Quick Pitch: A B2B service that connects fashion editors with samples from leading design houses.
Genius Idea: As anyone who has worked in the fashion or accessories department of a publication knows, assembling samples for a story or spread can be a major headache, involving a combination of heavy lookbooks, unindexed jpegs and hundreds of back-and-forth emails between editors, designers and their assistants.
It was one such headache in 2009 that inspired Meggan Crum, then the accessories director at InStyle, to reach out to former W magazine colleague Mandy Tang, then a MBA student at Columbia University, to design a solution. The two spent the greater part of 2010 putting together a business plan and running focus groups with former colleagues, friends and PR professionals.
On Monday, TheRunthrough was born, a portal (still in beta) that allows editors to search, browse and initiate requests for hundreds of different items, almost as if they were shopping. Editors add items to their carts and, when they're finished, send in a request with details about the shoot, run-through and return dates, as well as the editors and stylists involved.
Everything on the site is conducted privately; only those who are registered for the service can browse the site, and brands have complete control over who can access samples.
Seventeen brands have signed on for the launch, including Cartier, Bulgari, Donna Karan, Tory Burch and Rebecca Minkoff.
Interestingly, it's not editors who pay for the service, but design houses. Inclusion into the program begins at $6,000 per season, based on a company's needs and the rate at which its inventory changes. In return, they'll enjoy greater exposure before editors (should the site take off, that is, and we can't imagine it won't) and a streamlined request process.
Image courtesy of Flickr, stevendepolo
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
