NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Project September, a fashion marketplace, launches today as the first immersive, visual shopping experience. The app allows a deeper, more immediate connection between fashion and design influencers, their audiences and the brands they love. For the first time ever, consumers can bridge the gap between social browsing and online shopping by tapping an image to instantly make a purchase. Led by Gilt Groupe’s visionary founding Chief Executive Officer Alexis Maybank, Project September is also helmed by Leah Park, serving as Chief Design Officer and Dustin Whitney, Chief Technology Officer.
"Until now, I had to search blindly for items that caught my eye on social media, often never discovering where I could actually make my purchase online," says Alexis Maybank, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Project September. “This was frustrating. So we set out to build a shopping experience where consumers could shop directly from photos.”
As former Gilt executives, Alexis Maybank and Leah Park noticed an increase in web traffic coming to Gilt.com from social media platforms. Maybank and Park realized that consumers were discovering products that piqued their interest but there wasn’t a way to easily move from social browsing to making an instantaneous purchase. They set out to make the visual world shoppable, and they teamed with Co-founder Dustin Whitney to build a strikingly beautiful, visual marketplace where fashion’s devotees could follow their favorite influencers, swipe from image to image, and easily tap to buy.
Project September has recruited a cadre of fashion advisors including: Marie Claire Creative Director Nina Garcia, Creative Director of House of Harlow 1960 Nicole Richie, model and activist Christy Turlington Burns; as well as top social influencers Patrick Janelle (@aguynamedpatrick), Pari Ehsan (@PariDust) and Blake Scott (@blakescott_) among others.
“The talent and industry leaders participating are a testament to Project September’s alignment with top creative influences in the fashion and beauty industries,” says Creative Director of Marie Claire magazine Nina Garcia. “I’m excited to join Project September as an Advisor as social content is evolving in this direction, and I am thrilled to be a part of the revolution.”
The founders have raised money from William Morris Endeavor (WME Ventures), Venrock, Greylock Partners, First Round Capital, Montage Ventures and others.
“Project September redefines the fashion discovery experience with an elegant, social interface that harnesses the psychology of fashion buyers: browse broadly, follow those whose looks you like, and purchase on impulse,” says Venrock Partner Nick Beim. “It takes advantage of the rapidly growing wave of user generated fashion content to create a beautifully immersive experience that users don’t want to end.”
Project September, named for the start of the fashion calendar, is designed as a shoppable, shareable digital magazine spread. The masthead is made up of the world’s most stylish people, who post their own creative work and show users exactly where to buy their favorite brands. Anyone can join and share their style and design images with audiences on Project September and also across Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. All creators can earn a commission from the sale of items purchased through their work.
About Project September
Project September is the first entirely visual shopping platform to allow a deeper, more immediate connection between fashion and design influencers, their audiences and the brands they love. Project September is helmed by Gilt Groupe Co-founder and former CEO Alexis Maybank (CEO), former Gilt SVP Creative Leah Park (CDO) and Pellucid Analytics former CTO Dustin Whitney (CTO). Project September is designed as a shoppable, shareable digital magazine spread and is available for free download through the Apple App Store.
Project September can be downloaded here.
