Fashion and Beauty PR 1

Fashion and Beauty public relations

Cecelia Westwater

Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University

PRL 206: Public Relations Principles and Concepts

Professor D’Angelo

March 30, 2021

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Fashion and beauty public relations is a relatively new specialization, but it has grown in

popularity thanks to the recent creation of social media and influencers. The fashion industry is

very image-conscious, it is all about how the product looks or how cohesive a clothing collection

is, so PR practitioners specializing in fashion and beauty have to be aware of trends and their

company’s public image. With the rise of social media influencers, the fashion PR industry has

new resources to reach new audiences with and grow their brand.

PR practitioners specializing in fashion and beauty help cultivate and maintain a fashion

or beauty brand’s images by promoting different campaigns and launches within the company to

keep the brand in the public eye. Since fashion and beauty is centered around image, a company

or brands success depends on the PR team creating a positive public image and creating ‘buzz’

around their products. According to PR Newswire, key elements of fashion and beauty PR

activities include, “...fashion show production, media relations, celebrity and spokesperson

integrations, co-branded partnerships, online events, and more” (2012). PR professionals have to

use their connections to the fashion world to keep their brand relevant. An example of a

successful PR campaign in fashion and beauty is Burberry and their creation of ‘behind the

scenes’ of a photo shoot. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, the brand Burberry was losing

relevance in the fashion world, especially in America. To regain their popularity, Burberry

partnered with Barbie to reach larger audiences. The signature Burberry coat was also featured in

the popular TV show, Sex and the City. To reach younger and more modern consumers,

Burberry hired British supermodel Kate Moss to redefine the brands image. Moss was able to

drop the average age of customers by thirty years. While Moss worked with the brand,

Burberry’s PR team created what is known as “behind the scenes” at photoshoots to gain media

coverage and give customers an exclusive look at the brand. The creation of the “behind the
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scenes” campaign, brand partnerships and hiring Kate Moss boosted Burberry’s sales all across

the world and modernized the brand. The Burberry PR team did what all PR professionals strive

to do - they related the brand to the public’s interests of the time by keeping up with modern

trends and partnering with popular brands.

The specialization of fashion and beauty public relations started when the first fashion

magazines, like Harper’s Bazaar, needed PR teams to assist with promotions and campaigns to

sell their products and brands, and keep up with the trends of the nineteenth century, such as

corsets, full skirts, and three-piece suits. Public relations firms specializing in fashion and beauty

started in the twentieth century, specifically in New York City and Paris, France, considered the

two fashion capitals of the world today. Fashion and beauty brands used PR firms to set and

follow trends. Designers in the 1920’s through the 1960’s used PR specialists to promote their

collections and fashion shows. A prominent figure in the start of fashion PR was Tobe Coller

Davis, the most successful fashion forecaster between New York and Paris. Forecasting is

predicting fashion trends, which requires “tracking which of the plethora of offerings in fashion

design were relevant enough to make producers want to bring them to consumers, adapting them

to routines and constraints of everyday life” (Pouillard, 2013). Davis was the bridge between

trends and designers. She would publish the Tobe report, which was distributed to designers,

fashion firms, and magazine publishers where she provided them with forecasting tips of

upcoming fashion trends. Davis had a great relationship with the fashion media and designers

and was able to consult them on their products. She communicated with designers in Paris and

New York City, to make sure that trends were consistent and innovative. Davis was very

influential in the fashion world and basically controlled what was popular. She was one of the
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first people to specialize in fashion and beauty PR and was arguably, one of the most influential

people in the fashion industry.

Today, PR practitioners specializing in fashion and beauty control the brands public

image by creating different campaigns to show the companies values. One of the most popular

ways to do this is through ribbon campaigns. S. Yan Huang of PRDistribution.com says that,

“The various ribbon campaigns have given people the opportunity to subtly support given causes

while successfully conveying to a large group of people a particular message, and wearing the

color pink, most widely associated with the female sex, has become a statement for empowering

girls and women” (2018). Since the fashion industry is centered around image, these campaigns

have done a good job of keeping the brand’s public image positive while conveying their values

to their publics. Today, some of the most prominent and successful PR firms specializing in

fashion and beauty include, PR Consulting, 5W Public Relations, KCD, and BPCM (Bruell,

2012).

