Essential Model Gear: The Tall Tight Boots

Essential Model Gear: Suede Tall Tight Boot with rubber flat soles for walking and keeping your legs warm and fashionable.

So you are supposed to wear the shortest of black mini skirts and you are supposed to show your legs on the castings. You are supposed to wear the thinest stockings so as not to add any extra inch to your microscopic stick figure legs and you are supposed to walk around in sub-zero temperatures on casting--Riiiight! What planet do those bookers live on?

Your cold weather weapon is a very tight black over the knee (keep those joints warm for when you mature) boot with rubber soles having grip (dont slip on the ice for fashion sake). This will keep at least half of your legs warm, are easy to remove when you get to the casting place, have soles so you dont slip and break an ancle while rushing around town, and are slim--so if you do meet that famous photographer, casting director, magazine editor on the street you will keep your twiggie figure and they will be green with envey.

Model Tip: Dressing Up for Fashion Week 2011

These days you cant walk out of the Louvre or Sommerset House, or the Fiera without being snapped up by photographer--if you are lucky and if you have style. It used to be that models dressed all grunge to the backstage area and were quite anti-fashion. These days you almost have to look like you just walked off the catwalk in a couture dress. That's why I recommend wearing some type of hat if you dont want to freeze to death in a mini skirt or wear something with too many colors and layers. A sparkly hat can really make your whole low-key and functional backstage look spice up enough for the bloggers and the street-fashion backstage Japanese and Chinese photographers snap you up and put you on the web!

 

Bas Kosters Studio and Social Media

It's not every day that you get to work with an excellent, new, and upcoming designer like Bas Kosters. I'm really proud that he has trusted in the 360Fashion Network technologies and dived in to open his blog on 360Fashion, he LIVE!Streamed the backstage of his fashion show during the Amsterdam Fashion Week, he used our 360Fashion MobileMags technology during his Bijenkorf popup store on hang-tags with the QR code, and he is implementing the 360Fashion Facebook E-commerce solution. Bas Kosters has exploded onto the social and mobile scene with support for all these activities from Syntens.

You maybe wondering what it has done for him, all these new technologies?

First, none of these innovations were promoted by his PR agency. No press release, no traditional support from SpicePR at all. Actually, they were really quite in the dark about mobile, social, and skeptical about it--even going so far as to advise against it to him saying that he had to be careful about his branding. For an advanced PR company, they didn't really see the value in social media, mobile, or why Bas would want to be part of a network. Traditional company. So the numbers and figures that I will quote to you are really on their own merit.

The 360Fashion MobileMag was used by Bas Kosters Studio during his Bijenkorf popup store, where he printed on his hang-tags the QR code. The mag consisted of the PAR TEA collection overview with photos from the collection, his bio, and an overview, along with links to his website and a map where the Bijenkorf was located. They posted a notice on facebook and on their blog too. On the day of the opening of the pop up store, Bas Kosters Studio got 500 downloads. During the fashion week, when his show was broadcasting, Bas Kosters' 360Fashion MobileMag was listed on the LIVE!Streaming page and I also tweeted it. His total downloads are 1228 from 4 tweets #baskosters and linked on the LIVE!Streaming page.

About the LIVE!Streaming, 360Fashion created a branded page on our Facebook LIVE!Streaming application, where Bas Kosters could tag people, send out invitations, link to his twitter, sell items directly under the stream, and also people watching the stream could chat in real time. His facebook page Bas Kosters Studio, had only 72 people Liking it before the streaming started. The day before the show Bas Kosters guest were sent a notification that there would be the LIVE!Streaming. Again, with no communication other than his blog, twitter, a newsletter, and posting on his facebook page, 30 people watched the stream live, with a total of 405 people joining the page in less than 24 hours.

Facebook E-commerce is next so we are excited to launch that soon for him in the next days! All in all, for a medium small end brand to gain such traction in less than at 24 hour period shows potential in using these new interactive ways to engage customers in their handsets and online. It would be interesting to see what the numbers would be if his PR agency had been able to communicate to a larger audience and also international press. We will have to wait and see!

What is Chinese Luxury? Jade

Chinese luxury is really a big question at the moment, so I was surprised to go to Nanjing and find the largest selection of Jade owned by a brand named TRESOR. To the Chinese, Jade is as precious to the east as Diamonds are to the west. Although the ornate designs may be too complicated to the foreign taste, and the price high for them to understand because they do not have the history and emotional attachment around the stone that the Chinese have. It was explained to me that they have an attachment to it like Catholics have to the cross. It protects them and keeps them safe. Read more here and see some fab photos: http://china.360fashion.net/2011/01/10/what-is-chinese-luxury-jade/