Trend reports are normally based on what’s been shown on the runway. But the prevalence of a certain color or pattern doesn’t necessarily mean people are interested in it. Fashion will always be an industry for visionaries – creative people who push design ideas the mass market didn’t know they wanted until seeing them. That said, fashion shows and presentations are no longer industry only events. They’re part of the marketing mix to reach customers, and through social media the fan, editor, buyer and shopper can all contribute to the data that exposes where interest is highest.

That’s the idea behind our latest special feature on Fashion Week Trends. We crawled photos associated with nearly 200 shows, more than 5400 individual looks, and let the social media data tell the story. View the Top 25 shows from New York Fashion Week, as well as the Top 50 looks. Individual show rankings are available, with look metrics. The NYFW Runway Intel report combines all of the activity for a complete look at the colors, shapes and designers with the most interest.

Composite images of Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta Spring/Summer 2012, Rodarte Spring/Summer 2012 via New York Magazine Fashion

According to EDITD, the London-based startup that uses online data to measure and predict fashion trends, Jacobs not only bested other notable designers when it comes to online buzz, but both his main line and Marc by Marc Jacobs secondary line placed in the top 10. The company analyzed 300,000 NYFW tweets and updates with an emphasis on the social media savvy who were actually at the shows.

There are pretty heavy rumors flying that Jacobs is in line for John Galliano’s old job at Dior, and due to days lost during Hurricane Irene meant that the Marc Jacobs closed New York Fashion Week, so the extra bit of publicity and timing could have played a role.

In order, the top 10 most buzzed about shows were

1. Marc Jacobs (nearly 323,000 followers)
2. Alexander Wang (~28,500 followers)
3. Prabal Gurung (~34,000 followers)
4. Michael Kors (~301,000 followers)
5. Jason Wu (~6,500 followers)
6. Rodarte (no official Twitter account)
7. Marc by Marc Jacobs
8. Diane von Furstenberg (~281,000 followers)
9. Rag & Bone (~26,000 followers)
10. Oscar de la Renta (~83,000 followers)

What’s interesting to note is that it seems that the number of followers didn’t always have an impact on a brand’s buzz. While the Marc Jacobs company account leads the other brands’ in raw follower numbers, relatively small accounts like Alexander Wang, Rag & Bone, Jason Wu and even those without a presence (Rodarte) still commanded a healthy amount of online attention.

We’re assuming this simply comes down to who’s tweeting being nearly as important as how many are tweeting.

Beyond the individual shows, it looks like certain trends resonated with those following the fashion action online. Feminine, retro and minimal styles were most buzzed about. When it comes to patterns – which were out in abundance at many shows, floral prints took the top spot; but if you bought into the stripes that dominated Prada and Marc Jacobs prints this summer, hang onto those pieces because stripes weren’t too far behind as the 2nd most buzzed about pattern. In spite of the frequency with which they occurred on fall runways, and how often you might see them popping up on red carpets, dots and spots only came in at number 5.

The entire New York Fashion Week trend brief is available at EDITD.

Tumblr's New York Fashion Week page is brought to you with no sponsored interruptions

The problem? Tumblr attracts plenty of likes, reblogs and attention around fashion content, but for fashion brand marketers and managers, there aren’t any tools to measure those thing. Add to that, Tumblr Fashion Director Rich Tong‘s client side manner has left a lot to be desired for some brands. BetaBeat first picked up on negative reactions to a  proposal circulating before Fashion Week that sought sponsorships when basic analytic and measurement tools are non-existent.

Tumblr’s response to Jeremy Cutler, who developed a popular suite of browser based add-ons for Tumblr called Missing E, has been a lawsuit threatening to sue if the developer doesn’t pull his browser extension. {BetaBeat} In other words, Tumblr will get around to responding to user feature requests on its own time, and for those handling social media for fashion brands Tumblr time isn’t fast enough.

