Last week, The Practice team speculated on the merging between the online and offline fashion spheres. We questioned the role of live streaming and e-commerce, but today we’re looking at the fashion brands who’ve conquered the world of social media.

Traditionally, brands with the most digital and social media influence include Burberry, with their stellar online campaigns and strong Instagram account, and Oscar de la Renta, with the legendary Erika Bearman (aka OscarPRGirl), acting as the company’s Director of Communications and in-house social media manager. This year however, we’ve seen significant growth in the social media stakes from a number of other brands such as Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, and Marc Jacobs- a growth that’s coincided with a greater number of engaged online fashion fans. In terms of Fashion Week Twitter influence compiled by NetBase for example, Victoria Beckham rose to fourth place behind Alicia Keys, The New York Times and Perez Hilton, with over 5.5 million followers, due to the hype and social buzz surrounding her well-received Fall 2013 collection.

But it’s not just designers who are succeeding on social media; related companies have also boded well from leveraging the “Fashion Week brand” via online platforms. Morgans Hotel Group, for example, enlisted the help of top designer Richard Chai, and LA-based fashion and lifestyle blogger, Shia Marie, to create exclusive content for their micro site, Back of House. Back of House features insider coverage of New York Fashion Week while cleverly intertwining this content with other lifestyle-based events, plus information about their hotels worldwide. By placing themselves at the forefront of international events, Morgans show how wordlessly projecting your brand identity can help drive traffic, convey prestige, and attract the intended clientele.

Evidently, using the Fashion Week brand is a powerful marketing tool, but Morgans also draw our attention to the way in which they’ve utilized an event and social media in conjunction with blogger influence to create a well-rounded and relevant message. Similarly, Calvin Klein saw a boost to its social buzz this year, most likely thanks to its attempts to capture the best and newest on the online scene. We at The Practice especially loved the company’s Vine video featuring super-blogger Hanneli Mustafa, whom the brand also enlisted to post updates to its Tumblr account. Ultimately, the brands that stand out to us make simultaneous use of the latest social media trends and personalities to aid their marketing efforts.

Are designers now set to take the social media phenomenon to another level? At New York Fashion Week, we already witnessed the models at Kenneth Cole tweeting from mobile phones as they took to the runway, and at the Rebecca Minkoff show, guests were asked to tweet using the hash tag “RMFall” and see their tweets appear on the backdrop screen. Some went even further, with designer Vivienne Tam even innovatively placing QR codes on each piece of clothing in her collection!

So, as Fashion Week slowly turns into a digital event, do you think designers are right to embrace social media for self-promotion? And have you been tuning in to or following the Fashion Week coverage? Please tweet your comments to @PracticeDigital and connect with us via Facebook.