Alexis Maybank, Gilt Groupe Co-Founder, Launches a New Visual Shopping App
Project September Bridges the Gap Between Social Browsing and Online
Shopping
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.
Contacts
Sunshine Sachs
Allison Dent, 323-822-9300
ps@sunshinesachs.com
or
Project
September
Jessica Nadaud, 419-215-4348
jess@projectseptember.com
