The California-based designer debuted his SS18 collection through an Instagram scavenger hunt that involved NBA athlete Nick Young of the Golden State Warriors, Josephine Skriver, Luka Sabbat, Adonis Basso, A$AP Nast and others. Each model shared their look in the collection and linked to another model ultimately forming an endless loop.
With every model sharing their look from the collection, the John Elliott SS18 collection reached as many as 20 million people. 20 million fully engaged viewers that could have spent a span of 30 seconds to 10 minutes just looking at the collection.
The reveal was surprising given that the brand said in May that it would be in Paris for Paris Fashion Week. The assumption was that the brand would hold a runway show in the City of Light. What seemed sudden to us was a well-thought out, organic yet strategic reveal that could make designers change how they debut their latest work.
Elliott traveled to Paris and launched the scavenger hunt on Instagram during Paris Fashion Week, skipped the traditional runway show and utilized social media to engage his core consumer and invite new fans into his world—it was a perfect storm.
We spoke with John briefly during NYFW about how he came up with the Instagram scavenger hunt idea, the aftermath of the social media event and how it connects to SS18.
