Owner: PR COUTURE URL:http://www.prcouture.com Join Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:12:44 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: PR COUTURE is a new online resource for successful, emerging and aspiring fashion publicists, designers, students, and educators to share tips, tricks, challenges, and commentary about the role of public relations in the fashion industry.
Site statistics:Click here
Fashion and Dress Studies Conference April 19-21 NYC 2007-03-21 21:52:22 Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY (about 25 miles east of NYC) is hosting an amazing fashion and dress studies conference: Defining Culture Through Dress: Individual and Collective Identities.
The conference focuses on fashion’s impact on culture and society through in-depth discussion of fashion in literature, religion, the mass media, ethnic identity and how fashion influences self-image. Participating experts and scholars hail from the fields of sociology, psychology, art, history, anthropology, communication, journalism and business, as well as fashion experts. Harold Koda, the Curator-in-Charge of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be keynote speaker.
Other goodies include a “Fashion
and a Sustainable Environment” panel with eco-fashion model and activist Summer Rayne Oakes, a panel on hip-hop fashion, a panel on “The Influence of Movies on Fashion” featuring Marlaine Glicksman of Vogue magazine and Deborah Landis of the Co Read more:Studies
, April
Fashion PR Post on Pierce Mattie PR’s The Fashion Rag Features PR Couture 2007-03-19 23:39:47 Pierce Mattie Public Relations, located in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, is a lifestyle public relations agency that specializes in developing publicity campaigns for beauty, cosmetic, fashion, home furnishing, and health conscious clients utilizing a fusion of public relations, viral marketing, cross promotions, exciting events, product placement, and web site publicity.”
They have several blogs which focus on the various PR specialties, or divisions of Pierce Mattie, including fashion, and beauty, all of which can be accessed through their main blog. The goal of these blogs is to “give bloggers access to the same content and attention [given] mainstream media.”
In August, Pierce Mattie hosted a roundtable discussion with the owners of Coutorture, as an opportunity for publicists to meet fashion and beauty bloggers. To learn more, visit Almost Girl for a recap.
Late Friday, PR Couture
was featured in a post about Fashion
PR Bloggers. Chief Pierce Mattie blogger Read more:Pierce
Team Buying Latest Bargain Shopping Trend in China 2007-03-16 23:19:45 In a piece of interesting trend-watch spotting, groups of disparate consumers in China
are organizing on a single mission - to use mob power to negotiate group discounts at retail shops and showrooms. Groups meet online at a variety of websites like TeamBuy, Taobao and Liba and then agree on a time and place. The websites make money from ad revenues and/or commissions from suppliers.
Springwise asks, “So who’s going to introduce this concept in San Francisco, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Barcelona or Sydney? The PR value from being the first to do this outside China will be priceless. And may we suggest that the future founders turn it into a hybrid online/offline model, going for maximum reach and visibility?”
I wonder if these groups negotiate a discount for a specific product - or just a general percentage off. Specific product discounts work great for home electronics, but I’m not sure I want 800 people besides myself walking away with the same Chloe purse.
Read more:Buying
, Bargain
, Shopping
Shorts of a Different Kind - 60 Second Video Clips on Fashion, Style and Beauty 2007-03-16 01:08:01 When you are up in the garage this weekend searching for mom’s discarded high-waisted pants from 1976, take a quick look-see for an errant camcorder from 1986 and start rolling the tape. Sorry, I just really wanted to say camcorder. Ok fine, grab your digi-cam (hate that word - much like like ho-cho or fro-yo - some words do not need to be compounded, especially cutesy ones that sound like a pokemon) and get creative. Why?
So you can head over to IQONS and participate in the “You Wear It Well / Got a Minute?” open call for 60 second video clips about fashion, style and/or beauty. A collaboration with well known blogger Diane Pernet and photographer Dino Dinco’s “You Wear It Well” travelling film festival, the winners will be a special part of the festival and each month, a winning video will showcased twice daily on the IQONS homepage.
