Dive Brief:
- Grindr, a dating app for gay men, plans to live-stream a J.W. Anderson runway show from London’s Fashion Week this weekend.
- Designer Jonathan Anderson won the British Fashion awards in 2015 and told the New York Times the decision to team with Grindr was “a no-brainer.”
- Grindr plans to expand its scope to include more fashion and lifestyle content for its more than 1 million users worldwide.
Dive Insight:
Men’s Fashion Week in London will have a new media presence on Sunday, as the gay dating app Grindr live-streams a runway show from breakout designer J.W. Anderson. The broadcast may be just the first move for Grindr as it seeks to broaden its scope beyond real-time, place-based personals with lifestyle content.
The app’s 1 million-strong user base is widely seen as more fashion-conscious than the male populace as a whole, and if the strategy is successful it could attract influencers and position the app as a place to advertise fashions that go beyond flattering undergarments. Grindr recently hired Ogilvy & Mather alum Landis Smithers to explore such collaborations, and retained PR Consulting, an agency known for its work in fashion and the firm of record for J.W. Anderson.