As you might imagine, when a sponsorship deck with pricing starting at $100,000 hit the desks of some of the same brands already frustrated with demonstrating the value of Tumblr, the response wasn’t exactly favorable. {Mashable}

Raman Kia, who handles the accounts of brands like Net-a-Porter and Lacoste as Head of Digital Marketing for Starworks, took to his blog to explain:

“We invited Tumblr to a meeting with one of our clients. I am not in a position to reveal any names but I can assure you that this brand is one of the largest online retailers of luxury fashion globally… So, it came as a surprise to my client that the person representing Tumblr at this meeting had no idea who my client was. Let me just put this in perspective: This is one of the biggest retailer of luxury fashion in the world (did I already say that?) – and probably one of the most reputable and prestigious. Itâ€s like saying I am the Director of Automotive but Iâ€ve never heard of BMW or Mercedes!

In the second instance, for another highly known fashion retailer, after an event was negotiated and agreed upon with Tumblr and our brand had put time and resources into planning the event, Tumblr simply pulled out and gave the event to another brand that they preferred to work with. What made this worst was the manner in which we the agency and the client were treated. It was more like a politicians [sic] denying a sex scandal in the face of clear evidence. In this case, even when presented with proof of the agreement we were told that the proof was not proof.” {the Social Warrior}

Daniel Saynt, the blog founder turned marketing director of Rebecca Minkoff, had a more favorable opinion of Tong.

“I remember reaching out to Rich once I found out he had joined the Tumblr Team,” he says. “I remembered his work with Weardrobe.com and was interested in finding out how Tumblr was going to engage with fashion. He reached out to me right away and hosted me at the Tumblr offices to discuss projects with Rebecca Minkoff. He was helpful and attentive, he answered back emails and we were able to host 20 Tumblr bloggers at the Rebecca Minkoff Fall 2012 fashion show.”

Saynt says that he gets “that people are angry about not feeling included in Tumblr’s larger plans, but exclusivity is intrinsic to the fabric of this industry. To hear brands, the same types of brands that were slow to embrace bloggers in the beginning, complain about not being able to ‘get into’ the inner circle of Tumblr seems ironic.”

Nevertheless Tumblr’s New York Fashion Week page and Fashion tag page, which were available for sponsorship at $150,000 and $350,000 respectively, are notably sponsor free.

Anna Sui's furry cat hat. Image via Style.com

Animal print clothing is classy, trendy right now and a nice way to switch up your style if you typically stick to neutrals and want to indulge in a pattern every so often, but Anna Sui may have taken the animal-as-clothing thing a bit too far. Last Wednesday at Lincoln Center, Sui sent a few models down the runway in giant cat hats. {FocusOnStyle}

Fashionista is reporting that the cat hats will be available at Suiâ€s SoHo store this fall for about $205. If you love crazy hats or you are really into the feline thing, one of these hats may not be a bad investment. The cat hat looks really warm and it completely covers the ears, which is important for staying toasty when the weather gets cold. We do worry, though, that itâ€s one of those things that works on the runway but not in real life unless you happen to be Lady Gaga. Or a junior high school student participating in spirit week.

Get ready to retire your skinny jeans and say hello to a fresh fall style this year. Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending Tory Burchâ€s Fall 2011 runway show as part of New York Fashion Week, and the designer delivered a ‘70s style collection with looks for work, weekend and evening.

The show was dominated by 70s-inspired pants with super wide legs in camels, plaids and prints and also featured models with center-parted,unfussy tresses that recalled the decade. Some of the models also wore red leather boots, grey stockings and blouses ruffled at the neck.

Our favorite look (which, according to Twitter, is one of Toryâ€s favorites too!) was a matching camel and navy print ensemble with, of course, wide leg pants and a blouse with matching scarf. Our other favorite? A black lace top and super flare leg pants with layers of shimmering  detailing at the collar, cuff and hem that was the perfect blend of ’70s inspiration and modernity.

