day scrum of panels, speakers, shows and parties in Austin, TX. All the running around left scant time for seated meals. (Thank goodness for gourmet food trucks.) And this was just the Interactive portion of the festival. Stay tuned this week for Music and Style X!

The Fashion Fog: Redefining Content & Commerce

Panelists: LuckyMag.com Executive Editor Lauren Sherman, Pose Director of Marketing & Communications Alisa Gould-Simon, ideeli Senior Product Manager Allison Kellman, Of a Kind CEO Claire Mazur and Of a Kind President Erica Cerulo.

The Fashion Fog panel looked at how the lines between content and shopping are becoming increasingly blurred. Alisa Gould-Simon from the mobile style community Pose kicked off the panel by pointing out that when the group got together to in the late summer to submit their SXSW discussion topic, Pinterest was not really relevant in the social space, but in only a few months the site has become one of the most buzzed-about social shopping sites. The panelists discussed what the end objective of a brand’s editorial content strategy is and the main consensus—though ever changing and different from brand to brand—is that  social media should be used to build a brand’s voice and a better relationship with customers. The panelists also said that they thought social media and social shopping sites in the future will bring increasingly customized shopping experiences.  -Sarah Bray

Who Needs a Fashion Cycle? I’ve Got Social Media

Panelists: Chris Morton, founder and CEO of Lyst; Imran Amed, editor in chief, Business of Fashion; Michelle Sadlier, digital communications consultant, Karla Otto International; Nikolas Badminton, director of digital strategy, Tribal DDB; Anthony Santagati, VP of marketing, Quincy Apparel.

The fashion cycle is the series of steps in the production and sale of a garment. As Imran Amed pointed out, the communications cycle and operational cycles used to be in sync, in the days when runway shows were only for the trade, the long-lead press, and esteemed critics. Collections were kept out of the consumer’s view until they arrived in stores. Today, while the operational cycle is more or less what it was 10 years ago, the communications cycle has completely collapsed into real time, due to digital media. This disruption means brands are challenged to hold the consumer’s interest over the months-long lag between the cycles, said Anthony Santagati. How can they achieve this? An impressive retail experience with personalized attention and immersion in “the dream” is one way, said Nikolas Badminton. Stylists will play an increasingly important role, helping people navigate their options, he added. The role of the designer is more important than ever, according to Amed. “It takes the clarity of vision of a Phoebe Philo, a Haider Ackermann, a Marc Jacobs, to cut through all the noise,” he said. Will the cycles ever realign? One solution would require designers to collectively stop showing collections at the beginning of the cycle and instead show near the end, embracing the runway as a vehicle of entertainment and shopping. Meanwhile, “if I were a CEO, I would focus on compressing the delivery time,” shortening the operational cycle rather than trying to hold back the tide of digital media.  -Jean Scheidnes

Social Shopping

Panelist: Caroline Waxler, the Director of Digital Content at Lucky Magazine.

Lucky Magazine’s Caroline Waxler, who is also executive producer of the fashion blogger conference Lucky FABB, started off her panel by asking the audience, filled with social brand managers from ebay, HSN, Best Buy, Bottega Veneta, ASOS, and more, how they felt about sharing their purchases online. The responses were mixed and most agreed that social shopping apps and sharing your purchases or wish lists while shopping online is something that tends to be appealing to a younger, social media-engrossed consumer. Waxler asked if there should be a payout for consumers who willingly give share their shopping data socially and how location-based data could make brick & mortar stores more interactive. Waxler said that Lucky wants its readers to shop together and that “video is the next step.”  -Sarah Bray

Pinterest Explained: Q&A With Co-Founder Ben Silbermann

Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann spoke with Hunch’s Chris Dixon about his journey from pre-med student to building the online photo-sharing website Pinterest. After considering a future as a doctor, Silbermann decided he wanted to be part of “the story of his time,” so he moved to Silicon Valley and shortly began working at Google. He told Dixon, Google taught him the “audacity to think at a huge scale.” During this time he began to think about the idea of collecting and what it says about people as individuals. “When I go into someone’s house I view their things, like books, as a collection,” says Silbermann. “My wife’s closet is a collection of shoes and clothing. Other people collect art or furniture.”

Based on this philosophy Silbermann began building Pinterest in 2009. It was reported in February 2012, on Mashable.com, that Pinterest had a 2,702.2% increase in unique visitors since May 2011. “You have to show that you put in as much effort as you expect [your users] to put in,” says Silbermann. He told the SXSW crowd that “lots of exciting things” are to come at Pinterest.  Launching “very soon” is an improved profile that is “more beautiful, a snapshot of who you are.” The company is also working to help users connect with other sources they might not currently know about and users will be able to pin video. They are also working to expand the platform to the iPad.  -Kristen Spaulding

Why Karl Keeps His Shades On: Style & Social Media

Panelist: Roisin Kiberd, Social Content Creative at Iris Worldwide.

Kiberd uses Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld’s shades as a metaphor for fashion’s mystique. She discussed the relationship between fashion and social media and what it takes to live harmoniously side-by-side. Online, the shades come off with the ever-growing network of “DIY” fashion bloggers and the rise of designers on Twitter, such as Marc Jacobs or most recently Karl Lagerfeld.  This can be a problem for an industry that thrives on mystery, says Kiberd. “From the arcane rites of fabric cutting on Savile Row and couture, to the bizarre process of discovering a suitably waifish teenager to model it.” Kiber mentions that people or brands that thrive in a social environment are the fast thinkers, innovators and the brave.  She mentioned Burberry’s Art Of The Trench campaign and Jeffrey Cambell’s Lolita boot as recent brand successes.  -Kristen Spaulding

Fashion and the New Taste Graph

Panelists: Cannon Hodge, social media manager, Bergdorf Goodman; Dave Surgan, manager of digital media communications, Morpheus Media; Elizabeth Canon, founder of Fashion’s Collective; Rachel Tipograph, director of global digital and social media, Gap; Hilary Peterson, VP of business development, Lyst.

Sites that rely on taste graphs over social graphs (shared preferences vs. whom you know) for curation of e-commerce are on the rise. Pinterest, Svpply, Lyst, Hunch and The Fancy are the leaders at the moment. Users can enjoy the act of scrapbooking as well as list-making and personal organization of their desires, said Dave Surgan. “If I decide I need a cardigan, I go straight to Svpply,” he said. User intent and mindset varies among the platforms, said the panel. Brands can ultimately use the data to personalize their customers’ shopping experiences. Bergdorf Goodman, for example, used Hunch to power its gift finding app during the holidays. Lyst hosted a collection-making contest with Neiman Marcus, which resulted in driving shoppers to NeimanMarcus.com during the holidays. And as these platforms go mobile, they can help bridge the online and in-store experience.  -Jean Scheidnes