FashionWeek: Where Clam Jams Collide Like Bubbles in Your Champagne

By Kaitlin Madden 

Although I sincerely appreciate a handout anywhere I can get one, lots of Fashion Week sponsors just didn’t get it this year. After seven days parading through a sea of high heels/models and having tube after tube of mascara shoved in my face (I’ve collected more schwag than your 8th grade pot dealer) it’s finally over. Oh look, two weed references. Click continued for the Fashion Week Free Crap rundown.


Chambord-while it makes for a great cocktail, their advertising strategy was pretty “bottom shelf.” When I walked into their little corner of The Tents, I saw a chocolate fountain with pound cake on skewers for dipping. And that is all I saw. Trying to get an advertising message across while putting chocolate in front of throngs of hungry women is like bringing your hottest friend to the bar when you’re trying to pick up a girl you like. You’re cock-blocking yourself. When I went back to study the Chambord booth a little harder, I found out that they unveiled a $3 million bottle of the stuff at the Betsey Johnson show-which is actually an interesting story. Except that I totally missed it the first time due to a chocolate-induced mind fog, and by the time I went back the big unveiling was over.

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In other news, AOL had no clue what they were doing at Fashion Week. They sponsored a “Media Lounge” the size of Kate Moss, where sweaty members of the media were permitted to sit on top of each other on the floor while trying to out-blog one another, using the free-wifi that was NOT provided by Aol. It was amateur, annoying and stressful, kind of like Aol’s services these days. If it were the Google Media Lounge, there would have been air conditioning, free massages, and pony rides.

It was not all bad, though. One of the most effective marketing-angles I saw was done by O.N.E. water, which passed out samples of its coconut water to dehydrated fashionistas.

Mise en Scène:

Kaitlin, standing in line at 9:30 AM, a teeny bit hung over [teeny like a Mack-truck].

Girl from O.N.E. Water: “Would you like a coconut water?”

Kaitlin: “No, thanks” (I think it tastes like ass).

Girl: “It’s a great hangover cure.”

Kaitlin, promptly grabs an armful of coconut waters, later buys one more on the way home, despite the fact that it still tastes like ass.

Now that, is some honest and effective advertising.

More: Kings of Leon Parlays Ubiquity into Fashion Line

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