SFWRUNWAY elevated its NYFW partnerships to new levels this season. 

Now that New York Fashion Week shows are back in person, when you think New York Fashion Week, you obviously think of fashion brands, and maybe makeup and hair care brands too. Beverage products don’t tend to top the list, but Essentia, Baretenura, and LVOV have been working with SFWRUNWAY to change that. Street Fashion Week (now SFWRUNWAY) is taking a more experiential approach to curating an experience that Fashion Week attendees as well as designers would love. SFWRUNWAY is a direct to consumer fashion show production initially created to give high-end luxury streetwear brands a platform to showcase directly to buyers, press, and other fashion industry tastemakers. This season, they partnered with beverage sponsors Essentia Water, Bartenura, and LVOV Vodka to elevate the experience for attendees.

A Roundup Of Chic Moments Presented by SFWRUNWAY Drink Sponsors

There are few events on the New York Fashion Week calendar quite like SFWRUNWAY New York Fashion Week- Streetstyle show. The hype for the return of in-person shows was intensified with SFWRUNWAY announcement of a series of partnerships with beverage sponsors, with Essentia being the official water sponsor of New York Fashion Week along Bartenura and LVOV Vodka providing complimentary beverages to VIP attendees. Following that narrative, a fashion week sponsorship is a brand hack to influencer marketing.  Essentia, Bartenura, and LVOV Vodka were able to establish a successful brand presence among Gen Z consumers who are a huge segment of VIP attendees at fashion week. 

SFWRUNWAY Is Turning a Sponsorship into a Relationship

SFWRUNWAY does not rely on gimmicks to ensure their fashion brands gain valuable customer insight through brand partnerships. The feedback gathered from attending guests can help sponsored brands base their marketing decisions around consumer preferences. For these beverage sponsors, fashion month exposure involves more than slapping a logo on a step-and-repeat that consumers might see on Instagram. A strategic alliance with SFWRUNWAY fashion show gets sponsors in front of a valuable audience of potential B2B customers and investors.

Drink Sponsors’ Seamless Integrated into the SFWRUNWAY Programming

SFWRUNWAY’s focus for this season was to curate an experience that highlights each participating designer and sponsor. This season, they showcased a total of 8 designers with very different perspectives and from very different backgrounds. The first designer, German-based Pia Bolte, and her army of models took the stage. Pia Bolte is a German-based designer who displayed a collection of her niche style: a mix-mosh combination of leather, symbolic patches, textures, and fabrics, including denim and lace combined, gives one the idea of how total chaos came together to form a perfect universe.  The next designer to showcase was Friskmegood by Cierra Boyd. One by one, models walked out with pieces from her collection that featured hand-made garments from reworked sneakers. The creativity behind her brand sparked positive reaction from the audience based on endless applause. Next came Akobi, designed by Hotmomma. Akobi is usually a male designer but chose to present unisex pieces to display the versitility of her brand. After that came designer Ron Dyce, who displayed his first women’s wear collection, including a complete line of exquisite, elegant gold-encrusted heels. Finally to close the 1 p.m. show was New York-based Llessur designed by Russel. Russel debuted his Runway collection titled “Volume II – Elemental” during February 2021 NYFW. SFWRUNWAY founcer Naomi Alabi credits this collection for securing LLessur as a modern lifestyle brand pushing gender boundaries through non-binary and empowering fashion for the everyday metropolitan.

Hours later, the 6 p.m. show was a continuation of a series of runway shows under the SFWRUNWAY brand. Again the 6 p.m. show was opened with a greeting from owner, Naomi Alabi. One by one, designers showcased their collections to any excited, packed house in the following order: Akobi, Black Merchants, LLessur, Ron Dyce, and BGoldNYC. 

Guests in attendance were able to enjoy complimentary drinks sponsored by Essentia, Bartenura, and LVOV Vodka. 

We asked founder Naomi Alabi what we can expect from future fashion week seasons.

We plan to improve our shows creating an elevated experience for our showcasing designers as well as attendees. We hope to work with more sponsors and brands that align with our company’s mission. SFWRUNWAY would like to resume shows in LA and possibly Paris and Tokyo in future fashion week seasons.