According to show notes, Burch was going for something currently American with touches of English country. We certainly got that vibe from the furry parkas and previously mentioned blouses and tights that were mixed with of-the-moment trends like sequins and lace.

Overall, Burch stayed true to her signature styles while coming up with a fresh set of looks. Almost makes us want to rush through summer to next fall so we can wear the clothes. Almost.

This weekend Signature9 attended Diet Pepsiâ€s Style Studio event in SoHo as part of New York Fashion week, and we have to say we were a bit disappointed with the whole thing. The night promised to include designs by Jonathan Adler, a Diet Pepsi “Skinny Bar” and most importantly a window display by Barneys†Simon Doonan, who was recently moved from being their creative director to “creative ambassador at large.”

The window creation Doonan produced for Diet Pepsi was somewhat impressive. It featured a giant high heel made of the new Diet Pepsi skinny cans (which wonâ€t hit retail shelves until March) as well as an equally large Diet Pepsi skinny can, also made out of regular-sized skinny cans. Both were pretty cool by themselves and must have taken quite a lot of work, but overall we got more of a tart than art vibe from the whole setting. The models working the display were dressed in just a t-shirt, panties and fishnets, and the giant shoe was stripper-heel style, though we do have to give props to the models for being able to balance on a platform made of soda cans. A model laid out on a chaise lounge was also sprawled by the front door, but it came off as cheap rather than eccentric chic.

The interior decorating was classier, but less creative, as it consisted basically of a few white flowers stuck in Diet Pepsi skinny cans throughout the room. There were also apparently special straws by Adler in the Diet Pepsi skinny cans that were served, but we really didnâ€t notice anything special just from drinking from them. Maybe weâ€re oblivious, but we thought they were just colorful.

Most of the headlines and blog posts about the Diet Pepsi Style Studio are actually about Blake Livelyâ€s attendance at the event, not the event itself, which pretty much says it all about just how memorable the night was.

We must say though, if Diet Pepsi is angling to replace Diet Coke as the fashionistaâ€s drink of choice, as many speculated a few weeks ago, they might have more of a chance than we initially predicted. The event was buzzing with fashion types, and Gabrielle Union, Rachel Roy and Lala Vazquez made an appearance in addition to Lively. The brand also partnered with Charlotte Ronson and Betsey Johnson for promotions. Plus, as an official sponsor of Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week, Diet Pepsi was very present in the main tent at Lincoln Center where we didn’t see one Diet Coke. There is work needed on the uptown class part of the campaign, but diet drink loyalty from the fashion set does seem to be up for a Pepsi challenge.

It’s not just the designers with the dressed down cool aesthetic like Alexander Wang, or rising stars like Sophie Theallet though; the open embrace of the fashion tech set is a large part of how the fashion week schedule at Milk Studio has risen to take on the tents.

Jennine Jacob’s twice-a-year Evolving Influence conference kicked things off, and a combination of video, blogs and tweets have propelled it forward as the closest thing to an Internet Fashion Week that we’ve seen so far.

Milk Made LIVE is a collaboration between M.A.C. Cosmetics, Milk Studios and The Standard, New York that brings video from Livestream, notes from Tumblr and brief quips from Twitter together in one online place for those who can’t make it to New York or just want to participate by proxy.

In the past four days since it went live, the Tumblr-based site has generated:

• 8,500 notes (reblogs and likes)
• Approximately 900,000 note impressions
• 80,000 page views
• 9,000 unique viewers and 280,000 viewer minutes for Alexander Wang and Altuzarra’s livestreamed shows alone

Tumblr has openly committed to focusing on the fashion content that drives a significant portion of its traffic, and the response to Milk Made seems to confirm the wisdom of that decision.

Of course we’re far past the point where social media as part of Fashion Week is new, but the concerted effort to centralize the responses and interaction for an always on Fashion Week destination feels fresh. More important, for designers who can sometimes struggle with how to make those interactions work at an individual level, it’s a value add that the tents don’t have.

