Velvet Brigade to Mix Commerce With Contest
With public obsessions over both fashion reality shows and social media showing little sign of waning, two former Macy’s buyers decided to mix the two in a new start-up e- commerce business.
Founded by Lindsay McConnon and Jena Wang, San Francisco–based Velvet Brigade is still in beta mode. The site launched in May and is debuting its e-commerce func-tion the week of Aug. 8. However, McConnon, the site’s chief executive, said the website has already been embraced across the grass-roots fashion world because of its reality show/contest-like format.
Here’s how the site works: New designers are encouraged to submit a contemporary design. Then the novice design-ers have 30 days to campaign or market for votes on Velvet Brigade’s site, its Facebook page or its other profiles on all of the other media sites out there.
Whoever gets the most votes during a 30-day time span will see his or her design manufactured by a factory working with Velvet Brigade. (McConnon and Wang have lined up a few Northern California factories to help produce the top- ranked designs.) The winning designs will be sold on the site, and the winning designers will receive 5 percent of sales as well as have their names on the piece’s label.
quot;We’re launching a contemporary brand, and we’re us-ing the grass roots to do it,quot; McConnon said. However, Vel- vet Brigade will not be a free-for-all. To be considered for competition, designs must adhere to guides on the website’s trend board, which is changed every season. A designer can-not submit plans for a bikini during winter and expect to be placed in the competition. Like fast fashion, Velvet Brigade pieces will be manufactured quickly after being selected from the site. Also, for votes to be counted, voters must submit their ballots on the Velvet Brigade site.
Velvet Brigade’s business plan is similar to Threadless, a Chicago-based e-commerce T-shirt company that, for the past decade, has invited the public to submit graphics for T-shirts. Popular graphics are selected by Threadless’ au-dience, and the graphic is sold on Threadless’ site and its physical boutique in Chicago.
Eventually, McConnon and Wang will seek to sell Velvet Bri-gade fashions at bricks-and-mor-tar retailers. Retail price points for clothes sold on the site will range from $120 to $150. Ultimately, McConnon describes the clothes her site will sell as quot;affordable contemporary.quot;
quot;[Designers] will market to their friends, but if their friends cannot afford to buy them, we failed somehow,quot; McConnon said. —Andrew Asch
