OH where shall I start with this weeks Fashion Night Out? well actually I would like to start by talk about the move of Fashion Week in New York from Bryant Park to the Lincoln Center. It seems to have been a pretty smooth transition. The space is very professional looking and well laid out, unlike the grubby marquees that we are all used to. But I say that with tongue in cheek and not really meant the way it was said. We all got excited when we went to the tents amongst the fashion district of 36th – 40th streets of New York and having to clamber to get our seats on the make shift scaffolding was all part of the fun.

So here are some lovely pictures of yours truly on the First day of Fashion week September 2010.

New York Times Front Row

FNO T-Shirts for sale

I was one of the lucky ones that bought a FNO T-Shirt limited edition, whatever that means as they were all limited editions, but hey ho before the stock was stolen! how sad is that as they were for charity. I feel that whoever you are out there that stole them shame on you!

Maybelline are the official sponsors of the shows and they give away everyday a certain ammount of products. They invited me to their stand and here I am on the pink sofa, fit for a Princess!

Maybelline Pink Sofa

I think the highlight of the fashion shows has to be this magnificent dress by DHL, yes you heard it the ‘Get it to your door in less than 2 months’ delivery firm! (that is a story for another day) I guess you could call it ‘Bubble wrap me and ship me’ it sure gives a whole new meaning to bondage.

Bubble Wrap Me and Ship Me

OK, OK you waited long enough so here it is, the official night of izzi bag at New York’s Fashion Night out. Here we go, brace yourself and I hope you are sitting comfortably with a large glass of something in your hand you are going to need it….

izzi and I set off from our Mid Town, Manhattan Pent House and walked the few blocks to Macy’s one of my fav shops in New York. I am FYI wearing a Rachel Roy knitted fringed dress and my ummm very expensive new boots, no names mentioned  (Shush I told izzi that I got them in M&S). For those of you in the US this is Marks & Spencers..I am so glad to be wearing them as I constantly watch girlies tripping and falling in their high heels. I have been there lovelies so with my over the knee sox I am raring to go. Bring it on….

Fashion Night Out Starts Here

As we enter Macy’s Ground Floor izzi gets almost bowled over by Anna Wintour who is officially ‘leaving the building’ I thought her body guards (Pleeeeeze) were going to take izzi out before the night even started. She was driven away in her famous dark sunglasses in the blacked out SUV. I had better luck as I  bumped into Elton John, well actually that isn’t quite true, I did see his boots though, what do you think, will they ever make a come back? I am all for flying the flag..

Elton John's Boots

So we move around the store and I see that the Givenchy counter is being mobbed because Justin Timberlake had signed only 10 bottles of their new fragrance called PLAY and I asked one of the sales assistants to trot off and get me one of them as I couldn’t possibly be expected to push my way through this mob! (Do they know who I am ?) and guess what the lovely man did just that! so I am now the proud owner of a bottle of limited edition PLAY signed by Justin Timberlake and just to prove it here it is and duly signed. Offers in writing please and make it quick as I might just have to have a little tester.

Justin Timberlake

Well things then get a little bit annoying in my opinion, I went off to the 2nd floor poor izzi in tow (I am at this point feeling sorry for him, but not for much longer – read on!) I really wanted to meet Rachel Roy as I wear her clothes all the time and as you may recall above I mentioned I am supporting her tonight. Humpf, but she had so many body guards around her, you would have thought she was the Queen of Sheba. I was most annoyed as she wouldn’t let anyone get anywhere near her and her hangers on were actually so rude. She lost a customer – ME !

I'm Off

Well then I decided to go and see Rebecca Moses, she has just written a new book which I already have a copy of called ‘ A life of Style’ but I bought another copy as of course mine is neatly tucked in my book cabinet at home. Rebecca signed the book and here is what she wrote in it ‘ Dear Anne, To a very stylish lady, may the spirit of style keep you alive, Love Rebecca’ she was very endearing and she said she was looking forward to seeing me at her show later in the week. Bless her what a total difference from the previous DIVA !

Rebecca Moses & Anne

Ok so here it is and I now do not feel sorry for izzi anymore as his Man Flu of the last 3 days has suddenly disappeared and he is the fittest, healthiest man on the planet as he drags me to the 8th floor to meet, yes you got it JLO !

Words cannot express his face so just see for yourself!

