Sojin Lee, formerly of Net-a-porter.com, and Simon Fuller, the British music impresario and investor behind Roland Mouret and David and Victoria Beckham’s women’s collections, are ready to spin the concept of fashion-as-entertainment into an online business. Later this year, the duo will launch Fashionair, a Web site that aims to offer an insider’s view of the industry’s personalities, latest news, styling secrets and hottest closets. The new site, which is like a fashion magazine come to life on screen, will not sell any merchandise. Instead, it will promote styles, trends and brands — and hopes to drive user traffic to more than 500 e-tailers worldwide. “The storytelling opportunities in fashion are immense and endless, as are the opportunities to engage with customers, create an emotional connection with them, and court them with a content-led site,” said Lee. “What we’re doing is creating a brand, and the Web site is just the beginning,” said Lee, who believes Fashionair is the first of its kind. “It’s a TV-like experience, but it’s not fashion TV. And it doesn’t have the traditional layout of a fashion Web site”. The site will feature a weekly, live news and pop culture show with content ranging from top industry stories to concert reviews to the latest bestsellers at Topshop; one-on-one interviews with industry figures such as makeup artist Val Garland; Sophia Neophitou, editor of 10 Magazine, and photographer Ellen von Unwerth, and segments where designers and celebrities such as Anna Sui and Thakoon Panichgul open their homes and closets.
