Shopping App VĂȘtir, WME Fashion and Hudson Yards Partner for Fashion Shows and Shopping Experience
VĂȘtir, the shopping app, digital closet and styling platform founded by industry vet Kate Davidson Hudson, is teaming up with Hudson Yards and WME Fashion for a shopping and fashion experience in real life.
On Thursday, VĂȘtir will open a brick-and-mortar store on the first floor of The Shops at Hudson Yards. The 3,000-square-foot store will operate a monthly rotating theme with programming ranging from âShop My Closet,â curated by various celebrities, to âShop the Runwayâ during fashion month in partnership with WME/IMG designer talent.
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The store, which will sell luxury merchandise, will be a pop-up for six months, which may be extended. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
In addition to the experiential retail storefront, VĂȘtir will partner with WME Fashion to bring runway shows to Hudson Yards this September for New York Fashion Week. In doing so, New York designers showing at Hudson Yards will use Vetirâs patented shoppable video technology to make NYFW a real-time shoppable experience. Among those participating are Simkhai and Jason Wu. Six other designers reportedly have contracts out but couldnât be confirmed at press time.
The new store has two parts: In-season selling in the front and personal styling services in the back, where a customer can shop luxury brands as well.
âAll looks and purchases will then be uploaded into shopperâs personal VĂȘtir app digital closet so the experience and user journey is optimized well after they leave our four walls,â said Hudson, who launched the VĂȘtir shopping app in March, having been cofounder of Editorialist, former chief digital officer of LuisaViaRoma and a former fashion editor of Harperâs Bazaar and Elle.
VĂȘtirâs app, which offers users styling services using AI learning, is tailored to the top 0.1 percent of global shoppers and their stylists through data driven personalization. The app currently has 589 users and 4,000 on the waitlist. It had been gated until this week. The app has more than 1,500 brands in its designer matrix, which includes a mix of multibrand retailers and individual brands.
The pop-up kicks off with Ashley Grahamâs closet, featuring her picks of the season, and things she has in her own closet. The customer can touch and feel them in the store, or she can go on the app, and shop in her closet. For example, if Graham buys a new Khaite dress for the season and itâs in her closet, VĂȘtir will have the exact same dress by Khaite available for purchase. If her stylist styles that outfit, the customer can shop that in the app as well for additional items. âWeâve made peopleâs closets shareable and shoppable,â Hudson said.
Dee Hilfiger will have a corner takeover of her top edit of what sheâs buying for the season. And, Jennifer Nisan, stylist and founder of Front Row Live, a sourcing business, will also curate her own closet and highlight top picks of the season.
Because the space is bifurcated, the front half will be thematically based and flip every four to six weeks and filtered through an edit of all its brand partners.
Everything Is on Consignment
The store opens with brands such as Jason Wu, LaQuan Smith, Simkhai, Aknvas, PatBo and Jennifer Fisher. âThe entire business is on consignment or drop ship so we eliminate that risk. Given the state of affairs of e-commerce, it makes more sense for us. We are a service platform. Weâre not holding inventory,â Hudson said.
The back half of the store is a private styling atelier. VĂȘtir has in-house stylists that work with their VIPs and book one-on-one appointments. They will outfit the entire space and it becomes âa store for one.â The customer can try everything on in person.
Through the app and the store, VĂȘtir makes money on every sale. Initially, Hudson estimated the app would be profitable in the first quarter of 2025, but now with the store, she expects to be profitable in mid-year 2025. She closed a seed round in September 2023 and did an add-on round that closed in March. Hudson is financing this store.
The shop will feature iPads on the walls, so customers can engage with the app. The store is also is âcash and carryâ so the customer can purchase and leave with the product.
Why Brick-and-mortar
Asked why she felt it was important to have a brick-and-mortar presence, Hudson said, âI think thereâs so much noise in the digital space. Weâre hearing from our clients and stylists that before they even enter our stores theyâve had exposure to so many products. The added value of experiential, of being able to touch it, feel it and try it is an important spoke of the wheel,â she said.
