Ask the Attendees: @lyssefashion

Recently, we told you about TechStyle, an event held during Fashion Week that brought together fashion and technology.  The event had a wonderful turnout and attendees enjoyed the chance to celebrate NYC’s fashion week in techsy style!

But just who are the brands that attended the event? What’s their take on the event industry? And what did they think of TechsyStyle? We took the opportunity to interview a few of the attendees and over the next few days will be featuring their interviews, read on for a peek inside the guests’ heads:

We talked to Juliana Prather – President of Lysse.

– First of all, please tell our readers about Lysse Active Wear – what is the company all about?

Lyssé started with one woman’s idea that you could make clothes better. That sounds like a big idea, except what she wanted to do was to take what she loved about well-made tailored product with beautiful seams and a great fit but design it in a much more modern and comfortable way. She worked really hard to make her own fabric, so she started with a cotton blend that she wanted to feel had incredible performance, could stretch, could react, could recover, was washable but felt like a truly great cotton. That is how we built and launched Lyssé the Brand, and that is the approach we took for our first Ready-to-Wear collections. Our customers love the idea behind Performance Fashion –  that you could look dressed in great fashion AND feel total comfort AND enjoy perfect fit.  Due to the comfort and the stretch that we put in our leggings and ready to wear, women started asking for Lyssé Active. Our approach with Lyssé Active was that we can’t enter this category unless we have a really unique fabric and an innovative fit perspective. Our fit perspective is to offer in her bottoms a specially designed hi-waist, so we are coming up higher in the natural waist, adding a mesh panel and extra seaming for muscle support and figure shaping. We worked 9 months to develop our own fabric – it’s a breathable stretch nylon, has wicking, breathability, cooling – we built the stretch with medium compression that women love, they are getting that support plus incredible flexibility. In tops, we wanted inner yoga fabric linings to support the chest, smooth for clean lines and work well with sports bras. We also knew our customer wants just the right amount of coverage because she has places to go before and after her workout.

– What were the 3 keys to getting the company off the ground – where did you invest your time?

We are young fast growing company and as we have launch new collections, we really focus on telling this brand story – we call it the New Look 2.0 – it is a new approach to design and how clothes can fit. Our story is about sharing how hi-tech, custom developed fabrics and new techniques on sewing and knitting machines can create garments that are incredibly comfortable and functional while being designed with beauty and innovation. We spend our time in three priority areas:  developing fabrics, working on innovative ways to reach out to customers to tell them about what we’re doing and how we make it, and building up an excellent customer service team. Lyssé has a large number of specialty stores and retailers who have gotten behind this brand and its story so we want to spend our time giving them the sales tools and customer service that they need to get our product to the customer. So it’s been in branding, fabric development and customer service.

– What role do live events play in your branding and marketing initiatives?

Live events are critical, because we have this story about something old, in terms of incredible fit and tailoring mixed with something new, incredible fabrics and modern design. So, we need live events because our best ability to spread the word is women trying it on, wearing it – and in the Lysse Active line it is critical. We have to perform! We tested the line with 50 women doing over 20 different sports in our garments, to get feedback on the product and make sure we were performing and working at the highest level across different activities.

– What was a successful social media campaign for Lysse that showed great engagement and traction?

We love experimenting and growing in Social Media. One area that has consistently has traction for us is working with our bloggers; this is because we find the bloggers we work with are very connected to their audiences.  Whenever possible, we like to invite bloggers to our showroom where they can meet our team, touch the product and see the fabrics – because then it’s a story.  It’s a great way to partner with an influencer and show an inside view of what we are doing so we can share with more of our consumers. And this is just one step, there are so many more outreach initiatives we want to try in 2015!

– Finally, what is your favorite app?

Personal – NPR. As a brand, we are constantly for ways to communicate with our consumers and we have a great fan base on Facebook. We love Instagram and Twitter because we can be so visual.  Our goal is to each day bring more stories to social media that are relevant and part of a dialogue – not just about us.