Is OnlyFans the Future of Fashion Week? Rebecca Minkoff Thinks So

February 17, 2021 at 03:00PM

Rebecca Minkoff does it all, and then some. Since launching her namesake brand in 2005 with her brother, Uri Minkoff, the New York-based designer has wholly embraced just about every social media platform in existence. One of the first labels to launch a blog in the late aughts, Rebecca Minkoff content is now digitally accessible on – wait for it – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, iTunes (Superwomen With Rebecca Minkoff, a weekly podcast), and, most recently, Clubhouse, Klarna, and even OnlyFans (more on that later). It would be an impressive juggling act for anyone, let alone a 40-year-old woman who admittedly isn’t the target demographic for most if not all of the aforementioned services. “It sounds overwhelming,” Minkoff told POPSUGAR. “The workload is a bit more, but it’s not impossible. I might abandon TikTok soon.”

Minkoff talked to us about embracing technology and her decision to show again at New York Fashion Week amid a pandemic.

POPSUGAR: How have you been holding up during all of this?

Rebecca Minkoff: Good, all things considered. Health is top of mind. We’re still in business – we’re actually rehiring more of our team that we had had to offload back in March, so I can’t complain. I think all this busyness is paying off.

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PS: Why did you decide to host a live show again?

RM: Last Fashion Week was our test run for, “Should we still do this? Is it still relevant?” And the organic traffic to our site and sales from the last show eclipsed far and away any show we had done prior in terms of metrics, so for us it was a no-brainer. To be able to continue the conversation and dialogue with our customer, and the content you get out of it, is priceless. With everything being virtual right now, we need that content. The stubborn part of me also wants to showcase that you can do business during COVID, you can hire people during COVID, you can have events that aren’t superspreader events. I want to be an example so that more people take those steps and feel like they can go back to work. There’s an economic impact that I would hope will enable other people to feel comfortable doing the same thing.

PS: What sort of safety precautions will you have in place?

RM: Anyone that’s working the show – my team, the models, everyone backstage – has to have a negative COVID test before entry. All the guests will have temperature checks and fill out COVID screening forms, and there will be about 20 people [allowed in] every 15 minutes in a very large space. Everybody will be wearing masks including all of the guests and models; there’s hand-sanitizing stations spaced throughout . . . and now that the city has reopened restaurants, you’re definitely in a safer environment at my show than in a restaurant.

PS: Given the current weather conditions and constraints, was it more difficult to put on a show this time around?

RM: Last time was definitely more difficult, since now we know what to expect and how to do it. It actually feels pretty smooth, knock on wood. Except we had a call the other day that the snow on the roof turned to ice, which is a legal risk, so we had to move [indoors]. I think that was the only drama outside of finding botanical plants in the middle of winter in New York City, but we found a greenhouse that has them.

PS: Have you gotten any pushback from people in the industry about presenting in person?

RM: Zero. I guess you could attack me, but then you’d be attacking Jason Wu, Christian Siriano, IMG, New York Fashion Week. We’re all approaching this together and we’re all being so cautious – I don’t know what there is to push back on. Should we all just live in fear and hide in our houses and never come out? I don’t think that’s a solution.

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Author Claire Stern | Popsugar
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