Great opportunity for designers, boutique owners, stylists, fashion photographers, filmmakers - and of course, the Fashion
PR’s r Read more:Shorts
, Second
, Clips
, Style
, Beauty
Good Girl Gossip: Beth Ditto Refuses to Perform at Topshop 2007-03-13 18:19:43 In news that makes me full of giddy hurrah, roaring lady power, Beth Ditto
, lead singer of The Gossip
, has refused to play a round of promotional in-store appearances for Topshop
in the UK. Her deal? Why play and sing in a place that doesn’t sell anything she could actually wear? Ditto explains, “I don’t really know why they want The Gossip…I don’t understand because if they saw me in the street they’d never give me the time of day.” She has called on the retail giant to invite her to design for larger sizes, explaining, “I don’t want just your money or the cred of hanging out with Kate Moss, which is fine, but it’s not want I want in life. I want more. I want what she gets.”
Moss has recently signed with Topshop for a multi-million pound deal to design clothing for Topshop. Last year, Topshop’s rival, H&M, ended its advertising campaign with Moss after allegations of her cocaine use caused a media frenzy. H&a Read more:Refuses
, Beth Ditto
Tip Your Newspaper Hats - LA Times Launches New So Cal Fashion Rag Called IMAGE 2007-03-12 20:23:18 The newest place to pitch fashion clients might smudge the fingertips of Fashion
PR’s. The Los Angeles Times
has announced the debut of IMAGE, a new Sunday monthly supplement that focuses on fashion, beauty, shopping and style in Southern California. Look for it this Sunday, March 18.
The driving force behind this new foray into fashion includes The Times Deputy Features Editor, Michalene Busico, Consulting Editor (and former Women’s Wear Daily West Coast Bureau Chief) Rose Apodaca and Booth Moore, the acclaimed Times fashion critic. In addition, Staff Writers Valli Herman and Mimi Avins will contribute to the section, along with two new hires: Fashion Market Editor Melissa Magsaysay, formerly of WWD and Staff Writer Adam Tschorn, formerly West Coast Editor of DNR.
Special Columns and Features
The print section will become a weekly feature in September, and will feature regular columns and features, include Booth Moore’s “Style Notebook,” a critical look a Read more:Newspaper
For the Love of Fashion - Pr Couture Survey - Who Are You? 2007-03-08 21:30:56
Attention all PR Couture
Readers:
I love you to all pieces I really do - those of you who come faithfully daily and those of you who read me via email in the morning (hi mom!). What would make me spaztastic with delight is to learn a thing or two about more you. So if you would head on over to the left side-bar of Fashion
PR goodness and fill out the demographics survey sponsored by Coutorture I will promise to wear my best working girl interpretation of an Alice in Wonderland outfit to my very proper meeting later this afternoon. Just thinking about it gets you a bit tickled, doesn’t it?
Thanks and smoochies!
Priya Patel on DC Fashion Week’s First Fair Trade Fashion Show 2007-03-06 05:10:51 Priya Patel
, founder of Fashion
for Development, guest blogs for PR Couture about her successful Fair Trade
Fashion Show that introduced the important issue of Fair Trade Clothing to DC Fashion Week
. For more information, please contact Priya at fashion4development[at]gmail.com.
Fashion For Development’s Fair Trade Fashion show on February 28, 2007 was a huge success. The Fair Trade Fashion show opened this year’s DC Fashion Week and welcomed over 500 guests to the show. This was the first time in DC Fashion Week’s 4-year history that such a show was produced, and we hope to have a Fair Trade Fashion Show every year in the future! The event was attended by local media, World Bank staff and members of the public at the IFC auditorium, part of the World Bank Group. The show featured designers, retailers and producers who work with local artisans from developing countries. We ended with DC Fashion Week’s featured designer, Knaf Couture from Ghana. Fashion for Deve Read more:Priya
, First
EcoFashion Gets a Lifetime Commitment: Green is the New White for Eco Wedding Magazine 2007-03-01 21:27:38 Launched online January, 2007, Portovert is the first and only magazine for eco-savvy brides and grooms. The first issue offers tips from from natural ways to calm wedding nerves to using vintage props for decoration. Information on their editorial team is nil, but try sales@portovert.com.
