| EVENT REPORT 10.06.08 10:00 AM |
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| Branding Bonanza |
| With T-Mobile brand ambassadors working the cocktail hour and models promoting Botox for underarm sweating, Gen Art's Fresh Faces in Fashion focused on sponsor integration. |
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At Wednesday night's Gen Art Fresh Faces in Fashion, a runway show presented by T-Mobile and BlackBerry showcased the work of six local fashion designers. While working on the event, Gen Art Chicago staffers Carolyn Pelissero, Lauren Hurley, and Marcia Callaghan said that they devoted most of their planning time to securing national sponsors.
And throughout the cocktail reception, fashion show, and after-party, there was no question about who those sponsors were. Just outside the entrance to a tent spanning Millennium Park's Chase Promenade, Fall Out Boy bassist and Fresh Faces host Pete Wentz conducted interviews and posed for photos in front of a step-and-repeat splashed with T-Mobile and BlackBerry logos. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | In the Millennium Park tent, a translucent, gobo-adorned curtain separated the cocktail area from the runway.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art Chicago |
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 | During the cocktail hour, T-Mobile brand ambassadors circulated with trays bearing new phone and BlackBerry models.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art Chicago |
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 | At the cocktail reception that preceded the fashion show, guests had their makeup touched up by Lancome artists.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art |
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 | Before the fashion show, rotating T-Mobile and BlackBerry gobos lit up the runway. The same logos appeared on the runway's backdrop.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art Chicago |
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 | The fashion show highlighted the work of six local and emerging designers, including Elise Bergman.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art |
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 | Lounges at the after-party featured T-Mobile-branded pillows and paint brushes that established an arty theme carried on by the live-action painters.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art Chicago |
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 | At the XChange West after-party, live graffiti artists worked on a branded backdrop.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art Chicago |
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 | Models at the after-party posed in Kara Saun fashions and clutched umbrellas adorned with the Botox logo.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art Chicago |
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 | An oversize Gen Art gobo illuminated the facade of after-party venue XChange West.
Photo: Courtesy of Gen Art Chicago |
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Inside the tent, an oversize Gen Art gobo illuminated wispy curtains that separated the runway from the cocktail area, where a glowing Lucite bar featured signage devoted to the evening's specialty "Fuzzy Flip" cocktail. The mixture of champagne and peach puree was—the sign pointed out—presented by T-Mobile in honor of a soon-to-be-released BlackBerry Pearl Flip phone.
The hour-long cocktail reception also featured installations devoted to accessories from local designers and Lancome makeup stations. T-Mobile "brand ambassadors" (the company's word) circulated the tightly packed crowd with lit-up trays bearing new phone and BlackBerry models, allowing guests to hold the products and scroll through their features.
Branding carried on at the after-party at XChange West, where featured-sponsor installations ranged from T-Mobile photo booths, which printed out strip photos adorned with the company's logo, to a rotating display of Axe body wash. In a decidedly more unusual installation, models swathed in dresses from designer Kara Saun (of Project Runway fame) stood atop pedestals and held Botox-branded umbrellas. Surrounding signage and pamphlets explained that the Botox in question helps prevent severe underarm sweating. The tie-in? "As a fashion designer, I see firsthand the impact that excessive underam sweating can have on a woman's wardrobe choices," Kara Saun said in the Botox pamphlet.
—Jenny Berg
RELATED TOPICS
Gen Art, T-Mobile, BlackBerry, Pete Wentz, Axe, Lancôme, Botox
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