MySpace's New Chic Clique

The social-networking site's new fashion community might benefit big, established brands and fledgling designers alike

by Reena Jana

Since its launch in 2003, social-networking site MySpace (NWS) has been associated with music fans, as well as teens and twentysomethings seeking to meet or contact friends online, but now the site hopes to court another trendy group: fashionistas. On Aug. 28, MySpace launches a fashion community just in time for the spring 2008 runway shows that will take place during New York's Fashion Week, Sept. 5-12.

The move reflects MySpace's strategy of identifying the communities of interest that have grown organically and the building official member communities around them, turning once-grassroots groups into content platforms for old-media companies and consumer brands. But will the top-down approach work? And if so, who will be the big winners—the established corporations or the unknown designers trying to make their names among peer-driven social networks?

Pairing Partner and User Content

These are the questions that surround MySpace's fashion community, whose no-frills beta-version launch last September was timed to coincide with the 2006 New York Fashion Week shows. The new, redesigned landing page is appropriately stylish. It features a highly textured set of images, including a price-tag graphic featuring a daily fashion trend and tactile images of fabric swatches. In addition, a series of video screens of varying shapes shows interviews with bands and stars—including actress/musician Hilary Duff—who talk about their own dressing habits. Slick content from big-media partners such as InStyle magazine, including behind-the-scenes footage of photo shoots and how-to guides for applying makeup, is positioned near user-generated videos submitted by aspiring designers.

But the site didn't always look so, well, fashionable. And earlier this summer, some MySpace members seemed perplexed as to the purpose of the newly formed online community. Back in June, 14-year-old Brittany wrote, "hey this myspace fashion is totally cool but whats [sic] the whole point for it?"

According to Todd Dufour, director of MySpace's marketing department, the point is that users were already forming groups devoted to clothing brands—now MySpace is just making the process easier. Just as they helped nurture the music and comedy sites, MySpace spent a year developing the fashion site's home page.

"There are 165,000 members of the Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) group," Dufour says, referring to the casual clothing chain, counting numbers that appeared before the launch of the MySpace fashion community. "And there are 74,000 fashion-related groups already."

Where's the Payoff?

So what's in it for MySpace? Presumably, the relationships the company's developing with established media properties, such as Time's (TWX) InStyle magazine, which partnered with the social-networking site during the beta period and has since expanded its video offerings.

"InStyle approached us, as did Condé Nast [Publications]," says Dufour, of the two partners. He won't discuss the financial details of either deal, which establish MySpace as a nonexclusive platform for the magazines' content.

"Publishers are trying to figure out how to bring their brands online, how to appeal to our demographics," he explains. With nearly 70 million unique visitors per month, MySpace offers these magazines an additional way to market to online audiences beyond their own branded Web sites. How effective partnering with MySpace will be, in terms of direct revenue from subscription or single-copy sales, has yet to be seen.