Rebecca Minkoff Brings Direct-To-Consumer Fashion To The Grove
Over the past few years, the Rebecca Minkoff brand has risen in popularity, becoming one of the most sought after brands that appeals to confident, millennial women who are looking to experience everything life has to offer. For the past two seasons, Minkoff strayed away from the fashion industry’s usual cycle of not being able to purchase the items we see on the runway until the start of the next season. Instead, she opened her store to consumers immediately following last season's show in Soho, NYC, which allowed for consumers to purchase the looks they saw on the runway that same day. Still, Minkoff's recent partnership with The Grove in LA proves the brand is continuing to pave the way for the future of fashion. As a result of forgoing New York Fashion Week, Minkoff took over The Grove on February 4 for a full-day of consumer activations. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in a morning yoga class, listen to a discussion about Virtual Reality, meet influencers, taste wines, shop a Rebecca Minkoff pop-up shop, and enjoy beauty and hair activations! In addition, Minkoff debuted her Spring 2017 collection in one of the most talked about runway shows we’ve ever seen. "The purpose of the show with all day events leading up to the show was to have a direct dialogue with my consumer," says Minkoff. "My customer is interested in the ultimate luxury of experience and this event aimed to fill that need for her."
However, this wasn’t just any runway show. Minkoff took her unique ‘See Now, Buy Now’ perspective and made the collection ready-to-shop directly following the show by using the widely popular social media shopping service, LIKEtoKNOW.it. LIKEtoKNOW.it is a sect of RewardStyle, which is the only global, digital style influencer monetization platform. The service allows for users to ‘like’ photos on social media and immediately receive an email to their inbox that includes shoppable links for the items worn in the ‘liked’ photo.
In addition, Minkoff turned towards top-tier influencers, including Aimee Song of Song of Style, Actress Jamie Chung, Mary Seng of Happily Grey, Christine Andrew of Hello Fashion Blog, Van Brocklin of Cara Loren, and more, to sport the new pieces to the show or even strut down a catwalk that wrapped around the maze-like layout of The Grove. "Influencers have such strong and dedicated followings," explains Minkoff. "In this new, evolved world of social media, they are the new celebrity. What better way to get the customer excited than to have their favorite influencer walk the runway?"
Minkoff’s Spring 2017 collection paid tribute to her hometown of San Diego and proved to be a huge success. “For Spring, I looked back to my Southern California roots for this collection and was inspired by the carefree lifestyle of the 70's surf scene. Airy silhouettes, bohemian florals, retro graphics, denim and sweats bring a relaxed, casual feel; black, white and leather add a downtown edge,” says Rebecca. “Embroidered pieces reference quick escapes to Baja, and the sun-bleached palette reflects the beach and sunsets along the coast. It’s all designed to be easily mixed and layered together, just as you’d dress in Cali for those dry, hot days and cool nights.”
Overall, the activation content is reported to have reached a combined 11.4 million followers, triggered over 100,000 ready-to-shop LIKEtoKNOW.it emails, and increased the rewardStyle-driven click traffic to RebeccaMinkoff.com to 1797%. The Rose Dress Minkoff wore to the event (pictured above) was the best-selling item of the day. “Our customers love when we create unique experiences for them. More than just shopping, they get to be a part of our brand and we get to know them in a more meaningful way,” explains Minkoff. “Collaborating with LIKEtoKNOW.it empowers us to take that to a global audience by giving them immediate access to the same content and products that those attending in person are seeing, and that’s a very powerful opportunity.”
As for the future of the fashion industry, Minkoff hopes other designers will adopt this direct-to-consumer model and provide a more meaningful experience for consumers. "Direct to consumer shows are definitely gaining momentum with other brands joining this model within the fashion industry. I think it makes sense to show this way because it gets the customer excited to shop full price retail again," says Minkoff. "This model can and will cut fast fashion off at its knees. So often, mass chains see what goes down the runway and copies it before the items can even hit stores. By the time the actual collection is in stores, customers have fatigue over those trends- they've seen the copies, they've seen it on all of their favorite actresses and bloggers — they're over it! Direct to consumer changes all that."
Article originally published on Forbes.com written by founder of Simply Inc., Sarah Boyd.