NEW YORK – IMG has revealed an ambitious social media push that lets anyone play a virtual role in all things fashion, such as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
Fashion World Live will be the first interactive fashion universe to exist in the social media space. It will be an application that will engage the immense population that interacts within Facebook.
“Fashion World live will be a social media application,” said Matthew Primack, vice president of licensing at IMG, London. “It will be a lifestyle game that will replicate the fashion industry.
"It will be an online world that will engage anyone who has an interest in fashion from any angle," he said. "It will encourage creativity by providing the tools for people to design, model, capture, create and of course, comment.
“The commercialization of social media is the most important innovation in digital commerce today. Social media has arrived. And it gives economic power to an individual. Fashion World Live is a response to this empowerment."
“It pertains to people who are interested in, and want to take part in fashion.”
IMG is a global sports, fashion and media business. IMG Fashion owns and operates fashion events around the world.
Fashion World Live will be found entirely online and it will replicate the ever-evolving, ever-changing fashion industry.
Fashion World Live kiosk
IMG has proposed a social media platform in which anyone interested in fashion can participate. It will be a place where people inside and outside the fashion world can interact, share ideas and gain insights.
Fashion World Live will launch in September to the general public.
Fashion World Live
For the most part, the fashion world has been open to a select group of people.
Fashion World Live will change that, creating a much more interactive portal.
Fashion World Live event at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Within the platform, users will explore and activate their own individual talents and network with each other.
Fashion World Live was founded on the thinking that everyone matters, everyone counts and everyone can be heard. It is a platform for active engagement of consumers who are interested in modeling, designing, photography and retail.
Fashion World Live's kiosk at Fashion Week
Mr. Primack says Fashion World Live will amplify every aspect of the fashion world. It will let users engage their passions with individuals from around the world 24/7.
Why Facebook?
Although Fashion World Live is launching on Facebook, IMG plans to open the social media outlet to other platforms eventually.
Fashion World Live Web site
Why did IMG choose Facebook? Because everyone is connected and has access to it.
“The Facebook population is interactive,” Mr. Primack said. “This includes consumers and trendsetters of fashion. They are setting the agenda of fashion every day, every hour, every minute, every second.
“The demand and supply of information-rich content endlessly accelerates as these populations trade, they share and they create on a massive scale,” he said. “The impact is unavoidable.”
The fashion world is constantly changing and evolving, and so is Facebook. What the social media Web site has done is made it more accessible to be in touch with luxury designers.
“Facebook is valued at somewhere around the region of 50 billion dollars,” Mr. Primack said. “This is proof of its unprecedented success and its ability to influence all of our lives.
“The reason social media works is because it offers a personal experience,” he said. “Everyone counts and everyone can be heard. And everyone matters.”
Final take
Fashion World Live creative Director Pat McGrath