Designer/blogger collaborations may soon be viewed as passé, with fashion label Calypso St. Barth revealing Pinterest supremo Christine Martinez as a brand ambassador.
California-based Christine Martinez (also known as "Chrisem") has almost 1 million followers on the increasingly popular online bulletin board -- making her one of its most popular "pinners" in the realm of style along with the likes of Caitlin Cawley and Joy Cho.
Calypso St. Barth, which has stores across the US and retails from calypsobarth.com, announced Martinez will be on the French Caribbean island from March 6-8, "live pinning" boards for the brand which can be seen at http://pinterest.com/calypsostbarth/packing-for-st-barth/.
Blogging has been the key route to getting noticed by the fashion industry for many years, with success stories including Leandra Medine, Tavi Gevinson and Susie Bubble -- the latter oversaw the Christian Dior Twitter feed for its recent Paris Fashion Week presentation. But now it looks as though Pinterest could be the birthplace of a new generation of online fashion stars.
Labels with their own Pinterest page include Ann Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman and Kate Spade New York, although as Mashable reported March 6 "Calypso appears to be the first brand to leverage a power user on Pinterest in a 'live pin' manner."
Other recent Pinterest innovations have included the creation of Oscar de la Renta's digital inspiration board at http://theboard.oscardelarenta.com/#, where fans have been invited to upload images or videos to help inspire the creator's Resort line.