A Look at How Social Media Reinvented NY Fashion Week

New York fashion week not only rallied fashion lovers to New York for a worthwhile showcase of some of the best collections by well-known designers, but Fashion Week left a footprint in the digital age: using social media to help promote and expose the week-long events and happenings.

It seemed that no stone was left unturned on the path of social media to New York. Even if you could not make it to the tents in Bryant Park, just about anyone with an internet connection could make it to the tents virtually, thanks to, either Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, YouTube and individual designer’s websites.

Between Thursday, September 9^th and Thursday, the 16^th more than 165,000 tweets were written about Fashion Week, making #nyfw a trending topic on September 10^th, also the day when more then 34,000 tweets were sent out from individual users. Designers even saw an increase in followers. Diane Von Furstenberg, who received upbeat and prize worthy reviews in print and online media, had an increase of 3,000 followers on Twitter. Foursquare offered promotions and Facebook allowed users to comment on looks cascading down the runways and Youtube offered videos of shows.

Fashion’s Night Out, an event that was originally designed to boost New York’s economy last year, debuted again on September 8^th in full force with social media. Livestream brought to life three different events including musical performances at Nine West and Ralph Lauren and a play-by-play of Juicy Couture’s designer Erin Fetherson styling tips to shoppers, all which could be viewed from laptops and desktops around the world. Some designers opted to integrate multimedia into their events. Diane Von Furstenberg, for instance, transformed her Washington Street location into DVF and HP interactive experience all designed by Refinery29 blog, offering the fashion community a chance to look at fashion favorites picked by Refinery29, which could be posted to Facebook by anyone in the store. Furthermore for the event, all fashionistas with an Iphone were able to download the LUSTR app, the official app for FNO. The application allowed users to navigate the event with an event directory with options of posting your locations thru your own personal Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare account.

The world of blogging also hit the Bryant Park tents hard this year. Not only were the seats filled with editors from the leading magazines, but bloggers even made their way to the front row. The evolution of blogging in the fashion sphere, really allows readers and fashion lovers alike to receive information about upcoming trends, the achievements and the downfalls of the week, which ultimately means that blogging is here to stay.

It seems like Fashion Week’s biggest trend was not on the runways this season but underneath everyone’s fingertips in the many sources of social media. Fashion Week’s integration of social media really opened up the doors for information exchange in this fast paced digital age. The versatility of social media left it marks on social media and it will be interesting to see the evolution of social media in the fashion and luxury market, from this point forward.