A Gay Dating App Is Streaming a Fashion Show

Jonathan Anderson at the British Fashion Awards. Photo: AP

Over the past few fashion seasons, there’s been a concerted campaign to make fashion more democratic. Shows, once only open to the sartorial elite and select celebrities, now stream online to fans who can watch in a far corner of the world while still wearing their pajamas. Social media, from Snapchat to Tumblr, has also played a big part in expanding the popularity of fashion weeks around the world. Now, because it’s 2016 so why the heck not, video technology and a dating app are coming together to bring the runway to the people.

While fashion’s been know to make some pretty random pairings — CFDA and NFL, Cynthia Rowley and Pampers, Betsey Johnson and Kleenex — Grindr and J.W. Anderson has to be one of the weirdest couplings in fashion history. As reported in the New York Times, the designer, who won at the British Fashion Awards for both women’s and men’s wear designer of the year in 2015, will let Grindr users (the hook-up primarily for gay men) watch the show from their smartphone. Huh? As Jonathan Anderson puts it: “I think fashion is a sexy platform as well, ultimately.” He elaborated, “We’re all humans, so we all have to be somewhat sexually attractive to someone. That’s the name of the game, with clothing.”

Throughout fashion month, outlets enter a metaphorical battle royale for page views from various runways from New York to London and beyond. It’s an interesting choice to serve such a niche app, but Anderson called it a “no brainer.” Landis Smithers, who was recently hired by Grindr to head its marketing and collaborations, said that fashion is “a very big topic of interest for a certain segment of our consumer.” For perspective, the app has more than 6 million users.

To watch J.W Anderson’s Fall 2016 men’s wear show during London Collections: Men, Grindr users will receive a link and code through the app, and can watch in their browser on their phone or tablet from there.

J.W. Anderson isn’t the first fashion brand to hook up with a dating app. Under Nicola Formichetti’s creative direction, Diesel launched a series of cheeky ads that appear as Tinder profiles a few months ago. Similarly, Calvin Klein featured sexting and integrated swipe right and left into the ads that lived on the dating app.

Sure, it’s kind of shocking that J.W. Anderson and Grindr are getting together (minus the fact that they’re both represented by PR Consulting, one of the biggest power players in the fashion world), but the most surprising thing is that Marc Jacobs — such a fan of Grindr he printed his love on a T-shirt — didn’t think of it first. There’s always next time, Marc.

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