For the end of August and through September, the store is packed with appointments of customers wanting to buy the new seasonâs wardrobe. âWhen they do a big haul for the new season, theyâll come, theyâll meet with their stylists, theyâll walk in and there will be everything in their size, everything that they love,â she said. She said the stylist already knows whatâs in their closets from the app. She said many of her VIPs have their own individual stylists, whom they invite into the app. There are also on-staff stylists. Hudson said that so many of VĂȘtirâs clients have multiple closets in various homes. âTheyâll buy one [particular look] for each closet,â she said.
At the store, there will be four salespeople on rotation and two part-time people. The store has two dressing rooms in the back.
Early on, VĂȘtir patented shoppable video technology. âI really believe thatâs the next frontier,â Hudson said. In the app, they have shoppable video. When stylists canât reach all their clients at once, they can go into a dressing room, make a capsule collection, style the outfits and send it out to all their clients as a video. âItâs a way to bring experience into a 2D tech platform,â she said.
âFriendly Ratesâ
A key component of this partnership is the Hudson Yards venues. Hudson said they invited brands to see Hudson Yards, and a number of New York brands will be showing at different venues within Hudson Yards, such as the Edge, the Vessel, Public Square and Gardens, Padel Courts and The Shed. Designers are paying for all of their own production costs, and Hudson Yard is partially subsidizing the spaces (except for The Shed which is unionized) giving âfriendly ratesâ as part of the strategic partnership with VĂȘtir.
The partners who show at Hudson Yards are using shoppable runway technology to make the runway shoppable. The items can be preordered and in some cases, designers will have a few pieces that can be purchased immediately at the store or the app. âItâs just becoming this omnichannel, physical, digital experience,â she said.
In partnership with VĂȘtir, Hudson Yards and WME Fashion, Jason Wu is showing exclusively at The Plaza at Hudson Yards using Vetir technology throughout NYFW, and Simkhai, whoâs showing at the Edge, is also using VĂȘtir shoppable technology. The Simkhai and Wu shows are both being produced by IMG Focus. PatBo, while not showing at Hudson Yards, is using the VĂȘtir shoppable technology.
âWeâre excited to be partnering independent New York designers with Hudson Yards,â said Kim Fasting-Berg, executive vice president of marketing at WME Fashion. âThereâs no better time than during New York Fashion Week, when the industry and fashion fans have all eyes on fashion for designers to have multiple touch points with their consumers. WME Fashion is committed to uplifting New York designers and we are proud to continue connecting them with innovative and exciting partners that help bring their collections and creative visions to life,â she said.
Fasting-Berg said theyâve partnered with VĂȘtir and Hudson Yards to offer some spaces for designers to show. She said VĂȘtir brings their shoppable technology âso it becomes a much more well-rounded 360 degree for a designer.â
WME Fashion, which no longer has a centralized location for NYFW: The Shows, will be setting up a TRESemmĂ© salon at VĂȘtir during New York Fashion Week for hairstyling. (The personal styling in the back will be on hiatus during NYFW to make room for the salon.) WME Fashion will also be bringing in programming into the retail space, such as The Talks, and partnering with makeup artists and stylists. Vetir is also going to be doing trunk shows.
Hudson Yardsâ Involvement
Asked why Hudson Yards decided to partner with VĂȘtir and WME Fashion, Bruce Beal Jr., president and partner of Related Cos., said, âPeople still want to touch clothing, and want to experience shopping, but also want the ability to shop online and connect through online brands and online fashion and trends. Thereâs been a lot of investment in technology and a lot of conversation on how we can stay at home at order everything from our phones, but we also see the traffic. We have over 300,000 people coming into our retail [stores] every week. The traffic is up â huge. Sales are great. But the brands have competition. People are still cautious a little more now than they have been about making purchases.â
He said he was impressed with VĂȘtirâs experience with brands, the way theyâve connected brands and consumers, and their understanding of the need for technology.
He said at Hudson Yards, âItâs been a series of relaunching opportunities for us.â Hudson Yards made a big push in food and beverage, and also the events at the plaza, from pickle ball to concerts at the plaza. âWe have the highest occupancy in New York City for workers who come to actual work. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, weâre the highest in the city at over 80 percent,â Beal said.
âThis area in the city and the amount of people who live over here, work over here and are coming to visit, the brands want to be here, and itâs a shopping destination,â Beal said.
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