Anne, JLO and izzi

JLO was so lovely and had time to speak to anyone and everyone that came to see her, I bought her new perfume called Love and Glamour and I am sure that once izzi gets back to planet earth from that little JLO Heaven he has been to for the last few hours he will enjoy smelling it on me.

I then dragged him off, but before we managed to leave the store Macy’s asked if they could photograph me for their FNO picture Library so here it is. I was very honored.

One Mighty Drop Fragrance at Macy's

As we were leaving the store, of course now everyone wants a picture, they obviously thought I was famous after the Macy’s picture so here I am posing with the Spiegel girls who were so funny. Thanks to you guys for asking me to have a picture with you.

izzi, Spiegel girls and Anne

izzi and I eventually managed to leave Macy’s reluctantly on part, I have to say because I spend far to much time and money in there, my fav New York Store. I want to tell you Brits a little secret, because if you go to their customer relations desk on the Mezzanine level before you start to shop you can  save 10% on all purchases as you are from out of town! worth remembering.

We shot off for a quick stop to Lord & Taylor as I wanted to see Wendy Williams but she had hot footed it out of the building as quickly as she arrived. So we missed her and although I would possibly have liked to linger on the 1st Floor with the NYFD, of course izzi wasn’t interested in anything else now or was he?

I had promised to visit my good friend Dickey at Hair Rules before we called it a night and so we quickly grabbed a cab. Actually to be honest we commandeared it, because the driver told us he was on his way home to celebrate the end of Ramadan, but he decided to be a good guy and take us to 54th & 9th to the salon. Big tip went his way.

We arrived at Hair Rules and it was rocking in there, Kara Young, Dickey’s partner was there you may remember her she was a cover girl and I have to say that she is absolutely stunning, beautiful, all the things I had heard about her.

Kara Young & Anne

I cannot miss out my Gorg hair stylist Dickey, he is such a good friend and he has changed my hair in the last 6 months to be the softest it has ever been and in the best condition. I really believe in his products and if you are a twitter fan you will have read that we give a lot away on his behalf. So log into twitter and follow us if you would like to have hair like mine. @hairrules and @izzibag

Dickey, Anne & Katria

I was absolutely stunned to see Russell Simmons sitting in the salon sipping a drink. I mean a guy that invented Hip Hop Def Jam sitting right there in front of me. I nearly fainted I mean this guy is a legend.

Anne with Russell Simmons

Two of the most important people in the salon are Katiria and Monique who take such good care of me and I had to mention them. I love you dolls.

Monique your blow out's are the best

Katria gives me sun kissed looks

So here it is, the end of the evening and how else would we choose to finish it but with a fellow Londoner. Estelle, what a lovely lady and so down to earth I so enjoyed meeting you.

Anne & Estelle

As I said would izzi ever top his evening and sure he did…

izzi & Estelle

Well FNO September 2010 came to a close and what a night, I am so blessed to live my life and meet the great people I do. OK so feet back on the ground let’s have a cup of tea.

How I Did It

Anne Agoren, owner of UK / NYC based izzi Bag, shows how to build a brand over Twitter. Lauren Parker finds that life is indeed tweet.

Tweeting her way to success here’s a story a little bird told us:

izzi bag on Twitter

Out of the 17 million users on Twitter, 250,000 were nominated for the Shorty Awards—an international “Oscars” for those who live their life out loud on Twitter in 140- character blurbs. Of those 250,000 nominated, a year-old,  little-known English handbag company named izzi Bag made it to the top six in the “Brands” category—the only fashion brand nominated. izzi was up against brands like Whole Foods and ultimately lost to Sesame Street. Heard of them? Here, izzi Bag owner/designer Anne Agoren—who wisely moonlights as a social media strategist—tells Accessories her David and Goliath tale.

‘Are you listening? Because your competitors are. You need to join the conversation— because it’s going on with or without you.”

@accessoriesmag: So how did you get into the top six? Do you have 86,000 followers like Sesame Street? Or 4.7  million followers like Ashton Kutcher?

@izzibag: I have 2,000 followers and was nominated by one of them. You aren’t allowed to nominate yourself.  Actually, I did lose some points after showing someone via Twitter how to nominate me since he was having trouble and asked for help.

AM: You only have 2,000 followers?

AA: That’s one of the biggest misnomers for brand promotion. More is not better. It’s  about quality, not quantity. I have 2,000 of the right followers. They spread my word to their followers. There are lots of sites where you can buy 50,000 followers but they’re not relevant to your brand. Don’t do it. You’ll start getting spam and your important—and legitimate—followers will stop following you. Protect your brand reputation.

