FASHION WEEK SNAPSHOT: What Does It Mean When The Best Swag Is Laundry Detergent?
February 19, 2015
We have already noted that the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week tents at Lincoln Center feel like they are phoning it in at this point. This is their last season. It is also the last season for Mercedes as the name sponsor, and nobody really knows exactly where IMG's New York Fashion Week will materialize next season. The latest rumor has it taking up in the still not fully constructed Moynihan Station in the old Post Office across the street form Penn Station which seems...plausible?
Anyway, as most of the designers of note have migrated away from the tents, this season, the usual crush of sponsor booths, on of designers' biggest complaints about the tents, has also diminished along with the endless supply of product being handed out.
The days of bringing an extra bag along to collect the day's swag haul during Fashion Week are long over, but you could still count on picking up some Tresemmé shampoo and conditioner in the Tents somewhere along the way. There is still a salon booth from the brand, but it seems a bit less welcoming this year, and they aren't handing out samples to everyone who passes by. There is an SK-II booth, which should have caused delight, but it requires a consultation and you have to log on to their website to have swag sent to your home, which is just a little to personal to The Shophound who is used to being handed a bag of occasionally bewildering beauty products that I can then distribute to my delighted female friends and family members.
You see, most of the beauty swag is of no use to The Shophound, although there were a few years there when we never had to actually bother buying shampoo and conditioner. We have dutifully collected all those beauty products and other miscellany because, it was always free, and it has allowed us to, on the odd occasion, become a fountain of free stuff for friends which has its own rewards. Who knew that a Maybelline mascara could produce such joy? Sadly, the bountiful bags of free product have become scarce.
And on to the less relevant sponsors. Papyrus is there again, and they gave us a free valentine card last week which gives them higher points for usefulness. We have already mentioned how pleased we were to see some free Yoplait yogurt distributed, but we haven't seen them reappear. Some of the tech sponsors of the past like Samsung and Logitech are now conspicuously absent, and while they didn't actually give much stuff away, they added to the trade show-like atmosphere. Their absence brings the E! Network's Fashion Police studio stage down to the floor level which, again, is a dubious development.
Then there's Tide.
The laundry detergent brand has its own sponsor booth this season ostensibly to show visitors how easy it is to actually wash clothes which most of us naturally relegate to the ease but also the expense of the dry cleaner. On top of that, they had a generous supply of Tide pods with Febreze to hand out to pretty much anybody stepping in without having to endure too much of a hard-sell. Now, this is, admittedly a better bit of swag for people who do their own laundry —less common in New York than in most places— and have easy access to a washing machine —again, not always a given here. But drawbacks aside, we were happy to take that free Tide, and we might try to score some more. After all, it's a product we trust, and it's so much easier to carry a few pods to the laundromat (where, yes, we do wash our own clothes rather than handing them over to somebody else) rather than toting a heavy, sloshing, occasionally leaking bottle of liquid.
So there you have it. Maybe its a result of our going to far fewer shows this season, but Tide, you have won our blue ribbon for swag this season. Congratulations!
Comments