By Irina Skaya
Today marks the first day of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City. In addition to reducing its carbon footprint by adopting low-carbon technology this year, many designers are also taking advantage of social media and what it has to offer. Designers including, Lacoste, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs will live stream their shows on the Web, giving the fashion-week obsessed fans a virtual front row seat.
While most of the designers are streaming their shows on their Web sites, three of the designers, Lacoste, G-Star Raw and Calvin Klein, will stream their shows on their Facebook pages. Calvin Klein is leveraging the “Fashion Week” live stream tab on Facebook for fan acquisition, providing non-fans with an incentive to become a fan. Unlike the Calvin Klein show, which will broadcast on both, its Web site and the Facebook page, Lacoste features an exclusive broadcast on its Facebook fan page only, providing non-fans with even more of an incentive to join in. G-Star Raw will also broadcast its show live on their Facebook fan page as well. In addition to live streaming, the brand is inviting fans, also called, Raw Reporters, to live blog and tweet at their event.
Fashion week has been democratized—attendance is no longer by invitation-only for celebrities and Hollywood socialites—anyone can join in the fun from the comfort of their own home or iPhone. As a matter of fact, designers like Marc Jacobs are banning celebrities from attending their shows and are pointing them to live stream!
I will be sure to tweet live from Lacoste and Thuy, and will post my exclusive interview with designer Tibi here. Stay tuned!
Here is a compiled list of the shows that are streaming live:
PORTS 1961
Thursday, February 11 at 3PM
http://www.Vogue.com/
G-STAR RAW
February 16 at 7 p.m.
http://facebook.com/gstar
ALEXANDER WANG
February 13, 22:00 GMT / 17:00 EST
http://live.showstudio.com. Be sure to tune in early.
CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION MEN’S
February 14, AIRS 2PM EST
http://www.facebook.com/calvinklein
MARC JACOBS
February 15 at more or less 8 p.m (check site)
http://www.marcjacobs.com/#/en-us/home
RODARTE
AIRS 16 FEB 2010, 17.00 GMT / 12.00 EST
http://live.showstudio.com. Be sure to tune in early.
CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION Womenswear
3:00pm EST on Thursday, February 18th
http://www.facebook.com/calvinklein