For more information on the EcoFashion trend, check out:
My interview with Priya Patel of Fashion for Development.
Pierce Mattie asks: Are Green
Brands Here to Stay?
Shop BTC Elements for Eco-Friendly Fashion like this reclaimed fabric dress by Armour Sans Anguish.
Read more:Lifetime
, Commitment
, White
, Magazine
Fashion PR Gets a Second Chance at Reality TV 2007-02-22 02:32:13 Gawker reports that Go Go Luckey Productions (Laguna Beach) are looking for 21-28 year old, fashion-holics for its latest reality show ruckus, whereby a few lucky ladies will get the opportunity to to work as an assistant at a fashion magazine (coughTeen Voguecough), cosmetic line or a “cutting edge Fashion
PR company.” MTV’s earlier foray into Fashion PR in 2005, the Lizzie Grubman fronted PoweR Girls, sent the greater public relations industry a ranting, by playing into every awful stereotype ever conceived about a Fashion PR Girl. Journalists agreed, the Boston Globe called the show a “PR Nightmare.” I’m interested to see what Fashion PR company signed on to something so sure to present a damaging, glorified, dumbed-down image of Fashion PR, especially since it worked so well last time.
Who does it serve to continue this misperception that all you need to be sucessful in Fashion PR is an effervescent enthusiasm over your breast implants? I some Read more:Second
Fashion PR’s Twitter: PR Couture Mentioned in the Chicago Tribune 2007-03-24 06:02:16 Well, it’s more about me and my silly musings about Twitter
, but PR Couture
gets a mention. Click me.
Reporter Erik Gwin writes,
Social sharing
Crosby Noricks, author of the fashion PR blog PRcouture.com, says she and her Twitter friends “share laughs, sympathy, even job leads.” Social media services such as Twitter have staying power, she says, because they are more than just chroniclers of users’ ephemeral thought balloons: “I think the real key is participatory, two-way communication and dialogue keeping people who spend a lot of time isolated feeling a part of the world.
By isolated I mean people like me who spend most of their days working from home or by themselves in a coffee shop, and don’t spend a lot of time during the workday, like interacting with non-virtual humans.
If you are on twitter, and would like to enjoy my digital thought balloons, add me here.
Read more:Fashion
, Chicago
, Tribune
Fashion Career Center Launching March 26 2007-03-24 01:49:04 via PR-Inside
WWD, DNR and FN are launching an online career center for the fashion industry on Monday, March
26 at Fashion
careers.com. However, the site isn’t set up yet - not even a splash page! I tried to email for images, but keep getting an error page. I guess I’ll just have to be patient and take a look-see Monday morning.
From what I can tell, the site is your basic job search site, however they will have editorial content from the three publications that is usually only available to paid subscribers - hooray!
Read more:Career
, Center
Fashion PR in Crisis: The Relationship Between Fashion PR and Fashion Blogs 2007-03-28 03:29:07 Fashion PR rarely deals in crisis communication, but if there is one sore spot that continually emerges, it is negotiating the relationships and expectations between Fashion PR’s and Fashion Bloggers. Although many PR agencies have begun to value the voice of the fashion blogosphere, many still don’t give out the kind of respect that fashion bloggers often feel is their due. Additionally, lingering bad blood from initial experiences, often due to poor decisions on the part of Fashion PR agencies, continues to impede any positive steps that are made.
Blogs
are appealing to Fashion PR’s for several reasons. Unlike traditional monthly fashion magazines, most fashion bloggers update daily, giving readers more immediate access to fresh news and content. Savvy consumers appreciate the insider tone and expert knowledge fashion bloggers share - as well as their independent affiliation. I think fashion blogs are gaining in importance within PR because they provide a highly tar Read more:Fashion
, Crisis
, Relationship
Neiman Marcus Gives Domain Name Companies a Taste of the Lawsuit 2007-03-27 18:32:30 According to Bulldog Reporter, Neiman Marcus
is suing Domain companies Name.com and Spot Domains for improperly registering more than 40 Internet addresses that resemble the department store chain’s trademarks. Basically, the companies use the 5-day refund period to fill these mock sites full of ad’s and then enjoy the revenue from people who don’t know any better and actually click on those affiliate/ad block type pages. This sneaky little process is called Domain Tasting.
