Fashion

Fashion brands are drawn to video like a moth to a flame. As it should, given the inherently visual nature of clothes, makeup, and accessories. We’ve ID’d four general reasons labels go for video promos.

Fashion as Art

Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham-Carter, both known as cinematic risk-takers, star in the latest Prada clip, directed by Roman Polanski called “A Therapy.” The only overt mention of the Prada name is the lingering shot of the inside of Bonham-Carter’s shoe. Otherwise, it’s a kooky, funny vignette that comes out of nowhere and ends in the same place. Also, Helena Bonham-Carter should say, “I love my daddy” just like she does here in every movie she makes. [via Adweek]

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Tennis star and gluten-free foodie Novak Djokovic — at left, giving us some fist-pumping Zoolander action — is not exactly known for being a fashion plate. Though who needs clothes when you look like this or this.

So yeah. In an effort to expand its appeal to Europeans and Americans, Uniqlo has signed him to a five-year contract in which he’s wearing and designing clothes instead of standing mostly naked by a pool. You can check out the collection here (tennis whites, of course). Or you can scroll back up for the pictures of him in tiny swim trunks.

[via The New York Times]

After his company went public, Mark Zuckerberg married his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan. Sneaky! And savvy, say the lawyers.

Zuckerberg posted the pic at left on his Facebook page on Saturday — 1.2 million-plus likes! — and today, the designer behind Mrs. Zuckerberg’s dress, Claire Pettibone, is feeling the love too. People are beating a path to her homepage, wanting to get one of the $4,700 dresses Chan was married in. The designer’s website got an added 24,000 visitors because of the dress.

The dress is available at Kleinfeld’s in New York and the store’s PR team says it’s still available.

Here’s some info, in case you want to learn more about Cilla.

As expected, coverage of the Met Gala, or, really, its red carpet, is dominating the news this morning. Stylist has narrowed down their picks for best and worst, but a quick Google search for “Met Gala 2012″ has a picture of just about every person who showed up. Mad Men‘s January Jones (left) made the best dressed list.

The Times devotes today’s online Style section to the Gala, with news of Amazon’ red-carpet entrance into the fashion world. As we mentioned yesterday, Amazon is a major sponsor of the exhibit “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.” And while the company has sold clothing previously, it has had a problem with appeal. To correct that, it’s “going luxe” with emphasis on photography and presentation. Which goes to show that what you say is as important as how you say it.

[via The New York Times]

 

The red carpets are rolling out and things are getting fashion-y because today is the big Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum. We had the chance to check out the press event this morning for the Institute’s exhibition “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations,” and it was packed end to end with cameras, curators, and women in pretty necklaces.

“The steps of the Met, which is where guests walk the paparazzi gauntlet, provide one of the most dramatic and demanding red carpet entrances of any event,” writes The Washington Post. Indeed, the day after the “Met Ball,” reviewing what everyone wore has become an annual happening, like the day-after Oscar discussions. This is what model Coco Rocha will be wearing and we’ll review it in advance: Ghastly.

Amazon, a big sponsor of this year’s exhibition, will be broadcasting the red carpet live tonight online. More about that here.

This morning’s event wasn’t about the gala, but rather the exhibit itself.

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Gap has experienced well publicized struggles with its marketing identity, top management turnover, and declining revenues, so in order to move forward, it has taken a step back in time — to its 1969 founding.

Seth Farbman, Gap’s global CMO since last year, described Gap’s rediscovery of its core heritage and its new digital initiatives during Ad Age’s Digital Conference on Tuesday in New York.

Gap’s return to its 1969 heritage is part of a broader business strategy. From Farbman’s standpoint, Gap’s retrospective turn was a natural homage to the brand’s founding couple, Don and Doris Fisher. He explained that the name was meant to convey the generation gap, and the business was based on the idea that only one percent of jeans sold at stores fit right. The move to revert to 1969 actually started in 2011, when the brand created documentary videos about its denim studio.

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Continuing the fashion industry’s increasing digital efforts, H&M and Marni have launched an Instagram contest on H&M’s Facebook page called “What Inspires You?” to promote their capsule collection available on March 8. (Click on the second link to also take a look at the clip for the collection, directed by Sofia Coppola.)

Participants can win items from the collection when they enter with an Instagram photo, marked #MarniatHM. Users will vote on their favorites and a judging panel of bloggers including Fashionista’s Leah Chernikoff and BlameItOnFashion‘s Marie Hindkær Anderson will make the final decision. Whispr Group, a social media firm, is working with both brands on the campaign. According to info from the firm, the page has already amassed 60,000 page views in the first few days of the contest.

H&M recently launched its Instagram account, hennesandmauritz.

Oh New York Fall 2012 Fashion Week! You were over before we even got to know you. Click these links for a wrap up of trends, sightings, and various potpourri from CNN, Styleite, the Los Angeles Times, and WWD. And click here for Ad Age’s coverage of some of the publicists who were working behind the scenes to make the week work.

But the fashion industry doesn’t dwell on yesterday. We’re already primping and jet setting across the ocean for the London shows. Huzzah! And the fashion industry is staying on trend with its efforts to incorporate digital technology into their shows and other promotions.

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Kohl’s Rock & Republic Pre-Fashion Show Video from Mustache on Vimeo.

New York Fashion Week is well under way. Here’s some of what’s gone on so far.

And tonight, Kohl’s getting in on the action with a fashion show and after party at Hammerstein Ballroom that will showcase its partnership with Rock & Republic. According to the media alert, Zoe Saldana, Ashlee Simpson, and Tinsley Mortimer are just some of the celebs expected to drop in.

The clip above is the preview video for the event.  Content marketing firm Mustache and BWR PR are working on the promotions. The line will be on sale February 15.

Any cool Fashion Week events you want to tell us about? Email us: prnewser@mediabistro.com.

Target made its Jason Wu capsule collection available in the wee hours of Sunday morning and, just like all the other collections, we managed to get absolutely nada. But not so for some folks, like the couple in this video, which has popped up across the Web as an example of the “hoarding” behavior of some shoppers who then post the items on eBay and other auction sites at inflated prices.

Target says it has taken steps to correct the problems that customers experienced with past collections, particularly the Missoni line. Among the changes: a different launch time, making the collection available in fewer stores, and better estimates for demand.

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