The App That’s Changing Fashion Week

Fashion Week is about coordinating show invites, seating charts, photos, and editorial samples — a process that got a lot easier this year thanks to an iOS app called Fashion GPS.

While its couture may be on the cutting edge, Fashion Week's tech has been slipping for some time. Often progressive as far as the arts and design, administratively the industry tends to be a bit on the messy side.

Fashion GPS steps in and takes a lot of the headache out of organizing events, streamlining the process for sending out the invites and dishing editorial samples. It is already used by a number of top names such as Marc Jacobs and Donna Karen, and its growing fast.

The app is currently used by over 12 thousand of the top designers, editors and influencers in the industry, and has earned itself a spot fashion events around the world.

Fashion Organized

About Fashion GPS Services from FashionGPS on Vimeo.

With Fashion GPS designers can send out invitations to shows, and see in real-time who has responded to them. The day of the event, that same RSVP list can be pulled up on an iPad to check people in.

As people respond, deisgners can use the guest list to create a seating chart for the big day. The seating chart can be controlled and changed in real time, so if someone doesn't show up –- or a VIP does -– assignments can be adjusted on the fly accordingly.

Fashion show attendees can use another app called Fashion Radar to keep track of all of their event invitations, get directions to the show, and access a virtual ticket to bypass the line to check in when they get there.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

One hour after each show, Fashion Radar users are given access to photos from that show. The company says that one hour time frame is crucial for the company and the insiders using the app. It recently started working with a company called Fashion Now to make the quick turn around a reality.

Editors can write notes on particular pieces to remember later, and share pictures on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr from directly within the app. Meant to be used as editorial images, bloggers can also pull the images to be used in posts about a particular line.

Once the show is over, brands can keep track of the social buzz surrounding their line, tracking what photos are most saved as well as what's popular on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

A site called GPS Styles lets fashion brands who might not even have a fashion show uploaded photos, offering the same functionality for editors and influencers.

Samples Simplified

Pictures in each gallery also have a "Request Sample" button, allowing editors to request a sample of a particular item to be included in an upcoming shoot or event. Tapping the button adds the item to a separate folder of items you'd like to request. Once you've collected everything you might need, all of your requests can be sent out with a single tap.

Requests can be made just hours after the show ends. Something that previously required taking notes, and requesting look books — a process that could take days or weeks rather than hours.

On the designer's end, each item of clothing they have has its own unique barcode. Designers can scan a particular piece using a separate app called GPS Samples, and send it out almost instantaneously. They can also easily track where that item is, and when it will be returned right from their iPad.

Why iOS?

Fashion GPS is especially passionate about using Apple products with its software, both for their stability and fashion-forward look.

"Over the years we have worked with different technologies but we enjoy working with Apple. With something as important and as tightly timed as a fashion show, nothing can go down so we trust them." Eddie Mullon, CEO & founder of Fashion GPS told Mashable.

"Their products are intuitive and robust. We've led the charge in the fashion industry's embrace of the iPad and its capacity to aid in visually telling a story. It's sort of like a slick, digital clipboard."

Fashion GPS wasn't the only iOS app hitting the runway during New York's Fashion Week. Twitter's Vine made its Fashion Week debut during this year's event; with many show goers creating short videos from their front row seats.

Several designers also caught using drawing app Paper to sketch out ideas from the runway.

What do you think about the iPad's new role on the runway? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Thumbnail Image Nina Frazier, Mashable; Screenshots fashion GPS; iPad FiftyThree