When the monthlong marathon of men’s fashion shows kicks off this week, so will the scrimmage to cover it: the race by newspapers, magazines, television networks, social media platforms and blogs to get a piece of the action for themselves and their viewers.
Joining the melee for the first time will be Grindr, the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) social-networking app primarily for gay men. On Sunday, the app will live-stream the fall 2016 men’s wear show of J. W. Anderson as it hits the runway at London Collections: Men, the city’s biannual men’s fashion week.
Grindr’s purview has admittedly been narrow. The app introduces users to others in the surrounding area who are looking to make a connection — as often as not, a sexual one. Its buffet of thumbnail-size photos is, by design, bare-bones (and, not infrequently, bare-chested).
Joel Simkhai, the founder of Grindr, takes it easy at home in Los Angeles. The app was born of an idea made possible by technology and a $2,000 grubstake.The Sex Education of Grindr’s Joel SimkhaiDEC. 12, 2014
“Grindr is a very, very visual experience,” the app’s founder and chief executive, Joel Simkhai, said in an interview in 2014.
The J.W Anderson show on Sunday will be live-streamed by the app Grindr.
So, of course, is fashion — even if Grindr is more traditionally thought of as being for those dispensing with clothing than acquiring it.
“I think fashion is a sexy platform as well, ultimately,” said Jonathan Anderson, 31, the British designer behind J. W. Anderson, during a break from fittings in London. “We’re all humans, so we all have to be somewhat sexually attractive to someone. That’s the name of the game, with clothing.”
The designer, who won British Fashion Awards for both women’s and men’s wear designer of the year in 2015, called Grindr “incredibly modern as a platform,” and his decision to put his show on it “a no-brainer.”
Grindr will be the only place to live-stream the show. Users of the app will receive a link and a code to stream the video, which will not actually play in the app itself, but in phone and tablet browsers.
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The show is the first time Grindr is experimenting with fashion content, and most likely not the last. According to the company, it now has one million active users on the platform worldwide every minute, and is aiming to broaden its offerings and its appeal.
In the fall, Grindr hired Landis Smithers, a veteran of Ogilvy & Mather and Old Navy, to spearhead its marketing and collaboration. It made waves in the fashion industry when it signed the powerful publicity agency PR Consulting shortly after. (Not by coincidence, PR Consulting also represents J. W. Anderson.)
Fashion is “a very big topic of interest for a certain segment of our consumer,” Mr. Smithers said, adding that he did not rule out future projects involving music or night life.
He envisions a future for Grindr well beyond the scope of its grabby classifieds, and wants to shed the stigma attached in some corners to using the app.
“There’s a generation out there that doesn’t seem to care if people know that Grindr is on their phone, and there’s a generation that does,” Mr. Smithers said.
“The app is free to download,” he added. “You don’t have to use it for what its prime function is.”
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