Fashion blogging really is here to stay. A year after Women’s Wear Daily’s landmark coverage of fashion bloggers at Fashion Week, IMG, the governing body for New York Fashion Week, is finally coping with the implications of fashion blogging. I had a wonderful conversation with the always helpful Andrew Freesmier today about Coutorture’s video coverage this season. I was duly impressed with his knowledge of the situation and his willingness to help. Thus it was gratifying to see this email from IMG today addressing the very specific needs of fashion bloggers at Fashion Week and the need to have both blogger and public relations firms on the same page.
Hello Everyone,
In the interest of keeping our PR firms up to date on the press attending Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, would you please send an email to [redacted]@imgworld.com if your intentions are to cover for not only your registered organization but also for a blog. This is very important so we may keep the most up to date information on our registered press as well as informing PR firms and designers on what is being discussed in the open forum of blogs. Please respond by Friday January 26th 1:00pm.
Thank you. See you all in February!
Andrew
I know just how confusing it can be for public relations firms to grapple with blogs and thus it is with great pleasure that I can say that nearly every firm I have encountered in my preparations this week has been kind, helpful, and accommodating. Harrison and Shriftman, Paul Wilmot, MAO Public Relations, HL Group, La Force and Stevens and even KCD have been just fantastic this season. Even for shows we will not be attending, firms and in-house reps have done everything possible to ensure that after the fact we will have photographic and even video coverage of the events. I think we have reached a real turning point in the industry.
Of course, we bloggers still have our own issues and despite our best efforts to present a united front there is still bickering and in-fighting at times, but I really can’t thank our own Coutorture partners enough for helping us achieve a high standard of content, a desire to promote quality design talent, and a great love for fashion on the whole. There is still work to be done and I only wish that in the future our divides can be bridged within our own ranks. But industry-wide, beyond our fashion blogosphere, the results speak for themselves. Everyone from Oscar De La Renta to Isaac Mizrahi, from Phillip Lim to Matthew Williamson, David Wolfe to Valerie Steele, and of course countless independent and emerging designers have embraced fashion blogging.
So this fashion week let’s show the world just how great fashion blogging can really be, whether it is for fast breaking coverage or in depth analysis. There is plenty of skepticism still to be overcome so let us not have our own personal feelings get in the way of wider progress. Thanks for recognizing us IMG and we promise to do you and every designer showing this season proud!