Dan Liu Springs into New York Fashion Week at IMG

a
lthough Dan Liu insists he is the “least important” member of the staff on the day of his show, clearly the ship runs smoothly due to the meticulous attention the designer pays to every possible detail.

A monitor of the runway backstage allowed us a glimpse of the designer — well-established on the Canadian fashion scene, and now breaching New York’s fashion week for the second time. He’s running to and fro, hands-on with his models. He’s an expressive man with a passionate heart; a sentiment evident in his collection, where light-hearted lace dresses, bright florals, and the happiest of little black dresses sashayed down the catwalk.

A passionate heart is evident in his collection.

The dresses, mostly A-line, reminded me of the flouncy dresses that make you think of yourself as “pretty” for the very first time, spinning in your skirt for your parents. They’re the kind of clothes that make you smile. With an interesting blend of fabrics, Liu creates a collection of lace, beads, and jewels — the very materials the word “pretty” brings to mind.

They’re the kind of clothes that make you smile.

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How Carolina Herrera and Livestream.com Took NYFW

How do you bring that magic to a livestream experience?

For their Spring 2016 show, Carolina Herrera turned to Livestream.com, with phenomenal results.

After disappointing earlier attempts with other vendors, the Carolina Herrera digital team needed to find a solution. “We struggled with the same thing season after season,” said Elizabeth Fuller, Digital Manager at Carolina Herrera. “The stream didn’t go live, or the video quality was poor.

“It’s really important as a designer to always be moving forward, and to be on the cutting edge of technology. We have an incredibly global audience, and livestreaming the show would bring that audience right into the venue.”

“It’s really important to always be moving forward,” says Elizabeth Fuller, Digital Manager at Carolina Herrera.

 
The Magic of Carolina Herrera
 
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The result?

The Wall Street Journal named Carolina Herrera’s livestream the best of New York Fashion Week.

The show had more than 50,000 views and gained the brand over 60,000 new social media followers and 51.2M impressions. They had an 83% increase in Instagram followers alone compared to the previous show.

The Wall Street Journal called it the best of the season.

Needless to say, the Carolina Herrera team was thrilled.

Fuller lost her previous fears about livestreaming. “We felt such a sense of confidence with Livestream.com, and from a tech standpoint, we could really depend and rely on it. For us, the best part of working with Livestream, beyond the professionalism, was the quality of the product. The stream was crystal clear and the end result was fantastic.”

The lady behind the brand was also pleased with the final result. “Livestreaming was really important to Mrs. Herrera. It was important to her that people around the world get to experience her beautiful designs with her,” says Fuller. “She was thrilled with the way it turned out.”

We felt such a sense of confidence with Livestream.com.

Read more about the show here.

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Learn more

Livestream.com

With love,

FWO

How Diobox is Transforming the Way Fashion Shows Are Organized

Allen Nasseri is a man with a mission. If you’ve ever organized an event, you know the exhaustion that comes with managing multiple moving parts from multiple touch points, services, even computer applications. Nasseri’s Diobox is set to change all that, with an application that bundles many needed functionalities together, and that actually works.

 
Q: What’s your background? How did you get started in event management, and how did it inspire the creation of Diobox?

By training, my background is in media and technology. At the same time, I’ve been involved with events management in different industries for more than a decade. Before Diobox, I was running marketing and event production at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. We hosted a lot of events in NY, DC, LA, and abroad. They ranged from intimate receptions for our magazine covers, all the way to red carpet events at Lincoln Center with more than 2,500 guests.

The process at all the events was a nightmare, from a logistical point of view, and we had SNAFUs at every stage of the planning (which is standard regardless of the industry). So I decided to leave my job and create a product for solving the mess that is event planning.

I decided to leave my job and create a product for solving the mess.

 
Event Horizon
 
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Q: So what does Diobox do, and how does it solve some of the logistical nightmares of event planning?

