Tumblr is Sending 20+ Bloggers to New York Fashion

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News, The Business Tumblr is Sending 20+ Bloggers to New York Fashion Week By Lauren Sherman Wednesday, Jan 5, 2011 / 4:56 PM GMT -5
What I Wore's Jessica Quirk

Tumblr, the image-heavy platform beloved by top fashion bloggers like Tavi Gevinson and Jessica Quirk (What I Wore), is focusing more of its energy on the fashion industry.
In fact, it’s sending more than 20 of its bloggers to New York Fashion Week. Participating Tumblrs include What I Wore; Peace, Love, Chanel; SaraZucker.com. About eight hail from New York, but the rest will be flown in for the nine-day event. They’ll receive complimentary flights, accommodation, and will be whisked off to lunches, dinners, and cocktails with a roster of to-be-confirmed brands and designers. And of course they’ll receive access to several New York Fashion Week shows, says Rich Tong, Tumblr’s newly-annointed fashion director. (Specific shows are also yet-to-be confirmed.) They’ll also be attending the the Independent Fashion Bloggers’ conference, the Bloglovin awards, and an end-of-week party. To make the bloggers’ coverage of events and shows even more visible, Tumblr will host a real-time feed of their content at Tumblr.com/nyfw, mixed in with content from other “media partners.”
Tumblr hired Tong–founder of user-generated street style site Weardrobe–in December. He launched Weardrobe in 2007 and sold it to Like.com in 2009. (Which in turn sold itself to Google in 2010.)
Why does Tumblr need a fashion director? And why do they need to send 20 bloggers–not five or six–to New York Fashion Week? According to Tong,Red Bull Hats, it’s all about the demographic. Tumblr’s fashion bloggers aren’t just personal style bloggers–most are more driven by editorials, runway images, and product shots. “They’re inspiration-based blogs,” says Tong. “They’re not all taking photos of themselves.” And Tumblr fashion bloggers–who Tong says are re-blogged quite a bit–prove valuable to brands. (In case you’re not that familiar with Tumblr, re-blogging other people’s posts is a big part of the experience. And the more you’re reblogged, the more important you are on the Tumblr totem pole.)
“I’ve never seen a community with such an appetite for content,” says Tong. “They just love looking at photos. If you give them 100, they want 1,000.” For brands who want their products, editorials, and other marketing initiatives to go viral on the internet, Tumblr seems like a good platform. See you guys at Fashion Week.