Guest Post By Madeline Veenstra

On March 12, I attended Portable Presents Refinery 29, at the The Edge in Brisbane, where founder Philippe von Borries and style director, Piera Gelardi of Refinery 29, discussed the future of online retail, the role of social media and the new direction in fashion reporting and business. The event was part of the Portable Fashion Festival (March 15 – 21), a festival which explores the relationship between film, art, and fashion.

Refinery 29 is one of New York’s most forward thinking online fashion publications, and it’s one part global fashion guide and two parts fashion editorial. The site attracts close to one million unique visitors each month. In short, it’s no small fry in the fashion world.

With only $5000 to launch, they managed to introduce their site to the top designers and industry executives of the New York fashion world, interviewing Alexander Wang in his apartment and partnering with Yves St. Laurent and The Gilt Group.

Refinery 29 has created a unique, dynamic dialogue with consumers and their audience, shaping their content to their readers and being able to envisage trends. An out of the box approach to content and editorials have allowed Refinery29 to forge an important place for themselves among online fashion publications.  The digital publication understands the way that fashion is consumed is changing and designers would no longer have control over their brands if they didn’t participate in the online conversation.

Part of their success was their championing of independent stores and designers like Alexander Wang and Erin Fetherston. Their ability to develop unique relationships allows Refinery 29 to not only report on fashion but to allow designers to truly communicate and listen to their customers. In short, they have created a higher level of personalization and customization.

Fittingly, the event itself was a display of Refinery29′s forward thinking: there was a live stream of the event, and Creative Industries was the main sponsor.

Their discussion of upcoming trends in the online world was fascinating. Content, mobile, crowd-sourcing and location based services are the next wave of technologies that brands and publications must come to grips with. It seems that fashion is only getting more fast paced and if you are not adapting, you will miss the boat.

Furthermore, consumers can sense whether or not brands are using social media well or not and they can sense effort and motivation.  Consumers are savvy enough to tell whether advertisements are well-made or not.  Case in point are some of the innovative new films that brands are making (and which Portable showcased in the festival), which are geared towards a technologically-savvy and the artistic-oriented – an audience that might normally distrust or be put off by a traditional commercial advertisement.

Many of these films eschew in-your-face branding and opt for a subtle, artistic appeal.  The film for Halston’s 2009 Autumn/Winter collection, which features Dree Hemingway,  is one example:

Halston A/W 2009 from Mark Kirby on Vimeo.

About The Author

Madeline Veenstra is the co-founder of Wikifashion, the online fashion encyclopaedia. She is also the founder of Lola Public Relations, a boutique firm specializing in online branding and pr for fashion, beauty and lifestyle labels.

Photo Courtesy of Wire Image. Melbourne Fashion Week.