Why Fashion Designer Rebecca Minkoff Leapt Into Tech Headfirst

Rebecca and Uri Minkoff, the sibling duo behind her namesake fashion brand, are regular speakers at innovation conferences, and as was quickly revealed in a talk Thursday at the Northside Festival in Brooklyn, they should be.

They were first movers on multiple fronts that most fashion brands are now gradually getting hip to: marketing with social media, retail stores that incorporate online features, and making runway styles available for sale as soon as they appear versus six months later. There are a few good reasons for their tech savvy and Uri — who joined his once fledgling designer sister as company CEO — is one of them.

“I had a software company for 10 years, so I understand the space pretty well,” he said during the innovation portion of Northside. “So we’re working with some large companies and some startups that we hope will be around tomorrow. I go with my crazy ideas to Rebecca. And she says ‘that’s lame’ or ‘that’s kind of cool.’”

Rebecca Minkoff was the first fashion designer to speak directly to her customer back in 2005 when she started making handbags, and her famous “Morning After” bag. At that point, social media as we know it did not exist but she discovered an online purse forum where fans of her handbags were discussing details.

“I jumped on and they thought I was an impostor,” she recalled. “After I authenticated myself, it became this back and forth dialogue and the reaction was ‘Oh my gosh, this designer took time to talk to me’”

Upon hearing about this, one department store executive gave the Minkoffs the equivalent of an intervention, saying they were “dirtying” the brand by having the designer talking directly to consumers and that the fashion bloggers they were chatting with were “sea-less.” But customer dialogue has remained one of the company’s credos and now they went from working with a handful of bloggers to some 50 social media influencers in different regions, who have anywhere from 20,000 to 80,000 followers.

Two years ago they started on Snapchat, when it was just “Taco Bell and teenagers,” Rebecca Minkoff says. Now it, along with Instagram, are her two most important channels.

The company operates three retail stores, with a fourth one in the works. The one in New York City became known for its interactive features.

“When we started looking at building our own [brick and mortar stores] we saw that all of retail was decoupled from the online experience,” Uri Minkoff said. “We thought what if we could bring the best aspects of online shopping into the store?”

Instead of having salespeople descend on them, shoppers walking into the Rebecca Minkoff store can choose a beverage, with champagne the no. 1 choice. Inside, they will find a large interactive mirror that lets customers look at the runway styles, and choose outfits to try on in a fitting room. If there are lines, they can enter their phone numbers to be texted when their room is ready. Once inside, they can change the lighting while they try on clothes.

“We try to look at every moment from a human perspective,” Uri Minkoff said. “A millennial either wants to be anonymous or wants to be a movie star.”

Within the store, everything is RFID-tagged so that salespeople know what’s in the dressing room. Instead of dressing and sticking their heads out to summon help, customers can get a salesperson to bring them additional items or a different size with the touch of the mirror inside the dressing room. To check out, shoppers can use the brand app and PayPal without going up to a cash register. Shoppers can also record what they looked at in the store for future reference to possibly buy later.

The end result? More sales, with Uri Minkoff saying they are selling three times as much apparel as they projected.

Their wearables, which Rebecca Minkoff has designed to look like pretty jewelry versus a rubber bracelets, have special features for the mobile consumer.

“One of the things we realized this past year was people running out of charge,” Uri Minkoff said. “We came out with a whole suite of products that are charge enabled.”

While the Minkoffs wouldn’t disclose what they have planned for the next New York Fashion Week, the last one they held over the weekend had an audience that was one third consumers versus buyers or press. And instead of showcasing items that weren’t available for another six months, they were among the first to do see-now, buy-now. Other designers, such as Tom Ford, followed.

“Everything in the show will be in our store, or on our website,” Uri Minkoff said. This avoids the issue of image fatigue in which people see images of runway clothing on social media, but are unable to buy it until six months later, at which point they’re tired of it already.

The benefits: “For our retail partners, they can monetize right then and there with their investments,” Uri Minkoff said. Plus, it’s full-price retail when you offer something brand new.

The Minkoff’s next fashion frontier? Virtual reality. They shot the first-ever runway show in virtual reality last fall, selling $24 headsets that allow those who missed the show to immerse themselves in the designs, with instructions to move their heads around for the full experience.

“We think VR will replace the laptop experience,” Uri Minkoff said. “You’ll feel like you’re walking into a Rebecca Minkoff store.”

Source: New York Business Journal, Teresa Novellino
Photo: Rebecca Minkoff, a handbag designer poses for a photograph in her studio in New York, on Sept. 14, 2011. (Jin Lee, Bloomberg)