New York Fashion Week: Social Media Brings Fashion to the Masses

Infographic of Social Media and NYFW via Mashable.

Social Media has become an important marketing and consumer voice in the fashion industry.   New York Fashion Week saw a flurry of social activity both for live streaming of shows on blogs (like mine), Facebook discussions and Twitter.  I did a search of Twitter hashtags on Topsy this morning to measure the results for myself.   The hashtag #MBFW (Mercedes Benz Fashion Week) had over 45,000 Tweets affiliated with it.   The hashtag #NYFW (New York Fashion Week) had over 453,728 tweets associated with it.

The end game is that Social Media is making fashion more accessible to consumers than ever before.  It’s the best market research and crowd sourcing available to brands today.  Wonder if your garment will sell in stores? Designers & retailers can simply, check the Tweets.  According to Mashable, a recent study from “eBay Deals looked into data from five social networks during NYFW and found more people are using social media for wardrobe advice, inspiration and the latest trends. ”  Personally, I think snow blizzard Nemo upped the social media from this February New York Fashion Week.   I know myself, and other fashion bloggers,  were in Twitter overdrive during the shows.After all, if you’re stuck inside during a snow storm what better way to pass the time than by watching live stream fashion shows and discussing them with others?   Women love to discuss fashion and for us shopping is one of our favorite sports.   Social media allows for powerful real time social sharing.  This year’s NYFW saw even professional photographers taking to Instagram to post photos.

Now comes London Fashion Week, and I expect the Social sharing to continue.  It will be interesting to see how many fashionistas beam in via their social networks to the Topshop show tomorrow on Feb. 17, 2013.   What shows are you looking forward to readers?