Yahoo Ryot Lab, the innovation partner of New York Fashion Week: The Shows 2021, is working with IMG and leading fashion designers to create extended reality content experiences that add a multidimensional lens to their collections. Rebecca Minkoff is the first featured brand linked to the company’s Spring / Summer ’21 collection. To explore some of the looks in augmented reality, click the play button below. On the desktop, use the mouse to view the clothes from different angles. On your phone, move around in space for a 360 degree view.
Rebecca Minkoff’s name was put on the map in 2001, when actress Jenna Elfman wore an “I Love New York” T-shirt designed by Minkoff on late night television. Now, two decades later, the designer is a name known for her watches, shoes, clothes and the iconic Mini MAC crossbody bag. Before her showcase at New York Fashion Week on Tuesday, she told Yahoo Life that she has not yet finished reinventing herself.
“You have to be fast, agile and flexible”, she explains about her evolution as a designer.
This year, in particular with the coronavirus pandemic impacting industries in all sectors, Minkoff faced the final challenge of reconnecting to customers who no longer saw their collections in showrooms and stores, but at home.
“It was the most challenging year and one of the most inspiring,” says Minkoff. “You can have what appears to be the worst thing to happen as a founder of your company and come back from it, make the team come together in a way that you are amazed and able to get out of it with a deeper understanding of your client , your company – what works and what doesn’t. “
When it comes to New York Fashion Week, the designer kept that mindset.
“We always let our consumer watch our shows, invite her, celebrate her,” she explains, “so this year and the last show were obviously a lot more difficult to do, knowing that the capacity and rules around security are much more rigorous tights. “
While Minkoff managed to bring the Spring 2021 collection to life with a showcase in New York on Tuesday, she talks about the importance of innovating when it comes to delivering the collection directly to the consumer – especially in these times of isolation. “We want to give a much more immersive view of the collection in a way that would have been experienced in person, but now it can’t,” she says, noting that social media and different immersion technologies are allowing her to do that. But it would not be the first time that it has incorporated new technologies into its brand.
“I think the pandemic has accelerated consumer adoption of many things,” she says. “We had QR codes in our bags years ago that would unlock experiences and rewards, and the consumer simply asked, ‘What is a QR code?’ And now they are on all menus and you are seeing widespread adoption and use of them. “
Fortunately for the Rebecca Minkoff brand, the stylist says she learned to see the pandemic as “just another opportunity” to examine the brand’s existing relationship with the consumer and explore ways to innovate. Minkoff takes a similar approach when it comes to expanding the brand’s offerings.
“You want to have a strong base of bags and essential products that people look for whenever they want,” she says in reference to her remarkable crossbody bags. “So you definitely need to iterate and have fashion that is a fun surprise and a great core layer.”
With her latest collection, supposedly inspired by the juxtaposition between the spring flowers and the center of Minkoff’s home in New York, the designer seems to have accomplished just that.
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