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.”
Lizzie Parker, Aundrea Harrell/
