What’s Fashion Week without a couture Starbucks Siren gown or Marilyn Monroe-inspired burlap potato sack dresses? Ralph Lauren and Coach have NYFW in their jeans — wait, we meant genes — but Starbucks, Google and Idaho Potatoes flaunted on runways in a different fashion.
Which non-fashion NYFW brand campaign rocked the runway the best? Take PRWeek’s poll on LinkedIn.
Starbucks: Coffee rave and milk steamer fog machines
Seems like there’s no sleep for Starbucks’ marketing team: the coffee giant designed a Starbucks Siren-inspired shimmery green couture gown to debut for NYFW spring and summer seasons; debuted The House of Coffee at Milan Men’s Fashion Week in January; and held a coffee rave for NYFW on February 13.
This week, Starbucks brewed collaborations with NYFW designers AREA, Collina Strada, Eckhaus Latta, Sergio Hudson and ZANKOV as the brands’ exclusive coffee sponsor. After fueling NYFW designers’ early call times, Starbucks held a dance party with DJ LP Giobbi at its Tribeca coffeehouse, using milk steamers as fog machines.
Google: AI-powered virtual try-on
This NYFW comes at a time when virtual try-on is the most-shared shopping tool on social media, and Google brought that trend to NYFW runways. California brand L’Agence partnered with Google for AI-powered virtual try-ons on February 11, where NYFW spectators uploaded selfies to view AI-generated pictures of themselves sporting L’Agence’s collection of 10 looks.
Google launched its AI Mode virtual try-on shopping page last spring, combining its Gemini capabilities with its Shopping Graph product listings dataset.
Idaho Potatoes: Marilyn-inspired potato sack fashion show
In case you missed it, Starbucks and Google weren’t the only major players at this season’s NYFW: PRWeek’s Diana Bradley made an appearance attending Idaho Potato Commission’s The Haute Potato Collection show. Models donned Marilyn Monroe-inspired Idaho Potato burlap sack dresses as fashion critics munched on potato hors d’oeuvres in Grand Central Terminal.
The event, designed with Idaho Potatoes’ PR agency partner, EvansHardy+Young, is auctioning select dresses from the Haute Potato Collection to benefit No Kid Hungry. To get a bigger bite of this couture carbohydrate collection, read PRWeek’s coverage here.