Experts estimate that up to 6 million names are tied up at any given time through domain name tasting, thanks to computer automation and a burgeoning online advertising market.
Read more:Companies
, Lawsuit
The Mom’s Have It - New Mom Mags Emerge Online and in Print 2007-04-02 23:51:13 The concept of the hip, fashion-conscious modern mom has inspired fashion labels, books and blogs, all aimed at reinventing tired stereotypes about life after kids. Today’s mom infuses a sense of style into everything she does, and everything she carries - from diaper bags to burp rags, with a love of shopping and a dash of sex appeal as just another part of the balancing act - or at least that is the position so many of these companies take! Recently, an increase in lifestyle publications aimed specifically at moms has perked my interest. In addition to providing fashion and beauty PR’s new media targets, I think it is indicative of a larger, cultural shift toward the reinvention of motherhood in terms of self-concept, career, and yes, consumerism.
Online
Mom2Mom Lounge magazine made its debut on April 1st. The goal of the new e-zine is to reach out to moms everywhere and provide them with fun and informative information found all in one place. The articles & feature Read more:Print
More than Amazing - Life as a Girl 2007-04-04 00:20:40 In much of Fashion PR, high-school girls are a must-have target population. For some insight into what it is like for today’s smart, talented, true-religion jeans wearing best and brightest, take a look at this front page article in the NY Times - For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too
Then, follow the blogger discussion through Technorati.
Read more:Amazing
How to Pitch a Fashion Blogger is a Must Read for PR 2007-04-04 21:52:11 My post regarding the relationship between Fashion
PR and the Fashion Blogosphere inspired some fascinating dialogue, and was chosen a Coutorture Must Read for March 28. The issues addressed in the post resonated with both PR’s and Blogger
s alike, and remarks on both sides felt indicative of how crucial it is for public relations professionals to cultivate the kinds of relationships with bloggers that we do with traditional media. Especially now, the idea of doing work with integrity and providing a valuable service to online writers is fundamental to the future of sucessful PR practice. I think the most crucial piece to take away from this discussion is that public relations neends to let the bloggers tell us what they think, what they want, and how they want it. Only then will we be able to successfully integrate our publicity goals with trends in new media.
I’m glad to see this conversation continuing, evolving and being expressed elsewhere. Kathleen Fasanella over at F Read more:Pitch
Blogging Could Get you Hired…or Fired, and Maybe Hired Again 2007-04-10 21:45:28 Blogging about Fashion PR has definitely opened up new job opportunities for me, although this was not my primary goal since starting PR Couture. A few months ago, I talked about the importance, and marketability of social media skills for entry-level PR practitioners. Today, Wall Street Journal Online published an article on how having a blog might help you get a job, noting that, “recruiters say they check candidates’ blogs about noncareer-related topics for evidence of writing skills and clues to how well rounded they are.”
While getting praised and headhunted because of your fabulous online presence can end up a pretty sweet deal, let us not forget that blogging can get you fired. However, for certain beauty and fashion editors, a blog-based firing only spurred them on to further career glories.
These days, google and myspace are being used for more than just stalking old boyfriends. According to Debbie Weil, a corporate blogging consultant and the author of The C Read more:hellip
, Blogging
, Hired
, Fired
, Maybe
, Again
ThisNext Green Promotion - Planting 10 Trees for Every Eco-Item 2007-04-11 22:59:20 In a brilliant cause marketing effort, ThisNext will plant 10 trees for every eco-friendly item tagged “earth day,” in preparation for Earth Day on April 22.
My only quip is a lack of information about the promotion - is there a limit on how many trees they will donate, what is the estimated value per tree? I’m assuming they are partnering with an environmental organization, or plan on giving the tree donations to a particular non-profit - but I couldn’t find this infomation either. It would have been great to know more about the tress - where they will be planted, what kind of trees, latest statistics on deforestation etc, as well as more information about partner organizations.
