For the past three years, I’ve been intrigued with American Apparel’s diverse use of social media marketing to build relationships with their customers, increase brand exposure and convert their social marketing efforts into meaningful revenue.

Fashion brands are continually getting more creative with social media; American Apparel is the first – and only – fashion company to implement a digital to print lookbook collaboration orchestrated through social fashion websites.

American Apparel collaborated with fashion community site LOOKBOOK.nu to produce a 64-page print lookbook featuring LOOKBOOK.nu users styling and modeling their garments.

American Apparel, Crowdsourcing + Social Collaborations

American Apparel has an extensive history for social collaborations; last year, they created a series of ads with 3 members of Chictopia last year, held an in-store modeling call/shoot for customers during New York’s Fashion’s Night Out, and photographed style bloggers such as The Chic Muse in Mexico City and The Cherry Blossom Girl in Paris.

American Apparel Partners with LOOKBOOK.nu

“We were inspired by seeing stylish users from all over the world mix their aesthetic with ours, and that’s what pushed us to collaborate with LOOKBOOK.nu and its members on this project.” says spokeswoman, Michelle Lemay. “We’ve been working with style bloggers and fashion sites for quite a while now, so the LOOKBOOK.nu collaboration was an exciting natural next step.”

When LOOKBOOK.nu first launched, American Apparel was intrigued by the site’s content and fast growing community; their rapid growth led the brand to invest advertising dollars and feature their users on American Apparel’s site. This year, the brand wanted to increase its visibility and participation in the community, so it hosted a contest in which LOOKBOOK.nu members submitted photos featuring their favorite American Apparel pieces. Community members ended up creating over 7,000 looks using American Apparel basics.

The brand’s 132 favorites became The LOOKBOOK.nu Lookbook by American Apparel. While the brand’s main interest was showcasing this outside perspective on our garments, they also featured three LOOKBOOK.nu members. The cover models and centerfolds where brought to Los Angeles and worked with American’s creative team to create professional looks.

“What’s so crazy about this lookbook is that it’s almost entirely shot by someone other than us. We brought out 3 winners who got the experience of modeling for our creative team in LA but what we really tried to do was use our designers to put a spotlight on the great creative work of these users, ” says Lemay. “It’s a collection of 77 creative people who each have their own way of styling and interpreting our garments. That’s what we wanted to show.”

Social Promotion: The Role of Twitter, Facebook and Fashion Blogs

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