DKNY, Zac Posen and fashion public relations firm KCD are using special software to track samples traveling among editors, celebrities, the sample room and factories.
“Our samples are our most valuable asset,” said Susan Posen, chief executive officer of Zac Posen’s company, Outspoke LLC. “If we lose them, it’s huge for us.”
Outspoke uses Fashion GPS, from the New York company of the same name, to track samples for showroom sales, editorial loans, production and celebrity dressing. The company might have as many as 100 samples in play at any one time.
“A huge amount of resources and energy go into lending, tracking and maintaining the collection,” Posen said. “It always seemed to me there had to be some technology solution for this.”
Typically, a company would track the comings and goings of samples on a spreadsheet or paper. The shared database of Fashion GPS makes it possible for anyone in a company to see and reserve samples. In addition, a company such as Outspoke can coordinate lending with its p.r. firm, in this case KCD. The software can be set up so that one firm or both can see and reserve all the samples shared by the two companies.
For complete coverage see WWD’s Exec Tech section in tomorrow’s issue of WWD.