Calling All Fashionistas! Cable Flocks to Fashion
By SALLY BEATTY of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

For years, fashion and television have gone together about as well as polka dots and plaid.

Few consumers turned on their television sets for tips on what to wear. Instead, they browsed the advertising and runway shots in magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle. Meanwhile, the tony fashion houses didn't seek out the TV-watching hoi polloi. They preferred to focus on elite gatherings of socialites and favorite editors at fashion shows.

But now some specialized cable-TV channels are storming the velvet rope that separates the fashion flock from everyone else. And they are getting backing from well-funded cosmetics campaigns by Revlon Inc. and France's L'Oreal SA, and the marketing strategies of such car makers as General Motors Corp. and Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG. That could mean a nice bump in ad revenue. Last year, L'Oreal spent $29 million on cable-TV ads, while Mercedes spent $20 million, according to CMR, the ad tracking unit of London-based Taylor Nelson Sofres.

It's unclear whether all of the fashion-TV contenders will survive, but some have powerful backers. For example, WE: Women's Entertainment, owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., is taking over "Full Frontal Fashion," a TV show currently available on Cablevision's Metro Channel only in New York. The program's catwalk coverage and chatty, catty commentary has made it a cult favorite among spike-heeled fashionistas. WE intends to take the show national in January and make it more "accessible."

The E! Entertainment network, whose investors include cable powerhouse Comcast Corp., has started to roll out a new sister cable-TV channel, called Style, with a major emphasis on fashion. In addition to programs about home design and cooking, the Style channel features shows such as "The Look for Less," which explains how to put together affordable versions of hot fashions.

The VH1-Vogue Fashion Awards, which air Tuesday night, have been around since 1995, but Tuesday night's show will be broadcast live in a bid to broaden its appeal. Advertisers include Germany's BMW AG; SABMiller PLC's Miller Brewing; Procter & Gamble Co.'s Crest and Pantene, and L'Oreal's Maybelline.

The show will pay homage to such fashion figures as Ralph Lauren and Tom Ford of Gucci. But to draw viewers, the producers are counting on celebrities such as Debra Messing of "Will & Grace" and Jennifer Lopez, and musical performances by David Bowie, Santana, Pink and others. "It's much more about the personalities and humor and the marriage of music and fashion," says Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue.

The new fashion programming follows in the footsteps of early fashion-TV pioneers, such as CNN's "Style with Elsa Klensch" and MTV's "House of Style." Ms. Klensch's CNN show stopped appearing almost two years ago. But she resurfaced in September 2001 with a new show on Trio, a TV network about the "popular arts" owned by Vivendi Universal Entertainment, a venture controlled by France's Vivendi Universal SA.

Viacom Inc.'s MTV jumped into the fashion-TV world in 1989 with the launch of "House of Style," in which Cindy Crawford introduced the pimply set to her world of jet-setting designers. The concept lives on in specials but has been out of regular series production since 2000. MTV is now trying to reinvent the genre with series such as "Fashionably Loud," which marries live performances by rock bands with strutting models, including a show about musical artists who have launched their own fashion labels. In addition, MTV has three fashion-related shows in development.

The explosion of digital-cable TV has made media companies look again at genres that were previously dismissed as marginal. But the major factor driving the new shows is advertising. Car companies, in particular, have finally figured out that women do buy their products -- and that a stylish image helps. "You do compromise a bit on the reach or exposure," says Miriam Muley, executive director for diversity and growth markets at General Motors. "But the people tuned in are very, very tuned in."

One reason marketers such as car and cosmetics companies are willing to accept the smaller reach is that they figure their products gain a halo effect from being associated with a "cool" product. The fashion-show environment is also "a way to target a relatively hard to reach group of people who tend to be a little more leading-edge in trying new products," says Peter Gardiner, chief media officer of Interpublic Group's Deutsch ad agency, which handles advertising for Revlon and Mitsubishi.

It helps that celebrity watchers are increasingly interested in fashion. "When you look at all these awards shows, they ask, 'What are you nominated for?' and then, 'What are you wearing?' " says Carol Goll, general manager of brand event marketing at Mercedes Benz USA, a unit of DaimlerChrysler, the title sponsor of the twice-yearly New York fashion shows. "Hopefully in the next few years it will be: 'And what did you arrive in?' "

One group that won't be advertising aggressively on TV, with or without new shows about clothes and makeup, is high-end fashion companies. "TV is such a mass medium," says Patty Cohen, executive vice president of marketing and communications for Donna Karan, the women's clothing company acquired last year by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the French luxury-goods concern. "We're trying to reach a more targeted customer."

---> Read about the VH1/Vogue awards at vogue.com
---> Read about Karolina Kurkova, this year's winner at models.com
---> See Karolina Kurkova's other side at bwgreyscale