That said, I am definately going to start scouring for my favorite green products. I started with Srina Tea. My post for ThisNext is below - for some reason I can’t get the image to show up in the blog post - grump.)
So granted, Srina Tea is a client of mine - but even if it wa Read more:Green
, Trees
Ageless Fashion: Trends Move From Fashion by Age to Fashion by Lifestyle 2007-04-17 01:53:53 I definitely see a new trend picking up regarding marketing toward older women, and several things have caught my attention lately regarding clothing for older women. First, older women are on the media radar. However, despite DOVE and other beauty brands efforts toward introducing images of older women in beauty advertising (though what is it worth if the goal is to sell a product that “reduces the appearance of fine lines” even if you call it pro-age?), recent Oprah shows about Dove and others featuring age ambassadors like Geena Davis and Nora Ephron, and Vogue’s age issue (started in 2001), there is a disconnect between what older women want to wear, how they like to shop, and what is available.
In recent fashion industry news, Women’s Voices for Change cites a report that baby boomer fashion stores, Gap Inc.’s Forth and Towne, and Gymboree’s Janeville are shutting their doors after disappointing sales. Lazard Freres retail analyst Todd Slater co Read more:Ageless
, Fashion
, Trends
Pay No Attention to The Woman Spinning in the Tower: The Fashion PR (Mis)Perception 2007-04-19 00:33:51 If the fairies who came to bestow gifts upon Sleeping Beauty at her party were actually public relations practitioners, the Fashion
PR practitioner would have been the one nobody wanted to invite.
It’s no secret that for many traditional public relations organizations and practitioners, Fashion Public Relations is perceived as the immature, superficial younger sister or bizarre aunt you only admit relation to when pressed (or when she’s talking to somebody important, then she’s your BFF).
Contributions from Fashion PR, or any Lifestyle PR specialty really, are rarely appreciated or acknowledged. BlinnPR says quite frankly, “I have little respect for fashion, sports and celebrity publicists,” The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Mission tells us that “Public relations serves a wide variety of institutions in society such as businesses, trade unions, government agencies, voluntary associations, foundations, hospitals, schools, colleges and r Read more:Tower
, Perception
Fashion Fridays - Posts for Fashion PR 2007-04-20 23:25:41 Fashion and Technology: Nordstrom’s RSS feeds are popular with customers, but do they translate into more sales?
Youth and Fashion Mags: the 18-34’s aren’t giving up their print media just yet.
Fashion media - are web-only titles worth it?
Social Media is Expensive - PR Online Convergence 2007
Sustainable Fashion - gets it’s own magazine.
When is Mother’s Day? - Pierce Mattie PR gives the how-to on leveraging this holiday to the benefit of you fashion and beauty brands
Read more:Fashion
, Fridays
Spotlight: Clutch Magazine Tackles Fashion, Beauty and Culture with a Fresh, Honest Voice 2007-04-20 01:24:21 At ClutchMagazine
, writers are opinionated, honest, and hilarious - like your best girlfriends. Emerging fresh and fabulous after a total makeover, (Clutch was initially started in 2002 as a regional print publication, but ended production in 2004), their April relaunch online features fashion, beauty, and lifestyle content with a refreshing African-American and minority female focus. Based in Atlanta and led by Editor in Chief Deanna Sutton, premiere articles include a review of the Rachel Roy Collection, and an introspective, challenging piece about the racial dynamics in the workplace, focusing on relationships and the unspoken heirarchies between African-American women in Corporate America. An online hub that questions, muses, creates, and queries its readers to participate in the dialogue, Clutch delivers engaging, thinking girl’s content (book reviews! political commentary!) paired with a strong fashion/beauty focus that focuses on women-powered companies and designs, as w Read more:Fashion
, Spotlight
, Beauty
, Voice
Fashion Fridays - News for Fashion PR 2007-04-27 18:55:55 Urban Outfitters Gets All Horizontally Bloggy
Gotta Get Into GQ? Senior Editor Mickey Rapkin Gives The Fashion
PR Scoop
Are you a good PR client? Read this open letter in INC to make sure.
