Runway Buzzed

"Designers are beginning to focus on wooing the few customers who are still shopping," writes Christina Binkley in the Wall Street Journal (3/12/09). This new focus starts with designs that people might actually wear, as opposed to the kind that merely create buzz. Designers used to do crazy stuff like show "clothes with words like ‘Wow’ poofing out of chests and backs, and have hung lights and speakers blasting music on their models."

Predictably, things are markedly more sedate this year, though — and those who do try to generate buzz pretty much fall flat. Among them are designer Olivier Theyskens, who is showing "a dark collection for Nina Ricci with mile-wide shoulders and and mile-high platform shoes." Ron Frasch, president of Saks, said the collection needed to be toned down "if they want to sell anything."

As Christina Binkley points out: "That’s the problem with buzz-generating marketing strategies. These days, you can’t take buzz to the bank." Indeed, monitoring by Zeta Interactive of six Paris runway shows across 100 million fashion blogs found that the shows that generated less buzz were more positively received than did "the more staid shows." Zeta ceo Al DiGuido comments: "What we saw from the Paris fashion shows was that more online chatter did not necessarily equate to better brand reputations." ~ Tim Manners, editor.