Kanye West Scored Ralph Lauren 85K New Followers
Kanye West and Ralph Lauren. Photo: @davidlauren/Instagram
Mid-New York Fashion Week, Kanye West called Ralph Lauren a god. Then he sat front row at the designer’s FW 2015 show, and his son, David, snapped a picture of what looked like Ralph blessing West, hand on cheek. That image flooded social media, and the brand scored 85,000 new followers across their various channels in just 24 hours. The fashion-obsessed rapper might be polarizing, but the fact is that an iconic brand like Ralph Lauren can only benefit from his genuine endorsement.
“We were excited to have Kanye at the show,” David Lauren, executive vice president of global advertising, marketing and corporate communications for Ralph, tells Yahoo Style. “His respect and interest in Ralph Lauren is really flattering.” It’s also lucrative. The Ralph Lauren show is one of the most anticipated of New York Fashion Week and always attracts a well-to-do crowd. This year, in addition to Kanye, the first lady of New York, Chirlane McCray, sat front row with Ralph’s wife, Ricky, and the designer’s children. But it was the rapper’s presence and enthusiasm for the brand that brought a new audience into the fold—aka the Kimye-obsessed millennials who will camp out for two days to score Adidas sneakers.
Lauren’s fully aware of the swelling effects of social media. “We have so many stories to tell at Ralph Lauren, and social media has given us new vehicles to tell them and new audiences to share them with,” he says. That new audience is the one that everyone wants—18 to 34-year-olds who are spending money like it’s going out of style. Hook’em now, and you have them for life. Will Kanye’s next fashion collaboration be with Ralph Lauren? Crazier things have certainly happened.
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