Part of that comes from the approach. For IMG, any publicity – including livestreaming or a social strategy – are completely left to the designer. For brands that operate through a tightly controlled PR machine, that’s actually a huge “pro,” so it’s not something everyone will see as a problem. For medium and smaller labels though, the collective extra effort towards online and social promotion that MAC and Milk offer could easily be an advantage that sees a further shift in the lineup of both locations.

Whether it’s from the front row or in front of a computer screen, we’ll be watching.

I attended the very first fashion week ever held at Bryant Park as a design student at Parsons School of Design. It had just been cleaned out of its drug dealers. A few XXX peep-show theaters still lined 42nd street.

So with a new venue officially christened, and a new season around the corner, how did it stack up to Bryant Park and what did I learn from the first time at Lincoln Center?

Dig out your invitations, New York Fashion Week won't let a little snow stop the show

Print everything last minute

Most of the shows used Fashion GPS. This was a sanity saver. You scanned your e-mail confirmation and little receipts came popping out. Unfortunately, like all technology, there were glitches. You couldnâ€t check in until 30 minutes before the scheduled start time.

This saved a lot of the chaos associated with Bryant Park tents as it cut down on the lineup. It also made it more difficult for stalkers and show-crashers. That doesnâ€t mean they didnâ€t try, and occasionally succeed, of course.

For many shows, seating assignments were not given until several hours before the show. If you had your original e-mail, the scan code may not have been current that day.

There was only one laptop set up to print. If you had an emergency, your best bet was to use the business centers of the nearby Empire Hotel or Kinkoâ€s at Central Park South.

Unfortunately, I didnâ€t learn until the last day that those with media credentials could scan at a different counter. It would spit out your entire dayâ€s worth of show receipts.

Patience is a virtue

It did not matter if you had a front-row seat. All seated guests were wrangled in a pen. Standing-room only guests were wrangled in a separate pen. Donâ€t panic. You will not miss your show. Average starting time was about 29 minutes after the show time listed on the invitation.

Supermodel Veronica Webb was asked to wait in the seated guestâ€s line outside of the Christian Siriano show. She was polite and did so graciously before being ushered into the venue by staff. Ms. Webb gave a new standard to “model” behavior.

On the flip side, please donâ€t scream and throw a tantrum at exhausted security personnel. They donâ€t care who you are. They donâ€t care about fashion. The really donâ€t care about the fact that you are best friends the designerâ€s intern. Throwing a diva fit while doing a poor imitation of the “Jersey Shore” cast will only get you thrown out. I personally witnessed this outside of the Richie Rich show.

Which brings me to:

Behave With Class

In the 1990â€s, Fashion Week was about being “fierce”. Attitude or bravado got you everywhere.

The Upper West Side location of Lincoln Center however, brought new expectations on decorum. Nothing gave away a newbie than the rabid swag-snatcher. The adult woman dressed in a prom dress, carrying three DHL bags, five copies of Daily Front Row and a Mercedes-Benz catalog will not be invited backstage.

While Fashion GPS made it a little more difficult for gate-crashers, it did not mean you didnâ€t have a chance to make the show. The new civility of PR teams dictated that they would accommodate a few people for standing room when possible. If you waited politely for the other guests to be seated, designerâ€s reps would likely assign you a last-minute entry. If there were a LOT of people competing for a few standing spots, who do you think the rep would choose? The rude, self-entitled lout or the smiling, appreciative guest?

Know Your Venues

The biggest venue was “The Theater”, then “The Stage”, next the “Studio” and last, “The Box”. Knowing that “The Studio” can only hold a limited amount of standing-room guests might save you some time if you are choosing which show to wait around for.

Almost all shows in “The Box” were presentations where models posed exhibition style. All patrons were listed as “standing”. This meant that this show was not worth your energy to insist to the PR rep that you were promised front row. This also meant that arriving towards the end of the presentation would mean significantly less wait time than those who arrived early.

