How to Get Your Brand or Business in New York Fashion Week

• New York Fashion Week is a notable event for fashion brands to showcase new collections.
• It’s also a great time for small businesses to grow through events and collaborations.
• Two founders share their advice for using events like NYFW to fuel growth as a small business.

Fashion Week is one of the recurring events that defines the start of autumn in New York City. Major fashion brands invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in presentations and runways, celebrities spend the week shuffling from show to show, and street-style photography floods social-media feeds for days.

Historically, the week has featured luxury household names like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger, while small businesses are typically left on the back burner. However, there are still critical opportunities for burgeoning entrepreneurs, even if they aren’t presenting on the main stage. Alyssa Coscarelli and Abby Price, two founders who run the curated-collaboration platform Infinite and the home-goods brand Abbode respectively, believe it’s an opportune time to grow small businesses.

“The New York crowd understands the importance of shopping small, knowing where their pieces are coming from, and knowing who’s behind them,” Coscarelli said.

During this year’s NYFW, Coscarelli and Price partnered to host a pop-up shop selling a curated collection of fashion-and-lifestyle brands — including products from Price’s own label.

The pop-up shop is a cost-effective and accessible alternative to a runway presentation, Coscarelli said. “I would not tell just any brand to have a runway show because that’s a huge monetary investment and, for some brands, that’s not the proper format,” she said.

Coscarelli and Price shared their tactics for business growth and suggestions for how founders can increase brand awareness and sales during NYFW.

Pop-up shops bring new customers to your business

Coscarelli and Price decided on a pop-up shop to create an intimate, in-person experience for customers to connect with the brands, the products, and one another.

“Getting their hands on something that they feel like they discovered and no one else has, that’s a really special feeling,” Coscarelli said.

Both Infinite and Abbode have built their missions on uplifting other small businesses run by women and BIPOC founders through curation. The pop-up will include a curated collection of brands like Poppy Undies, a Los Angeles-based underwear line, and Zoe Schlacter, an LGBTQ-owned textile brand.

However, Coscarelli and Price said they are entering the partnership with slightly different goals.

Since Infinite officially launched in February, Coscarelli hopes to acquire new customers through the event. She believes Abbode’s existing shoppers are the same consumers that would appreciate Infinite.

Meanwhile, Price hopes the event will bring in sales and help establish Abbode in the New York fashion-and-lifestyle community.

To pay for rent and inventory, sales are a crucial part of any event Price hosts. Beyond an increase in sales, Price is also “looking forward to people seeing that Abbode is the spot in the city for new, cool, small brands.”

Guerrilla marketing is a cost-effective way to draw attention

In-person events like pop-up shops can be expensive, especially for brands like Abbode that don’t have physical locations. Founders may have to rent spaces, competing with other brands trying to capitalize on NYFW, which can exponentially increase costs. To keep prices low, Coscarelli and Price suggest tapping into other methods for growth, like guerrilla marketing — or unconventional and low-cost marketing tactics that can expand a brand’s exposure.

“If there’s a space where there’s going to be a ton of people, try and set up a table” or hand out promotional products, Price said.

When she founded Abbode, she took a guerrilla-marketing approach by dragging a wagon full of disco balls through the West Village and giving them out for free if people posted a photo on Instagram and tagged Abbode.

Anything that allows people to create their own content and promote themselves while sharing your brand is a great tactic for events like NYFW, she said.

Strategic product placement is free advertising

With so many events going on throughout the week, “you don’t have to do the most,” Coscarelli said. “There are more intimate, more creative ways that you can be involved in a week like this.”

Small-business owners should consider inviting a few micro influencers or local fans of the brand to a small dinner party to showcase any new products, Coscarelli suggested. Or hold an apartment-style showroom where people can come see the products while having a place to put their feet up and relax during the week, she added.

Price suggests strategically placing your products throughout the week, too. Invite influencers to wear your clothes to shows they attend or lend your products as event decor, she said. Collaborating in this way will allow influencers’ followers to learn about your brand, allow your clothes to show up in street-style photos, or allow event attendees to see your products in action.