Matchesfashion.com’s pop-up shop at Frieze New York featuring panel discussions, talks and workshops, along with women’s and men’s wear, was like a life-size petri dish for a wide range of artists and other creative voices to intersect with fashion at the behest of the e-commerce site.
Chief executive officer Ulric Jerome and Matchesfashion chief brand officer Jess Christie sat side by side on stools strategically positioned over an air-conditioning grate on the floor of the pop-up shop, which was retaining the heat of late afternoon sun streaming through a wall of glass.
Matches has a lot invested — financial and otherwise — in artists and other creative types, who are conversation-starters, creative juice-stimulators, and loyalty-builders for customers and potential clients.
The London-based site is ratcheting up its artistic involvement as the headline supporter of Faith Ringgold’s inaugural exhibition at a European institution at London’s Serpentine Galleries, June 6 through Sept. 8. “She’s a trend setter,” Ultic said of the 89-year-old Ringgold, who last Wednesday participated in an afternoon tea, along with Yana Peel and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine’s ceo and creative director, respectively.
“The higher the emotion, the higher the spend,” said Jerome. “The more human, authentic and emotional, you get more loyalty.”
Stephen Galloway
