Girls In Tech

This is a screenshot of Microsoft’s website for their new clothing line, Software. I admit that I think it’s a fine execution. But what is more interesting is how I don’t like admitting that I like it.

While I can’t even imagine design/creative studios, switching to PCs, I can imagine the creative industry accepting and liking the brand. This clothing line is a strong step towards that intention.

First read about it here. Then I started to read the comments on blogs, here is a screenshot from a hip hop blog…

I will follow up once (or if) more design and/or fashion blogs start writing about it…

At the end of 2008 we are way past the online presence debate: with majority of the fashion designers and leading luxury brands accepting the advantages of online products offering, now it’s all about building the online shopping experience.

Many online retailers turn into creating an online “shopping events” these days, which have limited window opportunity to score highly discounted goods.

Neiman Marcus has run a two days only shopping event early in November, offering their subscribed consumers 40% off on new designer items. While there is no official numbers on the sales increase during the promotion time, I would assume creating urgency similar to that of a real store closing its doors at 6pm would do the trick of sales boosting.

BlueFly took the concept even further with their new limited time sale feature called The Quickie, launched earlier this month. Blue Fly shoppers were offered highly discounted Prada wallets, for 2 hours only. The concept, borrowed from the exclusive invite-only sales sites like Gilt, Ideeli and Rue La La has definitely a future in the “traditional” e-commerce world and goes in line with the recession economy.

If I had to make my 2009 e-commerce trend prediction – this will be the one to watch. Considering the fact that most online retailers like Saks, Nordstrom, eLuxury, BlueFly and Neiman Marcus are already equipped with the necessary technology, have the merchandise in stock and most importantly loyal customer base, it will be easy to incorporate these timed exclusive sale experiences into their daily routine.

This move might create a very competitive environment for almost 20 exclusive invite-only sales sites existing today in the US only. Returning customers are a high reward, and is worth “fighting” for. At the bottom line – we, online shoppers, will be the most rewarded from the competition.

In the next week column, I will discuss how retail brands recreate the personal in-store experience and service in their online stores.

~ Yuli Ziv

New York City is known for being one of the world major fashion industry centers – with its famous garment district, New York fashion week and the trade shows - it definitely dictates the industry trends. Slowly, it’s becoming much more – the Fashion 2.0 capital of the world.

When I first started attending NY tech scene events more than a year ago, I was mostly the only “fashion” person in the room. It felt “lonely” for a while, until few online conversations lead me to start the Fashion 2.0 meetup, and take the chance to see who else is out there, feeling the same way, doing similar things in the online space. The group, whose members are named “fashion revolutioners”, consists today of more than 200 entrepreneurs, bloggers, designers, digital media and PR strategists, online movers and shakers. Now, only few months after starting the meetup, I feel blessed to be at this place, at this time among the force that leads the change in the fashion industry.

Imagine the power of collaboration within this community - if all our businesses combine the efforts, we could probably build the next online fashion empire! Take David Reinke and his fashion gaming platform StyleHop.com, Mike and Jean Pratt and their gifts finding tool GiftGirl.com, Trish Ginter & Mo Puia and their e-commerce site for indie designers SmashingDarling.com , leading fashion publishers like Lesley Scott at FashionTribes.com, Pamela Pekerman at BagTrends.com, Michelle Madhok at SheFinds.com, ourselves at MyItThings.com – the first user generated fashion magazine, and many other innovative thinkers who are part of the NYC Fashion 2.0 community – we all could make one fierce empire!

Dreams aside - what unifies all of us into a real community, and not just a group of competitive entrepreneurs in the same space, is that we all are working towards the change in this industry. We bring the 2.0 into the fashion world, by giving the masses online tools and access.

We democratize fashion.

~ Yuli Ziv

Twitter has already established itself as an effective tool for keeping in touch and gaining new fans and followers, used widely by marketing gurus, internet CEOs and recently even by celebrities – check out Britney Spears profile (managed by her PR team, of course).

The micro blogging environment allows sending the right dose (140 characters) of daily updates and engaging in short conversations. Twittering can be done via cell phone from any location, and does not require more than few moments a day, making it the perfect self-branding extension and exposure tool for anyone like a TV host, actor, musician, model or fashion designer.

Searching for fashion designers in Twellow (Twitter directory) returns a short list of 109 people out of 659,044 listed. None of these are familiar names or brands people consume and wear on a daily basis. Of course the exception to this is Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, who makes sure to update his tweeps (Twitter followers) even at times of major corporate lay-offs. Tony has an astounding number of followers at 21,400! I’m sure many of them didn’t know his name before he jumped on the micro-blogging-social-media-engagement wagon.

Now imagine the vast possibilities when the likes of Michael Kors, Tory Burch and (my personal darling) Marc Jacobs discover the power of Twitter. I’m sure many of Marc Jacobs’ fans will turn to Twitter every day to get a sneak peek into his fabulous and oh-so-exclusive world of constant inspiration, creation and jet setting:

Anticipation will rise, addiction will take place, bloggers will rejoice and sales for fall red dresses will sky-rocket.

So why isn’t Marc Jacobs Twittering? …

~ Yuli Ziv

In my earlier posts, I discussed the Five reasons the Fashion Industry is slow to adapt within the online space. Today I would like to elaborate about reason #2: Internet Democracy.

In the last few years numerous posts have been written about the purpose and influence of fashion bloggers, starting with Harpers Bazaar in 2007, pointing that “An awful lot of people not only have an opinion about fashion, they also believe those opinions are worth broadcasting”, and ending with Business of Fashion just this week, questioning “the trusted authority” of bloggers taking part in the NY Fashion week initiative – InsideTheTents.com.

Disclosure – I was one of the brains behind Inside The Tents idea and proud of the fact we could shake the exclusive world of fashion in just one week. For the first time in the fashion week history fashionistas around the world could tune in real time and get updates from the front rows at Bryant Park: newest trends, celebrities spotting and of course our personal insights (isn’t it what’s blogging all about?).

Pardon the comparison, but in this sense the Fashion Week isn’t any different from the Olympic Games. Just because professional athletes (or designers) compete, and judges (or editors) judge - it doesn’t make the event non-accessible to public. The exact opposite. The Olympics are perceived as one of the major entertainment events of the year, with billions of watchers, millions of readers and thousands of bloggers and commentators voicing their opinion on everything from team performance to the athletes’ physics. So why in fashion world we are so protective of any piece of information, any photo, single opinion or God forbid a front row Tweet?

The answer for me is the simple old elitism, still managing to survive in the fashion world from the old times, when fashion was accessible only to certain class of wealthy aristocrats. Guess what? It’s 2008, fashion is a mass consumption product, and any girl with a laptop can become an “influencer” in just one night. Even if she doesn’t have the proper “credentials”. This is the reality we live in, and nothing can be done about it.

Moreover, the same girl might not share the “admiring” opinion of the glossies, and here again- nothing can be done about it, except trying to listen to her.

In worst case scenario, that snarky little girl may even cause a major drop in sales for one of the designers she disliked. Repeat it again - nothing can be done about it, except trying to learn from the feedback.

What you can do is create a dialog, but that’s a subject for another post.

P.S. During the last fashion week I was lucky enough to get a chance to interview Fern Mallis, the founder of Mercedes Benz fashion week in New York. I’ve always looked up to her as to my idol, but my main question to her this time was about her view on bloggers covering the fashion week. The answer was so unflattering, that I decided to avoid drama and keep the video to myself. I also wanted to give her a chance to change her mind, because as you already know once it’s online – nothing can be done about it…

~ Yuli Ziv