New York Fashion Week attendees can bid adieu to excruciatingly long lines and clipboard-toting gatekeepers. As the fabled runway show gets cozy in its new digs at Lincoln Center, many fashion houses are nixing paper invites for email invitations and barcoded confirmations, according to the Wall Street Journal. If the organizers manage to pull this off, the switch from patronizing publicists to airport-style kiosks is expected to streamline admittance and seating, not to mention cut down on the surfeit of dead-tree waste that permeates fashion events.
IN OR OUT
Instead of elaborate (and costly) snail-mail invitations, guests will receive emailed notifications and respond electronically via email or a website. Designers using the system, in turn, will be able to track responses, send electronic confirmations (each with a unique barcode) to attendees, and make last-minute changes to seating charts.
Designers will be able to track responses, send e-confirmations, and make last-minute seating changes.
Naturally, VIPs, including certain members of the press—if your name starts with “Anna” and ends in “Wintour,” you’re a sure bet—and major retail buyers, will receive their seating assignments in advance, much like in the days of yore, and will only have to flash a printout to staffers at the door to gain ingress.
Lesser mortals, however, will have to swipe their bar codes (either printed out or scanned from a smartphone) at the awaiting kiosks to receive their seating assignments. If everything goes according to plan, the waiting time and the general confusion of guests mobbing harried assistants will drop significantly, as will the mountains of paper that make up the thousands of disposable invitations printed each year.
The only party who won’t benefit from the new technology? Gate-crashers. Because each confirmed guest will have their own unique barcode, sneaking into shows fraudulently will be an even greater challenge.
[Via Wall Street Journal]
Digital organization the most fabulous tool — BUT — it looks like people are printing out the digital invite and barcode…..
There are lots of papers made our of recycled old clothes. Rag paper (cotton, linen, etc) is made out of recycled clothes.
Paper has only been made out of “dead trees” for 125 years. (paper is a 2000 yr old technology) 100% PCW paper is an important option. (Hope that printout was on PCW paper :)
So – if fashion people still want to use fancy invites — just use rag paper. Helps with the small cottage industries in India, where many people make money collecting rag trim and then making beautiful paper out of it. Examples of really fashionable completely eco invites here : http://www.invitesite.com/weddings/Eco-wedding-invitations-page1.php