AM: How do you get started using Twitter?

AA: My techie husband pushed me into it to help build my budding brand. I was so resistant to Twitter—saying I didn’t understand it, that I didn’t have enough time, and so on. Now I’m a Twitter addict. I use it to promote my blog (blog.izzibag.com), to talk about things that are happening to me, and to strategically promote the brand. I realized the power of Twitter early on—I ran a Twitter competition where the first 10 people who went to one of my retailers on Bond Street got a $40 keychain. Suddenly, a rush of people went to that store. It was apparent it was working.

AM: Did you launch your brand and tweet about it simultaneously?

AA: I launched izzi Bag with no customers, no retailers, no e-tailers. So I used Twitter and the blog to find those small stores that I wouldn’t even know about. The goal was to get retailers talking about us. To build that buzz.

AM: Do you think that too many brands don’t take Twitter seriously enough?

AA: You need to join the conversation—because it’s going on without you. The most important thing I say to companies is  ‘Are you listening?’ Because if you’re not, your competitors are. On Twitter, you can read every tweet that mentions your brand—good and bad—and respond if you want. It’s important to join the conversation.

Bag Lady -Anne of izzi bag

AM: What do you tweet about?

AA: I come here a lot so I write about my life as an English person in New York. I write about the journey of building izzi  Bag. Yes I’m a brand but I’m also human. People want to relate to you. It makes them want to buy your product.

AM: Do you use Twitter to show your bags?
AA: I use Twitpic to upload images, but often I link a Twitter entry to my blog so people can see more there. There are so many tools that are all free, from Twitpic to Tweetdeck, which helps you manage Twitter better.

AM: Do you tweet all day?

AA: No, but my followers are passionate! When I slow down, they start with the ‘Where’s izzi Bag?’ ‘Did something happen to izzi Bag?’ They miss me! I’d say 60% of my tweets are relevant to my brand. The rest are relevant to other people — recommendations of things to check out, or I pass along information I read on Twitter.

AM: Ah, so you’re a re-tweeter?
AA: In many cases, yes. You can retweet (i.e. RT) something that one of your followers post. It’s good will and keeps the conversation going.

AM: Did building buzz on Twitter in the U.S. and UK give you immediate international cred?

AA: I was able to simultaneously connect with retailers worldwide—all for free, and all with the power of social media.

AM: Has Twitter gotten you free publicity?

AA: The Australian news show equivalent of “60 Minutes” found me on Twitter. They sent a crew to New York and filmed me for a day-long documentary. Later, they flew the reporters back to New York to get additional footage because they wanted to extend the segment! That publicity didn’t cost me one cent. And although it aired in Australia, I was able to post it on my blog and tweet about it, and still get local (and worldwide) exposure. Again, for free. Take a look at the video SundayNight Live.

AM: How does a brand prevent a tweeter from posing as them and saying something bad?
AA: It’s important to control the conversation. You can be verified by Twitter (celebrities do it), and you’ll get a blue check next to your brand’s name/avatar. That way the Twitter community knows it’s authentically you.

AM: But it must be a little bit tempting to bash your competition on Twitter…

AA: Never do that! If you report another company for spam, for example, the Twitter police will shut them down while they investigate, so you really must follow business ethics. I will unfollow people if they don’t “keep it clean.” That’s my one rule.

AM: What about companies who say they don’t have time to tweet? Or skimp on the resources to hire someone who can?

AA: Social media should not replace your existing business structure, but it must be integrated with what you have in place. Just as a brand has a PR, branding and advertising budget, it must have a social media budget.

AM: What if the company owner, or designer doesn’t want to tweet personally?
AA

: The person doing the tweeting or blogging must have a passion and understanding of the brand and its objective. They should write in the “voice” of the brand.

AM: What are some great Twitter branding anectodes?
AA: There were some people in the Empire State building tweeting that it was so hot and they wished they had ice cream, but they were too busy to run out and get some. An ice cream truck picked up the conversation on Twitter and sent over a truck to give them free ice cream! The story got picked up on the international news. You can’t buy that sort of publicity!

AM: So what were the Shorty Awards like?

Shorty Awards Diva Fit - No Sesame Street Here !

AA: First of all, I pulled a Diva moment and while walking the Red Carpet I refused to be photographed with some of the puppets from Sesame Street. Then they beat me!

June 2010 – Accessories Magazine