Polyvore Announces Designer Collective for Up-and-Coming Designers Alejandro Ingelmo, DANNIJO, Madison Harding & Meredith Wendell

New Program Provides Designers Immediate Exposure to 20 Million Monthly Consumers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading style and social commerce platform, Polyvore, today revealed the official launch of Designer Collective, a program developed to help boost awareness for up-and-coming talent in fashion and design by placing their products in front of millions of consumers. The inaugural members of Polyvore’s Designer Collective include: luxury accessories designer Alejandro Ingelmo, fashion jewelry and accessories brand DANNIJO, contemporary footwear brand Madison Harding and luxury accessories brand Meredith Wendell.

“Designer Collective helped us launch our own e-commerce site and provided us with an opportunity to try projects that might have been too risky in the past. We are especially excited about an upcoming collaboration with one of Polyvore’s Bloggers.”

Polyvore is a stepping stone for aspiring fashion designers, stylists and bloggers, and has created many opportunities for people to “get discovered.” The launch of Designer Collective is Polyvore’s latest initiative as a leader in the democratization of fashion.

In June of last year, Polyvore started laying the initial groundwork for Designer Collective and slowly introduced the inaugural designers to its user community. In just six months, exposure of the designers' products increased by an average of 4,000% and referral traffic to their brand sites increased so significantly that both Madison Harding and Meredith Wendell were empowered to launch their own e-commerce sites.

Officially launching Designer Collective today, Polyvore will begin rolling out several key native advertising initiatives that will immediately offer the members of Designer Collective high exposure for their products among Polyvore’s global audience of 20 million monthly consumers.

“Established brands and retailers such as H&M, Net-a-Porter, American Eagle and Mercedes Benz have partnered with Polyvore to increase user engagement, raise brand awareness and drive highly commercial traffic to their websites. Designer Collective helps up-and-coming brands, who may not have huge ad budgets, gain exposure for their brand and take their business to the next level,” says Jess Lee, CEO of Polyvore.

See what the Designer Collective members have to say about the program:

“Being part of the Designer Collective has provided our brand with exposure to a very savvy and creative audience. The awareness we have garnered has resulted in an incredible amount of traffic to our e-commerce site. Polyvore is our #1 source of traffic, providing 50% of our referrals; our #2 source refers 12%.” —Alejandro Ingelmo.

“We love interacting with such a captive and engaged audience on Polyvore. It’s great to see how they style our accessories and how quickly a fan base can grow around a particular item.” —Jodie Snyder of DANNIJO.

“Designer Collective helped us launch our own e-commerce site and provided us with an opportunity to try projects that might have been too risky in the past. We are especially excited about an upcoming collaboration with one of Polyvore’s Bloggers.” —Madison Harding CEO, Barri Buden.

“Being a member of the Designer Collective has definitely established our brand amongst the Polyvore community. The fast growing fanbase is reflected in the traffic to our site - Polyvore accounts for over 40% of our referrals.” —Wendell German from Meredith Wendell.

ABOUT POLYVORE

Polyvore is the web's largest fashion community site, where users are empowered to discover their style and set trends around the world. With over 20 million monthly unique visitors, Polyvore's global community has created over 44 million sets that are shared across the web. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Polyvore is funded by Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners, DAG Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and Vivi Nevo (NV Investments).

ABOUT ALEJANDRO INGELMO

Feted for his innovative aesthetic and modern sex appeal, Alejandro Ingelmo continues to craft shoes into an art form. His work has been featured in Vogue, Elle, W; as well as international publications such as Harpers Bazaar UK, Italian Vogue, and Numero France. In 2008 Ingelmo was a CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Candidate as well as nominated in both 2009 and 2011 for the Swarovski Award for Accessory Design.

ABOUT DANNIJO

Founded by sisters Danielle and Jodie Snyder in 2008, DANNIJO is a handmade luxury fashion jewelry and accessories label based in New York. The aesthetic combines Danielle’s bohemian, rock ’n’ roll vibe and Jodie’s more classic sensibility making for a versatile and ever-changing statement collection. DANNIJO is sold at select, high-end boutiques and stores around the world including Bergdorf Goodman, Lane Crawford, Harvey Nichols London and Holt Renfrew.

ABOUT MADISON HARDING

MADISON HARDING, founded by longtime friends Hilary Rosenman and Barri Budin is a New York based, contemporary shoe brand created for girls with unique personal style and a desire to stand out. Blending vintage elements, a gritty urban sensibility and uptown sophistication, the line delivers an eclectic mix of classic and modern elements to complete any wardrobe. MADISON HARDING is sold at select boutiques around the world as well as major retailers such as Piperlime, Shopbop and Bloomingdales.

ABOUT MEREDITH WENDELL

Meredith Wendell, founded in 2008 by designers Meredith and Wendell German, is a New York based resort-inspired accessories brand, combining unique color and sporty American style. Meredith Wendell is sold in stores and boutiques worldwide including Bloomingdales, Matches and Scoop NYC and is featured regularly in domestic and international publications ranging from Vogue to the Wall Street Journal Magazine.