Bring Survival Gear

Thatâ€s right; you will be standing a LOT. There was limited seating and lots of waiting. While wearing comfortable shoes is a contradiction to the Fashion Week dress code, I could not have made it through the week without my City Slips. They are foldable ballet slippers that pack into a tiny pouch. When it was time to switch the shoes, the pouch unfolded into a tote for my Louboutins.

It was COLD. Wherever I sat, wherever I stood, I was under a vent. The absence of a hot coffee vendor (anyone else miss McCafe?) did not help. Bring a scarf! Itâ€s also an easy fashion statement when the rest of your ensemble is practical. Gift bags at the Temperley London show included their Aztec print scarf. That may be the best swag I have ever received in my life. With the current temperatures and predicted continuance of winter weather, I can only hope other designers are keeping the weather in mind as well.

Bring business cards. All the huddled wait time gave you ample opportunities to network. It was time to bring the social to social media. I saw the same people at other shows. Giving attitude to them at one show only to be smashed into them the next is just awkward. Make friends. If you are an avid fashion reader, you would find that you were familiar with many peopleâ€s work already.

You need a good camera. If you donâ€t have the budget for the professional models, at least have a good digital that takes successive photos… Trust me.

Have an Escape Route

Shows from 9 am to 10 pm? Thatâ€s exhausting. If you donâ€t have the luxury of minions to divvy up shows with, you need to take a break. The Performing Arts library is a sanctuary in contrast to the thumping base of the tents.

Stroll down to the Hudson River for fresh air. The Empire Hotel wonâ€t get you too much privacy, but the sexy lighting gives you a change of scenery. The same goes for Hudson Hotel. The most serene café options in the vicinity would be Le Pain Quotidien and Argo Tea.

Overall, I loved the new location. I have fond memories of Bryant Park, but have grown to embrace the new.  Bearing in mind lessons learned from last season’s shows, I’m ready for Fall 2011. Are you?

It’s official, for Spring 2011 white is the new black. Natural tones are the way to go year and the sensible and classy looks we saw strutting the runways at Mercedes-Benz Fashion week showcased just how red hot head-to-toe white can be.

The photos above are of nine different white looks from designers’ SS11 presentations and shows at Lincoln Center in Manhattan for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. This past week has flown by and the shows are getting great reviews. Clearly white is in for both men (at Lacoste) and women (at nearly every other show) next year as the crisp, clean shade is seen repeatedly on the catwalk.

We are intrigued by the range in proportion, drape and silhouette throughout the collections and the diversity in fabric and detail make for a really classically-dressed season.

Just some of the designers offering head-to-toe white ensembles in their Spring/Summer 2011 collections include Victoria Beckham, BCBG Max Azria, Doo-Ri, Christian Siriano, Frank Tell, Jen Kao, Calvin Klein, Julian Louie, Nicole Miller, Mandy Coon, Peter Som, Rag & Bone, Band of Outsiders, Jill Stuart, Lacoste, Rebecca Minkoff, Ports 1961, Prabal Gurung and Derek Lam.

On September 11th at New York Fashion Week, Madden debuted his first high-end collaboration for the Spring/Summer 2011 Z Spoke show for Zac Posen at Lincoln Center. The collection is truly unique and the sky-high, strappy numbers are fit for an eclectic and bold fashionista!

Making their Fashion Week debut, Madden’s shoes included metallic green (left) as well as black sky-high platform sandals with ankle straps and buckles, black peep-toe stiletto lace-up ankle booties, and ladylike lavender pumps with wicked heels. The line was made especially for the runway so it is unlikely we will see mall-goers rocking these elite styles- but we have no doubt that the man known for knockoffs will jump at the opportunity to reinterpret his own designs (at least he won’t have to worry about legal fees). {Stylelist}

Even model Ataui Deng wobbled in the tipsy footwear and fell victim to Fashion Week’s first tumble on the runway. {Refinery 29}

Tell us what you think about Steve Madden’s luxury footwear collaboration! Would you rock these styles?