A disadvantage that is specific to the fashion and beauty specialization of PR is

counterfeiting and fake merchandising. A counterfeit product is a product that imitates a designer

product, usually sold for less than the original price and is sometimes used to deceive

individuals. Although counterfeit products are used by people who don’t want to spend too much

money, the products are also used by scammers trying to sell fake products at a high price.

Counterfeiting is illegal but is still a popular way for consumers to get the designer look without

the designer price. PR teams of fashion and beauty brands have to be aware of counterfeited

products in circulation so that they don’t replace the actual product and create angry consumers.

Although counterfeit products will always be in circulation, PR teams have done a good job of

keeping unwanted counterfeit products out of the public. As a consumer, it is better to buy the
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product from the designer rather than a discount site to make sure that the product is authentic

and worth the money.

An advantage of fashion and beauty PR is the different and innovative ways to promote

the brands that other specializations don’t have. An example of this is celebrity endorsements.

Fashion brands gain publicity for their collections by dressing certain celebrities for red carpet

events or having them sit front row at fashion shows. This is known as third-party endorsement

and can help brands gain media attention or broadcast coverage. Beauty brands can also partner

with celebrities to promote their products. When celebrities partner with beauty brands, the

brands are able to reach the celebrities fan base along with their target audience and gain more

customers and publicity.

Just as in other specializations of public relations, practitioners in fashion and beauty PR

have to maintain a good relationship with the media. Through the media, brands are able to gain

publicity for their products, reach new audiences, and display their values. In the case of fashion

and beauty PR, practitioners have to maintain a good relationship with a specific kind of media,

the fashion media, which include publications such as Vogue, InStyle, or W Magazine. To

maintain these positive relationships, PR professionals accommodate the editor’s schedules for

interviews or viewing collections, and by inviting editors to showrooms for early access to

collections and products so that questions can be answered and the relationship stays positive.

PR practitioners in the fashion and beauty industry reach their target audiences through the

fashion media and reach new audiences through social media. Another similarity to other PR

specializations is maintaining a social media presence along with media relations. Social media

allows for brands to reach new audiences, show exclusive content and market their products.
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Although some brands and designers were reluctant to have a large social media presence, the

positives of social media marketing outweigh the dangers of social media.

Fashion and beauty PR requires certain skills that pertain specifically to the fashion and

beauty world. In order for brands to stay relevant, PR practitioners are required to keep up with

fashion trends and even predict upcoming trends to keep their brands modernized and popular.

According to Madeline DeVries, the best way for PR professionals to do this is to, “... maintain

consistent interaction and friendships with insiders from various segments of the industry,

including media, stylists and designers as well as marketing and retail professionals. The more

people you know, the more current you will remain” (1998). It is also important for PR

professionals to maintain good relationships with their media as the fashion industry moves very

fast. DeVries states that, “Leading design houses vie for coverage by reinterpreting global trends

and, in some cases, reinventing themselves each season. The national fashion magazines that

cover the industry often work three months in advance, requiring the fashion PR pro to be at least

two months ahead of them” (1998). According to Devries statement, fashion PR professionals

are required to predict trends about five to six months ahead of when they will be popular.

Another skill that is required of fashion and beauty PR professionals is knowing what is in the

products. Beauty PR requires practitioners to know the ingredients of a product and fashion PR

requires practitioners to know the materials used in the collections. This means that practitioners

should have a thorough knowledge of the ingredients used and why the designers used them.

Having a thorough understanding of these ingredients and materials allows for PR professionals

to easily answer the media’s questions about the products, have an easier time responding to

potential problems with the product when it goes to the public, and helps educate the public

about different ingredients through campaigns.