Attn: PR - have you had your wheatgrass today? When Oprah Goes Green
MSLM - Muslim Fashion Fusion
Read more:Fridays
Fashion is a Feminist Issue 2007-04-27 03:42:34 Fashion has been used to restrict, politicize, and sexualize women’s bodies, contributing to a complicated relationship with feminists who feel that women’s clothing trends and the fashion industry are oppressive agents that negatively affect women’s sense of self. As feminist dress scholar Elizabeth Wilson attests:
Fashionable dressing is commonly assumed to have been restrictive for women and to have confined them to the status of the ornamental or the sexual chattel. Yet it has also been one of the ways in which women have been able to achieve self-expression . . . to discuss fashion as simply a feminist moral problem is to miss the richness of its cultural and political meanings.
In a global context, the recent police intimidations in Iran, as well as state-sponsored fashion shows that encourage traditional Islamic dress, illustrate the connections between what a woman wears, her body, and sense of belonging to one’s self. Fashion and feminism (includes human rights) Read more:Fashion
Only Student Run Fashion Show in the Country Launches 10th Anniversary, “Making Modern Energy” Show 2007-04-26 04:01:00 via ABC
Columbia College students get a hands-on introduction to the fashion business during their annual spring fashion show. Columbia fashion-design and fashion retail-management students have spent almost nine months preparing for the college’s 10th annual runway-style fashion show, &ldquo
;Making ModernEnergy
.&rdquo
; The fashion event begins with a matinee at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 10. A second evening show will be held at 7 p.m., followed by a reception. Both shows and reception are at the Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago.
Student
s enrolled in the Advanced Fashion
Show Production class are responsible for the entire production of the show. It’s the only student-run fashion show in the country. Under the direction of Nena Ivon, Manager of Public Relations Special Events/Fashion for Saks Fifth Avenue, students select professional models, contract with hair and make-up artists and arrange the music and stage production.This year student designers will inter Read more:Country
, Anniversary
Fashion PR’s - Wear Red Today - National Equal Pay Day 2007-04-24 21:43:56 So I may be a little late on this - but I haven’t actually gotten dressed yet today (shame!). Today
, April 24 is Wear RED on Equal
Pay Day - to symbolize how far women and minorities are “in the red” with their pay!
Each year, the National
Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) organizes the national observance of Equal Pay Day to raise awareness about unfair pay for women and people of color in America. Equal Pay Day is observed in April to indicate how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year. Tuesday symbolizes the day when women’s wages catch up to men’s wages from the previous week. Because women on average earn less, they must Read more:Fashion
Fashion PR Friday Five 2007-05-05 03:18:52 If you haven’t wasted your entire workday putting together outfits on Shopstyle yet - get ready to give up your weekend. Click the Coutorture promotion on the left sidebar for more details about how you can Shopbop for free if you blog the winning outfit.
Craving an online fashion fix? Check out the new May issues of Clutch and Skorch .
BelleRinger PR shares secrets of successful PR practice, including a very kind shout out to PR Couture - Thanks Carolyn!
Na Nay No’s for PR Professionals regarding pitching social media sites - via Online Marketing Blog.
Buddy TV profiles Nina Carcia, who got her start in Fashion
PR.
Read more:Friday
A Taste of Working in Fashion PR 2007-05-04 04:28:52 **The following is a guest post from Jenny Raja, a junior marketing and psychology major at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Jenny recently spent a summer abroad interning at a London Fashion
PR agency. She can be reached at jennyraja[at]gmail[dot]com**
Fashion PR: Beyond the Glitz and Glamour
G.L.A-M.O.R.O-U-S. Similar to Fergie, I too got a chance to taste life in the fast lane. Working for a Fashion PR firm in London last summer, I was exposed to the all of the latest designs from clients such as Versace, Tommy Hilfiger, Orla Kiely, and 7 For All Mankind. As the wide-eyed American intern, I flipped out to find Halle Berry’s Oscar gown by Elie Saab just lying around the office showroom. My colleagues may have teased me, but I certainly took pictures to document my findings to share with my friends back home.
And don’t get me started on preparations for In-Style’s Fifth Birthday Party, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which featured the most famous dresses through
Recommend Site To A Friend
