Let's face it, the fashion industry was built on exclusivity, pure and simple. But the age of social media, intrinsically democratic, has organically spawned a generation of designer disruptors, who are even rewriting the language of fashion.
In traditional fashion vernacular, for instance, "accessible fashion" means "wearable," as in user-friendly, comprehensible, as in "non-garish" or "other worldly runway pastiches." And "practical," as in "realistic and real-world." Versatile and affordable, too.
In a break with conventional fashion punditry, today's designer disruptors are also lissome linguistic Luddites, redefining-often in aesthetic collaboration with their social media audiences and customers-the language of fashion. Today's fashion Luddites have redefined "accessible" to mean "engaged," as in "dialoguing" and "interacting with customers" in social media. The dialogue is two-way. Accessible is synonymous with engagement
Take the case of fashion disrupter Donna Karan. When she launched her eponymous collection in the digital dark ages of 1984, she was pioneering "accessible fashion" for affluent women. When she started the DKNY line in 1989, which she called the "the pizza to [the main] Collection's caviar," she took her short list of seven essential every-woman items to the masses. While the "pizza" recipe may have changed over time, "accessible fashion" is still the main course on today's menu.
Leading the fashion disruption at DKNY today are new creative directors Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne. Appointed in April, they presented their first DKNY collection at the NYFW SS16 show, following founder Donna Karan's departure last month. Already celebrated for their street cred and wildly successful signature line Public School, Chow and Osborne intuitively understand the value of social media engagement.
Using Instagram's newly updated messaging feature, Instagram "Direct", Chow and Osborn are personalizing DKNY by taking fans behind the scene for an insiders view into how the designers conceived the designs, ranging from studio chats, explanatory videos to sketches and the like.
Fans must first follow their favorite DKNY Spring '16 collection looks using the NYFW official handle #DKNYSS16, which will then allow them to use the Instagram "Direct" feature to send their design picks using @dkny. The DKNY insider content will then be sent, but only to those who used the "Direct" feature.
Other designers, too, are looking for ways to stand out in an increasingly crowded field of instinctive social media designer-marketers. Another Instagram behind-the-scenes storytelling project, by Proenza Schouler, is in the works. Designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough will offer insights into their creative process for the label, the intricacy of design inspiration, artistic process and execution for their Fall/Winter 2015 line.
The brand could benefit from greater social engagement campaigns. Although Proenza Schouler scored highest in net sentiment and passion intensity during NYFW among several much anticipated brands analyzed, as shown in the NetBase crosstab comparison below, the brand trailed in total mentions.
While Public School nipped at the heels of Proenza Schouler's net sentiment score with 99%, the brand could probably have used a dedicated NYFW social media campaign to boost its comparative mentions ranking, according to the NetBase analysis. Perhaps Public School's eclipsed reach could in part be attributed to the harried schedule of founders Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne debuting their first DKNY collection.
Known for considerable social media exposure, oddly, even though Marc Jacobs netted a high 96% sentiment during NYFW, also scoring the most mentions of the brands analyzed, there was no expression of intense feeling (love/hate) for the brand, as measured by the zero passion index. Though not necessarily an adverse metric, I would question the lack of enthusiasm.
Pop culture designer Jeremy Scott is a huge cultivator of social media who has a significant coterie of celebrity influencers. In addition to his own label, he is creative director for Moschino. On the day of his NYFW show his social reach exceeded 370 million potential impressions, reflected in the NetBase comparative timeline analysis chart below. Among the brands analyzed during NYFW, Jeremy Scott was only surpassed by Marc Jacobs' show, with nearly 677 million potential impressions. DKNY potential impressions on day of show were about half that of Marc Jacobs, still trailing Jeremy Scott. However, measured for the entire week, Jeremy Scott's potential impressions reach was only a narrow second to Marc Jacobs.
LVMH portfolio brand collections were highly anticipated at NYFW, shining social media attention on the luxury brand conglomerate. Riccardo Tischi's Givenchy glamor stole the week with a respectful elegiac tribute on 9/11.
In terms of measuring LVMH earned media impact, Givenchy, unsurprisingly, earned nearly a 148% owned-to-earned media ratio. Other LVMH brands in the NYFW lineup still appear to have digital marketing work to do. DKNY netted a 38% ratio of earned to owned media impact, while Marc Jacobs registered a meager 13% ratio of earned to owned media. As LVMH moves to increase its digital innovation, the brands' unrealized earned social media performance will undoubtedly be closely scrutinized.
What data configuration will manifest as the fashion industry's holy grail for social conversion? What will be the defining metrics? Whether it's innovative brand personalization and/or strategic influencer campaigns, the digital marketing panorama is still open to speculation as experimentation abounds.
The fashion runway of the near future points to a nexus between accessible fashion and predictive data analytics. With runway shows now staged for social media, which brands will win the data conversion mileage race? For now, they're still on the tarmac.