Diobox simplifies the event management process by providing access to five core functionalities in a single platform, covering the entire event life cycle. Having access to these tools help eliminate the use of multiple products for hosting an event. The core functionalities are:

1. Guest list management and guest profiling
2. Emails: invitation sending with real-time delivery tracking
3. RSVP pages that are uniquely customized for each guest
4. Tables and seating assignment with support for waitlists
5. Check-in and door operations with support for plus-ones

Q: What makes Diobox unique from other products?

Diobox is the first consumer event product that includes a built-in module for Client Relationship Management (CRM), storing guest preferences and guest activities.

The Diobox CRM also tracks guest history across events and provides meaningful analytics in a “Guest Scorecard” screen.

For example, if the same guest is invited to more than one event, Diobox will automatically reveal the number of invitations, total spend, attendance records, and even “no-shows.” This data provides invaluable insight to the event staff, helping them make smart decisions on the spot.

Q: What other features or advantages does it have?

For one, real-time sync between multiple iOS devices and the web app. You can merge duplicate guests through the import process. There are also “common-sense” permissions and privacy settings. For example, it hides sensitive guest information from the door staff.

There are also “auto-enhanced” guest profiles: using guest email addresses to obtain photos, names, titles, companies, and social links.

And “offline mode” allows users to work without an Internet connection, as Diobox stores all changes locally, and automatically syncs as soon as the device is reconnected –- all without interruption.

It hides sensitive guest information from the door staff.

Q: So who uses Diobox?
 
Diobox is a relatively new product when it was launched in Q1 2016. It has been used at a number of industries, including nonprofits, nightclubs, fashion, film festivals, and corporate events.

Q: Why did you launch it now?
 
The event software space is crowded, which leaves many customers confused.

There are ticketing platforms, which help with generating revenue and selling tickets. Then there are basic check-in apps, which are used at private events. But these apps are primitive and not very easy to operate. The user is required to upload a confirmed list first, and then use the app for check-in. This import and export process creates a lot of data duplication and data fragmentation. It also requires using spreadsheets and third-party email marketing systems, which makes the problem worse. Finally, we have industry-specific products like FGPS. They include a lot of great features but are quite expensive and not affordable for smaller brands (FPGS is known to charge $400/user/month, with a minimum requirement of 3 users).

Diobox aims to provide an affordable event management solution that is industry independent. We also focused a great deal on the user experience to build a product that is simple and intuitive, while providing advanced features. More importantly, all of these features are built into our iPhone and iPad apps (unlike basic check-in apps). We want our customers to focus on their events without having to learn a new product or worrying about the backend technology.

Diobox aims to provide an affordable event management solution.

Q: How much does Diobox cost?
 
A free version is available for events up to 50 guests. Paid plans start at $79/event and can be purchased on the web app or through an iOS in-app purchase. Subscription plans are also available for unlimited events.

Diobox provides the functionality of multiple products while costing less than any one of them. For additional pricing information and a compare chart, see: http://www.diobox.com/pricing.

To help independent producers, we are providing a 15% discount until the end of Fashion Week in partnership with FWO.

We are providing a 15% discount.

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Learn more

To save 15%, see www.diobox.com/fashion-week.

With love,

FWO

KIA STYLE360: Seeing Stars at New York Fashion Week

From Kanye West to Serena Williams to Rihanna, celebrities are making headlines as they take to the drawing table and runways. The amount of famous names joining the design world — and not as a presence in the front row, but behind the scenes of couture — is astonishing. The trend isn’t new, not by any means, but it seems that fashion design as a form of expanding one’s brand grows each season. But how is technology driving this trend: and fashion week as a whole?

We spoke to David Manning, owner of KIA STYLE360, who for 12 years now has played host to numerous celebrity collections, and been a launchpad for designers from Rodarte to Rebecca Minkoff.

Q: Why are celebrities deciding to move from the position of a spectator to designer?

This is not a new phenomenon, nor is it something we’re seeing on a large scale relative to the industry.

What we are seeing is more talented artists partnering with a broader range of capable producers and companies with new distribution means (e.g., online vs. retail), which are creating new portals for success.

