Fashion designer crowdsources design combinations for the catwalk

Telfar Clemens has used crowdsourcing to determine his New York Fashion Show collection through the TELFAR Style app.

Handing over creative control to the consumer is something that online fashion store Cut On Your Bias has tried before, and now designer Telfar Clemens has used crowdsourcing to determine his New York Fashion Show collection through the TELFAR Style app. Available through the DIS magazine website, the app presented fans of the brand with a virtual mannequin, onto which they could place their choice of items that appear in Telfar’s Fall/Winter 2013 collection. After dressing up their model and deciding on item colors, users saved their outfit suggestion to the TELFAR Style Archive and shared it on Facebook. Other users could then vote for their favorite designs and the winners’ choices provided the basis for the Telfar show during New York Fashion Week. Giving fans a chance to participate in the fashion process provides a memorable experience, priming consumers for brand engagement and potential sales. It’s also a good test to see what the market really wants. How else can companies integrate customers’ ideas into the product design process? Spotted by: Murray Orange