Fashion PR HL Group Tadashi 2012

Post Fashion Week Strategy with Tadashi Shoji’s HL Group Fashion PR Team

This season, I had the pleasure of attending Tadashi Shoji’s Fall 2012 show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Inspired by the Golden Age of Shanghai, Shoji utilized rich, delicate and opulent colors and fabrics to set an ominous tone. The collection incorporated Chantilly and Venetian lace, high necklines, beaded embroidery, scalloped sequins and chiffon along with rich velvet.

With such a powerful fashion week collection, it’s no surprise that the designer was asked to dress a notable red-carpet starlet at this year’s Oscars. Drawing upon this season’s series of pale nude beaded dresses, ‘Best Supporting Actress’ winner Octavia Spencer, donned a custom hand-beaded, ivory silk and tulle draped cap sleeve gown that was absolutely perfect for her big moment.

After the fashion week madness, I caught up with the ladies at Tadashi Shoji’s top-notch PR powerhouse, HL Group. The Tadashi Shoji PR team consists of Kimberly Flaster (Managing Director), Kelly Ricci (Senior Account Manager) and Zeba Rashid (Account Coordinator). We were curious as to what these PR Mavens do after fashion week:

What designers, shows or events did HL Group represent this fashion week?

HL Group produced 19 shows during NYFW. Some of which included Tadashi Shoji, Rachel Roy, Oscar de la Renta, Elie Tahari, Dennis Basso, Marchesa and BCBG.

How many fashion weeks have you executed? What do you love most about it?

Amongst the three of us, we have over 15 years of experience planning, producing and executing shows. We look forward to prepping and completing each show for our clients because we know in the end our hard work is demonstrated with the successful press outcome.

What was your favorite fashion week outfit that you wore this season? (Can you send a picture of it?)

Poppin Fashion Week Survival bag, Royal Blue Tadashi Shoji dress, seating chart and of course a smile! (See Kelly pictured in the Poppin bag below.)

From left Zeba Rashid (Account Coordinator), Kelly Ricci (Senior Account Manager) and Kimberly Flaster (Managing Director).

How do you decompress after fashion week? Any essential remedies? Or, do you even get a chance to de-stress?

Luckily enough, we had a long holiday weekend right after fashion week, which was lovely. We got to catch up on much needed sleep, caught up with our friends and family as we haven’t spoken to them in a month and of course eat a proper meal!

What are a fashion publicist’s core responsibilities post-fashion week?

A publicist’s responsibilities never end when it concerns fashion week. Immediately following shows, we have to work on recaps, compile media alerts, service images and follow up with scheduled press print and broadcast interviews. Additionally, we have a two week break, then it’s on to planning Press Days for editors.

When do you start planning the next fashion week?

We are always planning the next fashion week but for Spring 2013 we will get hands on in July.

How does HL Group use social and digital media to complement your PR efforts post fashion-week?

It comes from all angles. Most of us at the agency have our own social media logins and help support and promote our clients internally. Some of our clients handle their own social media and some hire agencies that specialize in managing their social channels. We all work together to successful promote in a timely manner.

Thank you HL Group for taking the time to chat with PR Couture, can’t wait to catch up with you lovely ladies next season!

J Brand

Fashion PR: How Brands Engaged with Bloggers at the IFB Conference

With more than 300 fashionphiles gathered at Milk Studios (@milkstudio) for the Independent Fashion Bloggers Conference (#IFBCON), it’s no wonder that brands like J Brand Jeans (@JBrandJeans), Lyst (@Lyst) and Lifebooker (@Lifebooker) were thrilled to partner up with IFB to host, connect and establish mutually beneficial relationships with bloggers. Below is a recap on how these brands designed spaces that were interactive, valuable and engaging.

Shop, Shoot, Share

To celebrate the launch their ready-to-wear collection, J Brand Jeans hosted an interactive “Style Showdown” using hashtag #JBrandIFB. Bloggers raided a wardrobe of the latest and most coveted J Brand pieces for a chance to win a $1000 gift certificate. With countless bloggers curating creative looks, the friendly J Brand team had an opportunity to genuinely interact with bloggers both live and online (and during and after the conference). @JBrandJeans Twitter stream received a ton of activity as both the brand and bloggers shared their favorite new products and lookbook-esque photos. The top nine looks from the IFB conference were selected to enter the official “J Brand Style Showdown” on Facebook, which is currently live. Vote for your fave look here. Kudos to J Brand’s marketing and social media team for paving the way to authentic blogger engagement.

Charge up the Value

To ensure bloggers could tweet, tumble, pin, share photos, post and so forth without fear of losing battery life – Lyst hosted an essential charging station that ensured attendees could stay connected throughout the conference. By creating a space that was valuable – bloggers swarmed to the Lyst station to learn more about this social shopping site that helps you discover the best fashion in one uber-customized stylefeed. If fact, Lyst’s new affiliate program, Blog Connect, is all about adding real value to bloggers. By connecting their sites to Lyst.com, bloggers can post outfit and shopping stories and link products on Lyst.com or simply add items they love and earn money whenever shoppers buy them.

Make it “Worth” it

Every year, the hot button question is “What are bloggers worth?,” Lifebooker joined a panel of successful bloggers from Glamour, Denimology, I Spy DIY, Corporette, and La Carmina in leading the conversation about brand and blogger partnerships. Lifebooker allows members to discover exclusive health and beauty deals and book discounted online beauty appointments based on price, location and rating. As an emerging concept, the brand is seeking new partners and influencers. So how can bloggers get noticed by brands that are looking for strategic partnerships? Lifebooker’s Brand Director, Lauren Tesar, looks for blogs with “flexibility, credibility and scalability”. To learn how each panelist monetized their blog, find the Livestream recap here.


The IFB conference sparked a host of new relationships between bloggers and brands. The key to these partnerships are finding bloggers that are on brand for your vision and making sure to approach blogger relationships with experience-rich opportunities, customization and authenticity.

Image via BrightontheDay

yuli

Fashion 2.0 Awards: Yuli Ziv Explains Why Fashion Brands Should Have More Fun with Social Media

Fashion 2.0 Award Winners DKNY at the 2011 Awards

The Fashion 2.0 Awards, launched in 2010 by Yuli Ziv’s fashion & beauty blogger network Style Coalition, is a peer and fan-nominated event that recognizes and honors the most innovative fashion brands in the online community. The 2012 award show boasts several firsts – including first-time host Robert Verdi, who’s blogger media parties are legendary, keynote by fashion designer and digital pioneer Norma Kamali – who most recently presented her Spring/Summer 2012 collection at Lincoln Center in 3D, and the first Fashion 2.0 Visionary Award, to be presented to Gilt Group founders Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson.

Find out which fashion designer’s social media strategy Yuli loves and why, as well as her thoughts on the biggest trends between fashion bloggers, brands and digital strategy (hint: it’s integrated).

The Fashion 2.0 Awards ceremony kicks off Fashion Week on February 8 and will be live-streamed.  Limited tickets are available for purchase. The Twitter hash tag is #fashion20. For more information about Yuli or her book Blogging Your Way to the Front Row, please visit YuliZiv.com.