Brands are always looking for new and innovative ways to tell their story. Social media has provided new channels for PR and marketing, and the core of this new promotional mix is often centered around engaging the the almighty Fashion Influencer, the early adopter, the brand ambassador. While many fashion PR pros may be well versed in the rationale and purpose of pitching fashion bloggers, few brands have gone beyond the fashion blog to engage with fashion influencers in the other places where they are connecting with each other and producing content online.

American Apparel has a history of working directly with fashion influencers as well using real people, aka not models, in their advertising. To recap, they made a series of ads with Chictopia members last year, held an in-store modeling call/shoot for customers during New York’s Fashion’s Night Out, and photographed style bloggers such as The Chic Muse in Mexico City and The Cherry Blossom Girl in Paris.

However, the partnership with LookBook.nu is the most extensive to date, and is rooted in AA’s true appreciation for the LookBook.nu community, as well as a company commitment to use resources as a big company to do cool artistic projects with artists whose work they enjoy. In case you aren’t familiar, LookBook.nu is an invite-only international community of members who post their outfits. Members then vote up the looks that they like, and the more votes, the more your reputation grows. LookBook.nu regularly runs contests with fashion brands that engage their community around producing content.

As a representative from AA explains, “basically, we were intrigued with LookBook.nu when it first came out, which led us to eventually advertise and feature their users on our site. We decided to do a bigger collaboration late last year and as part of it hosted a contest where their members submitted photos featuring their favorite American Apparel pieces. Now there are something like 7,000+ looks of people using our basics. Our 132 favorites became The LOOKBOOK.nu Lookbook by American Apparel.”

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The indie fashion PR component to top fashion PR blog PR Couture, Show Me The Pretty is a two part series that features 5-question interviews with hand-selected indie fashion labels. PR Couture shares the pretty and then, in part two, turns it back to the designers to ask questions and get advice and feedback about their own fashion PR strategy from a variety of industry experts. Sound like fun? Email info[at]prcouture.com for more information.

Visit Part 1 – Show Me The Pretty – Hopeless Lingerie – to get caught up!

In terms of Social Media, how do you manage your personal and business profiles when they are so closely related?

PR Couture Says…

For a long time, I tried to segment a personal Twitter account as well as a “PR Couture” account and the whole thing got quite confusing. Especially because the PR Couture account was growing much more rapidly than the personal account. I made a decision to be both personal AND professional on the PR C account and I think this has greatly contributed to our success (we just hit 15k followers). I don’t think there really is any public/private anymore, and most people get that, and they want to be able to connect with you above and beyond your product, so I say, find a happy mixture. On Facebook, keep a fan page and a personal page and be vigilant about your privacy settings.

– Crosby

Being present as the face behind the brand is undoubtedly important, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your online privacy or give the entirety of your personality to your public business branding.  Keep personal things personal, and always be aware of your own online security.  If you want to be seen, get a set of pro shots done for public use, or use ’behind the scenes at work’ or ‘out at an event’ images, and keep everything else for yourself and your friends.  Keep something back and it won’t consume you; social networking is a tool, not a job.

– Sarah-Jane Adams, Fashion Journalist, www.sarahjaneadams.com

As a designer, you have to separate the two. The lines between personal and public are increasingly blurred, our personal selves are often the representation of our brands – your public image represents your brand. So to me, there’s no distinction, what you do in private is public. Act accordingly on the web

- Macala Wright Lee, FashionablyMarketing.Me

Your business and personal profiles can definitely compliment each other. Often times your personal contacts can become your customers and want to know what is going on just as much. Obviously it is all about your comfort level regarding whether or not you want to cross over the two but it definitely doesn’t hurt if you are willing.

- Polina Raygorodskay, Polina Fashion

If you can’t keep two separate accounts, you need to be careful.  What you say on behalf of your business should support your brand image.  I often compare it to a cocktail party- it’s okay to have fun but don’t say anything you would be embarrassed to say in front of someone you work with, or would like to work with.

- Melissa Davis, Founder and Co-Owner of Ruby Press

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It’s been awhile since I have received a pitch that had me excited about each and every one of the designs included. After quickly sending IM’s to the other fashionables in the office of my latest greatest find, I quickly set up an interview to learn more about Shabby Apple’s approach to fashion PR and social media. What I found most striking is the mix of socially responsible, global feminism executed through a hyper-feminine fashion lens – or, to put it more plainly, a really great company who also happens to sell really cute (and très affordable) dresses.

Shabby Apple launches six lines of dresses a year and is a women-owned and operated, socially responsible company. The company designs women’s dresses, feminine fitness wear, a maternity line, a Shabby Baby line of dresses for girls up to eight years old, a preteen line for girls eight to twelve.

Owners Emily McCormick and Athelia Woolley design dresses that don’t require a cardigan or camisole to be comfortable, and are committed to both empowering women through fashion as well as providing women the opportunity to achieve financial freedom. To this end, Shabby Apple donates 5% of proceeds to Unitus, a non-profit organization in the micro finance industry, to help alleviate global poverty for millions of women and their families.

The company launched in December 2006 and at first leveraged Emily’s PR and marketing background to build the brand. Early public relations efforts centered around the local DC market where Emily is based, including events, morning shows and local press. “We started with TV, and then found out that print was more successful than TV, but what has been most effective has been to focus the majority of our efforts online through blogger outreach,” explained Athelia. She cites several recent blog hits that may drive up to 12k hits to the Shabby Apple site in a month.

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