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There is growth predicted within the fashion and beauty PR specialization thanks to the

growth of social media influencer popularity. PR practitioners in the fashion and beauty industry

utilize these influencers as a cost-effective way to promote their products and campaigns. An

example of influencer marketing is the makeup brand Sephora partnering with the designer

handbag brand Coach to create keychains and using influencers such as Newhouse alum Margot

Lee to promote their partnership. By partnering with Lee, Coach and Sephora were able to reach

a larger audience of Lee’s followers along with their traditional audiences. As influencers

become more popular, brands will be able to reach more people and more diverse publics

through their influencer promotions. Also, as trends continue to change and develop, fashion and

beauty PR has the ability to grow along with the trends. Before social media was as popular as it

is today, some designers were hesitant to promote their brands through social media but when

they saw how popular social media was in the public, their minds changed. Nic Screws of

Bloomsberg.com stated, “… a lot of luxury fashion brands have been timid in the past about

engaging in social media because they wanted to retain a tight, controlled grip on their branding.

But lately, as they rush to catch up with the future the brands that show at fashion week have

gone to extremes to use social media more creatively when it comes to showing their

collections” (2016). As different trends are created, more ways to promote their brands are also

created so growth within the industry is inevitable.

Personally, I am not interested in working within the fashion and beauty specialty. I think

that the specialization is fascinating and that it is growing in a positive direction meaning that

there will be endless opportunities within the industry, I feel that there are other specializations

that interest me more. From this paper, I have learned a lot about the specialization, and I am

definitely more interested in the field since before starting this paper. I think that if my other
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interests do not work out or interest me anymore, fashion and beauty would definitely be a

possibility for me as there are unique skills and tactics that are specific to the fashion and beauty

industry.
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References

Berghoff, H. (2013). In T. Kuehne (Ed.), Globalizing Beauty: Consumerism and Body

Aesthetics in the Twentieth Century (pp. 151–169). essay, Palgrave.

Britt, R. K., Hayes, J. L., Britt, B. C., & Park, H. (2020). Too Big to Sell? A

Computational Analysis of Network and Content Characteristics among Mega and Micro Beauty

and Fashion Social Media Influencers. Taylor & Francis.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15252019.2020.1763873.

Bruell, A. (2012). Beyond the runway: Meet the PR pros who run Fashion Week: You

likely haven't heard of them, but PR Consulting, BPCM and KCD are three of the most-

influential shops in the fashion biz. We take a closer look. Advertising Age, 83(6), 8.

https://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/beyond-runway-

meet-pr-pros-who-run-fashion-week/docview/920551326/se-2?accountid=14214

DeVries, M. (1998). Working with the fashion press. Public Relations Tactics, 5(4), 14.

https://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/working-with-

fashion-press/docview/205082141/se-2?accountid=14214

Erika. (2015, March 5). The complete history of Fashion PR in New York City.

https://erikakauffman.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/fashion-pr-new-york-city/.

Huang, Yan S., & Hendrix, D. (2018, January 1). PRDistribution.com, Inc. First

Impressions Matter: Fashion as a Form of Public Relations | History of Public Relations.

Retrieved March 3, 2021, from https://www.prdistribution.com/fashion-and-public-relations.

Screws, N. (2016, January 28). How Social Media Boosted Menswear During the Fall

Collections. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/.

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Stateman, A. (2001). Beauty gets a PR Makeover. Public Relations Tactics, 8(2), 1.

Westfield, A. M. (2002). The role of public relations in redefining brands in the fashion

industry (Order No. 1411814). Available from ProQuest Central; ProQuest Dissertations &

Theses Global. (249938025). https://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?

url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/role-public-relations-redefining-brands-

fashion/docview/249938025/se-2?accountid=14214

5W Public Relations Adds Danilo Gabrielli to its Fashion Division. (2012, Jan 18). PR

Newswire https://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/5w-public-

relations-adds-danilo-gabrielli-fashion/docview/916548773/se-2?accountid=14214