NEW YORK — Made, the new name for the MAC & Milk fashion shows, has entered its fifth season with a full slate of events, fashion shows and presentations, as well as a host of big-name sponsors.
In addition to a redesigned Web site, milkmade.com, which launched Thursday, there are new partnerships with Lexus, American Express and LG Electronics Mobile Communications Co., and representation by Hollywood powerhouse Creative Artists Agency. Other sponsors include Aldo, Blue Bottle Coffee, Kanon Organic Vodka, Leica Camera, Livestream, The Standard New York, True Religion Apparel Inc. and Vimeo.
In an interview at Milk Studios with Made co-directors Mazdack Rassi, co-founder and creative director of Milk Studios; Jenné Lombardo, global fashion director of W Hotels, and Keith Baptista, senior vice president, production at KCD, the executives spoke about Made’s mission and what they hope to accomplish with the added support. “It’s physically no different. We’re pretty much on autopilot,” said Rassi. While MAC Cosmetics remains the exclusive makeup sponsor and “is still an important part of the program,” Made has broadened its reach to new partners to build on the program and ensure its longevity.
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“We need to evolve this into a more substantial program. We dissolved the Milk & Mac name,” said Baptista. Asked why they chose the name Made, Rassi said they were looking for a name with movement. “Made had motion, and it represented us,” he said.
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Throughout the week, some 40 fashion shows and presentations will take place at Milk Studios and The Standard hotel. Fourteen will be runway shows and 27 are presentations. In addition, Made Fashion Week will highlight events such as a Larry Clark photo exhibition; the Alexander Wang after party, and a panel discussion on “Technology — How Fashion Communicates.” The Independent Fashion Blogger Conference, which took place Wednesday, was also part of Made Fashion Week. All this activity is intended to expand Made into a year-round platform for emerging design talent, as well as other innovators.
In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, Mitch Grossbach, an executive at CAA, said he’s been working with Made for the past several months. CAA plans to connect these designers with brands and media. He said Made would continue to focus on the creative end of things, while CAA would augment that with bringing third-party brand opportunities and media to the table. These would be in the worlds of digital, television and social media. “Our focus is to help the Made platform grow as a property. It’s not as much about individual designers, but more about the Milk and Made team and creating long-term strategic and meaningful opportunities,” said Grossbach.
He said CAA has a wealth of blue-chip brands, and relationships with executive vice presidents and chief marketing officers who are looking for integrative opportunities. “They come to CAA and ask us to introduce us to those opportunities. Milk is a 365-day functioning business. There’s a ton of activity that happens all year. It makes for fantastic content that can occur all year long. We’ll be bringing those executives to the property over the next few weeks,” he said.
By expanding its reach, Made will work with its sponsors provide opportunities to the design community on a year-round basis. “It’s not a sponsorship. It’s a partnership. It’s really about, ‘How do you get involved to benefit the fashion community?’” said Baptista. To be sure, certain amenities are slated exclusively for fashion week. For example, Lexus will have a fleet of 10 cars for showgoers to go uptown. They will also have a special concierge number that VIPs can call for rides. LG, the mobile phone company, sponsored the fashion and technology panel, and American Express offers show tickets to key customers.
It’s all getting to sound very much like Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, owned by IMG, but the Made officials insist there’s no rivalry.
“One of the things people don’t realize is there’s no cost for the space,” said Rassi. Generally, a fashion show could cost a designer anywhere from $75,000 to $500,000 and upwards, said Baptista. At Made, the space is provided for free, as well as the makeup, seating, lighting and sound. The only expenses for the designer are a music person, models, a hair person and collection-related expenses. “Still a lot of people don’t know that this program is an incredible launch pad to help those designers,” said Rassi. “There’s this whole idea out there that perhaps there’s a competition between uptown and downtown. There is none. We don’t compete with each other. We’re a completely different idea.”
Asked if Made Fashion Week makes money, Rassi said that all the money from sponsorships is poured back into the designers and the program. “We’ve never been a for-profit model,” said Rassi. While it’s a much more expensive proposition uptown, IMG wouldn’t be in the fashion-show business if it wasn’t making money, said sources.
The Made principals said they would like to take Made Fashion Week to Paris and tap into the emerging design community there.
Lombardo said Made Fashion Week had implications beyond the walls of Milk Studios, impacting local businesses and instituting an educational outreach program. Students from Parsons The New School for Design work behind-the-scenes at the fashion shows and presentations. Shows are Livestreamed on milkmade.com. This season, accessories and men’s wear will also be getting a bigger play at Made, said Lombardo.
“We used to be a photography studio,” said Rassi. “Today it’s more of a media company that has space. It’s really about content and creativity. That’s what Milk does every day.”