Last Friday I was lucky enough to tag along with Dorothy Tan of www.dfordot.com as well as former Fashfix Feature for a couple of media previews. I didn't get many photos mostly cause I'm about as shy as Miuccia when she comes out for her final head-peek-thankyou at the end of a Prada show BUT it was definitely a pretty cool experience. If this is what blogging is all about - sign me up as a professional blogger pronto!

So what is a media preview? Well, simply put (don't hit me!) its a preview for the media.

So far, I've attended a couple and this is what I gather.

photo of the H&M Singapore showroom - taken from monoxious.com

The preview starts with the showroom. In the case of H&M, they had a dedicated showroom space in a little corner of the Wisma Atria office area whereas for Louboutin, the store doubled up as their showroom. I've also went for a media preview which was held in a hotel ballroom and I've read about media previews being at other venues such as Ku De Ta at MBS, restaurants and art space.

First things first, once you enter, find the PR person so that you can confirm you're media. They cross off your name from a list and ta daa, your priority treatment and status is confirmed! What next happens is someone will be assigned to walk you around the preview collection.

"So this is our new Spring Summer collection - the inspiration this season was blahblahblah. If you look at this piece (picks up piece), you can see its very different from previous seasons. Here we used xyzxyz fabric/material ... and this is a key piece of the collection" 

Yep.

Essentially its a very sophisticated and detailed introduction to the collection and they may also spill a little bit of dirt for you to report as well!

For example, at the Louboutin preview, the PR girl was telling us about how they're opening more mens only Louboutin stores and they just introduced a new male boot with a 3inch heel to which they've been received "mixed responses" (code for: its doing well in europe, less well in asia).

In the food chain of fashion, fashion houses give personal and detailed introductions to the media, media is happy at being treated like a superstar, media reports favourably on the fashion house. Favourable reporting doesn't just mean writing articles but also using pieces from the preview in photoshoots and such.

Woe to media who is ungrateful for the favourable access. These include NY Fashion Editor Cathy Horyn who was banned by Slimane from Saint Laurent shows as well as Kanye banning fashion critics from his Paris show! I guess at least that way, the show will make the headlines for Something!

Media previews usually happen 2-3 months in advance of collection launches. The key reason for this is because of the traditional media editing cycle. Now, obviously, with the internet etc things go viral pretty quickly but with print media, it takes a lot longer.

For example, its December now but magazines are already working on their February issue. So H&M - whose collection will not hit the stores till March 2013 - tells the media about it now so that when the collection does drop, the write up will already be there in the February/March issue of so-and-so-fashion publication

The funny part is when the preview is already on sale. In the case of Louboutin, the pieces were already on sale although the collection doesn't officially launch till some time later. The fashion equivalent of sneak previews for loyal customers!

As a result, we weren't allowed to take any photos at the Louboutin store so that you don't have less privileged customers clamouring for pieces. I think it also might be a sneaky explanation of how items can go "sold out" before they even officially are put for sale!

During the preview, most brands will also feed you. After all, food always puts people in a happy mood.

Super yummy food at H&M! Especially those "leaves" on the right which were actually edible parmesan cheese crackers!

At Louboutin there were miniature cakes and some drinks while at H&M, they really pulled out all the stops with their fantastic food - they had strawberry smoothies in a potion bottle with dry ice steaming from the tray, parmesan cheese crackers shaped and coloured like leaves with parma ham delicated placed atop and the uber cool strawberry cheesecake which I cannot even begin to describe how it functioned!

A copy of the H&M goodies including the lookbook (opened), a notebook and a cd of all the images - all nicely packed in a box with a pineapple motif (the theme for the season!)

Lastly, at the end of the preview, the PR girl will either hand over a copy of the press kit or email you one. Basically a written version of everything she's told you as well as the high resolution soft copy photographs of the pieces she's introduced for your media publishing purposes

Some stores may also offer discounts or gift cards to media (see - buttering up the media!) and also give you hard copies of their lookbooks.

Hopefully now, you'll have a better understanding of what a media preview is like! Fingers crossed I'll get to attend a few more and I'll report back!