Fashion Notebook

AmEx Continues Its Fashion Push, With Diane von Furstenberg Starring in New Campaign

Off the heels of the New York Fashion Week initiative
where it offered streaming runway shows among other goodies, and a $500,000 donation to the CFDA/Vogue
Fashion Fund, American Express is continuing to deepen its fashion industry connection.

The credit card company announced that designer Diane von Furstenberg (she old the large dots and wrap dresses) will star in the latest "Are You a Cardmember" campaign, per Ogilvy & Mather, New York, which breaks during the Oscars on Feb. 24. See a still from the TV spot, right.

No doubt the campaign seeks to create more brand affinity among female consumers (also the general goal of the company's effort within the fashion industry, according to Jessica Igoe, director of sponsorship and event marketing at American Express, New York), and given von Furstenberg's longevity in the industry and reputation as a fiercely independent designer and businesswoman, it should resonate fairly well.

Indeed, von Furstenberg's own statement seems to play right into that angle.

"Women inspire me and I inspire them to be independent and free, which is how I feel when I use my American Express card," said Von Furstenberg. "American Express represents a sign of independence and freedom and if you have your card, you can do anything."

See what we mean? Though we must admit, that the feeling of freedom that our credit cards (of all stripes) have given us only resulted in vast numbers of consumers in our age group (let's say 20-30 years old) entering into not-insignificant personal debt. After all, we just had to have that Vuitton throw rug and somewhere along the way, trips to Sephora seemed, well, like a necessity no matter how much they squeezed the budget.

Directed by "Capote" chief Bennett Miller, the TV spot follows Von Furstenberg from the inspirational Winter Wonderland of her backyard, through the design process in her studio. The print ads were shot by—who else?—Annie Leibovitz.

Lessons in Branding: A Night Out with Ben Sherman

Having attended many fashion parties that were no more
than an excuse to down a bunch of free drinks before going
out for your real night on the town, we must admit that most of them are throw-aways, except in the rare instance that they shed some light on some real branding work.

While such is by far the rarest of breed in the Fashion Week party line up, Ben Sherman's party Friday night at the brand's Soho flagship proved to be a rumination on the execution of a rebranding, if not a somewhat nostalgic trip down memory lane for us (pictures left, via LastNightsParty.com).

If you haven't checked in with Ben Sherman in a while you should, because it's likely very different than you remember. The U.S. vp-marketing, Dana Dynamite has been working to give the brand some serious hipster cred, starting out  first with a MySpace site several years ago (one of the first to jump on that now über-popular chuck wagon) and extending relationships with a series of downtown New York nightlife's more  prominent partiers (and all too often, party promoters by default... hey, even hipsters gotta eat!).

Most recently, the brand inked a partnership with Merlin Bronques, a downtown scene photographer á la, but predating MisShapes (R.I.P.) and The Cobra Snake (we're fairly sure about this, facts about these guys are usually anecdotal at best) as well as newcomers like Nicky Digital (if you don't know these names, you're either over 35 years old or need to seriously re-read your Hipster Handbook). Bronques produced a series of stills—in k eeping with his hipster verité styles—of downtown's denizens that were used for a Christmas OOH campaign here in New York.  Alongside Bronques came a slew of other night-lifers, such as the DJ/comic (huh?) Mike Nouveau (who's really a web marketing and ad sales guy for Paper, and prior to that held similar duties over at Rolling Stone, pictured, left, with friends) and DJ Jess (the skinny, seemingly sexually ambidextrous DJ who used to, and perhaps still does, spin at Rififfi, where you can expect to hear "Kids in America" and "Common People" about 1.75 times each hour).

So, at the party, it all became clear how these kids—we have to laugh here a little bit, since we've seen them evolve over the past four years from awkward kids our friends used to hook up with to something of legitimate (?) nightlife figures, and speaking of Merlin, why did you lose the wig!!??—have been perfectly deployed to revamp this aged British apparel brand both on and offline (they all promote each other via MySpace pages).

The party was thronged with young kids (check out all the images, here.), which isn't such a surprising thing at fashion events, particularly during Fashion Week. But it was thronged with the kinds of people that we recognize, obviously a direct appeal to young twentysomethings who make the rounds at various clubs decked out in DIY and bargain fashions. The walls were splattered with images from the current campaign, and the room packed with a bunch of young, mod-ish looking pretties that posed for Bronques' pictures. (Though due diligence requires us to report that there were some aging club queens out as well, but that's par for the course around downtown NYC. It wouldn't feel like home without them.)

And while our friend did note that the new outdoor campaign looked like "American Apparel Lite" (which, to be fair, is, itself pretty much "1970s-Era Gym Porn Lite"), Ben Sherman was effectively communicating its new message. After being off of our radar for years, Ben Sherman suddenly felt hip. And the product wasn't—particularly the party dresses—bad either.

And it's not just our musings either. Agyness Deyn, that pixie-faced model you've been seeing in nearly everyone's campaigns this year, popped into the party, wearing some super high shouldered blue jacket and with a mini-entourage of bottle blonds in tow.  That  surely says something, whether she was comp'ed  for the night or not. Though I'm starting to worry about Agyness as a brand spokesperson—seems she's been a bit of the village bicycle lately and while we love her look, we have to wonder how much Agyness we'll have to see before we get fatigue and move on.

And speaking of moving on, while we love the 1980s, I think it's time we stopped LITERALLY reinterpreting the decadent decade. Seriously, there's a way to pull off hip without being a literal reproduction of a Salt N' Peppa album cover. Cheap, clunky gold chain and patent purses were always passé people!

AmEx Takes NY Fashion Week Live on the American Express Fashion Network

American Express wants to be the card women
don’t leave the runway without.

The brand today kicks off an ambitious multi-faceted program for New York Fashion Week, with myriad bells and whistles. As part of its “American Express Fashion Network,” the brand will provided streaming, live runway videos via its AmericanExpress.com/style micro site. (A preview of the site can be viewed, right. Click to enlarge.)

Also posted will be exclusive content such as designer and celebrity interviews from the Bryant Park Tents, and trend digests from hosts and correspondents Robert Verdi (the stylist you might best remember from that elegant snarkfest "Fashion Police") and Roshumba Williams (the fashion model discovered by Yves Saint Laurent, who made her on-camera name as a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight in 2002). The site will stay up, providing archived content and new shows, throughout the duration of  New York Fashion Week.

The site will be promoted through online advertising, as well as a partnership with Youtube, whereby the Google-owned video sharing site will create its own dedicated fashion channel to feature highlights from the American Express Fashion Network.

The online initiative expands on last season’s American Express’ Skybox program for the September 2007 Fashion Week, in which elite card members (that's Gold Card and above, honey!) were given access to a special viewing area, complete with catered food and drink, overlooking the two main runways.

In addition to continuing that program, the company has also added a card member-only collection presentation from designer Peter Som, as well as a series of private parties, and a $500,000 donation to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund that supports young, up and coming design talent.

“Fashion is important to us because it represents a distilled sense of identity, and really empowers women, so it resonates well with our card member base,” said Jessica Igoe, director of sponsorship marketing for American Express, New York.

Igoe added that correspondent, and model, Roshumba Williams was also selected for her ability to appeal to the female demographic.

“She represents someone who is confident and has strong experience in the industry and is recognizable for our target audience, particularly working women,” Igoe said. “The program has a key focus on our female consumers, especially working women. We’re trying to help [that woman] find either live experiences like Fashion Week runway shows, or retail experiences that instill confidence.”

And obviously, if that confidence  gives the courage to break out that AmEx and buy a few pairs of brand new Louboutins, hey, all the better!

Check it all out here.