Wanna be a frock star?

Iconic retailer takes music off the peg

Bloomingdale’s is partnering up with the Sony Music label on part of the longest running and most comprehensive music campaign in the company’s history – across 840 catalogue pages and 650 in-store events.

“Rock out to the season’s newest fashion. Rock ’n’ roll chic leather jackets, ladylike pencil skirts, fabulous accessories – it’s all here,” states Bloomingdale’s campaign.

A total of nine of Sony’s artists – Boys Like Girls, Lenka, Joshua Bell, Teddy Geiger, Nicole Atkins, Michelle Williams, Wyclef Jean, Raphael Saadiq, and Cindy Lauper – appear on the cover of HOT ROCKS – a collection of the season’s must-have trends, all photographed by world-renowned fashion photographer, Marc Abrahams. The original, signed portraits will also be displayed in Bloomingdale’s Flagship 59th Street store windows alongside information about the artists. Sotheby’s will then auction the portraits off in January 2009 at the close of the campaign to benefit Musicians On Call.

Stores will showcase dedicated areas in which new releases from select Sony artists will be available for purchase. Plus the nine artists will also feature on a Bloomingdale’s limited-edition HOT shopping bag.

Two competitions will run alongside the campaign. One to win the new 2009 Infiniti FX50 – which features an in-car MP3 player preloaded with 1,000 tracks from the Sony Music library. Plus a separate sweepstakes will offer up six days at a Rock ‘n’ Roll fantasy camp, in conjunction with Abbey Road studios.

So what?: “My inspiration comes from walking in the streets of New York, listening to music on my headphones. That’s where the collection first starts to materialise,” stated designer Rubin Singer recently, highlighting just how interlinked fashion is with music.

For fashion brands, music leverages the cool cache that fabric alone simply cannot. Just in the same way that models and photography bring the products to life, music gives them their soul. Fashion too re-enforces certain style perceptions on the music it accompanies. For Bloomingdale’s, this is an attempt to tap into the musical zeitgeist and drive those all-important younger consumers in store. For Sony, it provides a platform to assert certain characteristics to artists and pitch them at a targeted demographic of fashion-conscious individuals. The catwalk – and more so the high-street retail catwalk – is a living 3D billboard, and the possibilities for music here are still in their relative infancy. Artist-endorsed/designed clothing has become de rigueur and broader, more music-focused, and long-ranging campaigns will hopefully begin to emerge.

Music is starting to get its outfit together. It’s time to step out from in front of the mirror and walk the fashion catwalk with newfound confidence.

“This campaign captures the essence of Bloomingdale’s. It has something for every audience and will reach even beyond the current Bloomingdale’s consumer. Topically, the artists, music, and fashion will provide statement-level style indicators that will be a perfect launch pad for the consumer to reference in creating their own personal look.”
Nancy Coons, Brand Strategy Consultant

www.bloomingdales.com

http://f.e.bloomingdales.com