This paves the way for more and more celebrities to pursue their passions with more confidence and conviction, to the point they can put their designs on the runway. Look at what Adidas is doing with Kanye, and Puma with Rihanna, and HSN with Serena.

We’re thrilled at Kia STYLE360 to be one of those portals that offers celebrity designers a turnkey solution to NYFW.

Companies with new distribution means are creating new portals for success.

Q: Do you think celebrities have been able to “hold their own” as designers? Do they have to?

All very successful designers are celebrities in their own right, so I don’t think there’s any special treatment or benefit if you’re a music icon, or actor, coming out with a new fashion line.

If anything, you’re more “under the microscope,” so your talent really needs to shine for a collection to sell, and withstand the scrutiny of the media.

If anything, celebrities’ designs are more “under the microscope.”

Q: Is it important for the name behind a brand to be able to sketch, design, and sew?

It helps, but it’s not critical. Many top rockstars and songwriters don’t play an instrument as well as their bandmates, but they do write the great songs: so it is with creative designers.

I’m sure the purist will cringe when they read this, but thanks to the tech boom, we do half the things we used to do for ourselves. We outsource — Uber, Blue Apron, etc.

Q: It’s clear that celebrities and designers have a symbiotic relationship; you’ve said celebrities who enter the industry often need help with production work for lines — do you see Kia STYLE360 as a platform for this new wave of collaboration?

Well, it’s hard for anyone to be a “one-person show” in fashion design. With that said, yes, it is our purpose to be a partner and “one-stop shop” for all designers. It takes a lot of work to produce a fashion show. We want to help alleviate that pressure and let the designers focus on the clothes.

We want to help the designers focus on the clothes.

Q: Kia STYLE360 is where many celebrities have found a venue for their ventures. What has been your experience with them?

We’ve been doing this for 12 years, and I can say my most pleasant and courteous experiences have all been with celebrity designers. I think by nature they understand collaboration and are clear, decisive, and courteous in helping to get to the end goal.

My most courteous experiences have been with celebrity designers.

Q: Do you think celebrities like Rihanna, who won the CFDA Style Icon Award in 2014, create their own lines as a way to produce lines that match their specific taste in style? Do they fill a niche in the industry that “traditional” designers do not?

I can’t speak to exact motivations or on behalf of any celebrity designer, but my belief is they do it not to fill a hole in the market, but purely to scratch their own creative itch. Rihanna doesn’t write a song to fill a hole in the market; it comes from within her, and when it’s good enough, and authentic, people enjoy and buy it. Fashion works much the same way.

Q: Celebrities are arguably more in-touch with the public, being so heavily entrenched in pop culture. Do you think that gives them more insight into what the public wants to see?

Again, hard for me to speculate, but for the most part, celebrities are “people persons” and people pleasers. They connect with large audiences in high frequency, so I’d have to assume they get to collect vast amount of feedback and information about the human spirit, and that definitely gives an edge.

Q: Does Kia STYLE360 try to strike a balance between celebrity designers and trained newcomers? Do you think having both is beneficial to the industry?

Yes, I think we always need to curate a season that has a balance of different kinds — and styles — of designers, so we’re connecting with levels of the fashion industry … and fans. 

In fact, we’re most proud of doing the very first shows for some emerging designers that have now become top brand names: like Rodarte and Rebecca Minkoff, for example. Pretty sure our runway was one of the first Kendall Jenner ever walked!

We’re proud to have producer debut shows for Rodarte and Rebecca Minkoff, for example.

Q: NYFW was once centralized by the “tents,” but that’s now a thing of the past. What do you think about this return to the decentralized “New York Fashion Week” that existed for many decades, as organized by Ruth Finley, for example? What other changes do you foresee in our concept of “fashion week?”

I say hooray.

Fashion week is getting more creative — and pushing the boundaries creatively — in terms of how we get to see and experience a fashion show, and this will continue to evolve in a huge way.

We’re excited to debut 360 viewing and virtual reality at one of our fashion shows. Virtuality may be the game change for years to come.

Fashion week is now getting more creative and pushing the boundaries.

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Learn more

www.style360nyfw.com

With love,

FWO