Fringe Collective × Alysia Cole
Industry × Human
Ecosystem Level
At New York Bridal Fashion Week in October 2024, Frost designed and negotiated an official role for stylist Alysia Cole inside The Fringe Collective, a wholesale market built around independent, inclusive and sustainable design.
Role Design & Market Partnership · Frost & Co.
The Question
Could a creator help a wholesale market work differently, rather than simply cover it?
What Frost Saw
The Fringe Collective was building a New York bridal market around independent designers, sustainability and size inclusivity. Buyers decide which gowns reach stores, and which brides will be able to find one.
Alysia Cole understood the distance between what bridal fashion promised and what retailers could actually offer. After years in bridal boutiques and as a stylist for plus-size brides, she had credibility on both sides of that divide. Frost saw a way to put that knowledge to work inside the market itself.
The Direction
Give Alysia an official role with a reason to engage retailers, champion designers and represent the market’s values before, during and after the show.
What Frost Created
Official Market Host of The Fringe Collective 2024: a role Frost proposed, structured and negotiated with market organizer Marteal Mayer.
The Calls
Four decisions turned a creator’s attendance into a working role inside the market.
Perspective
A wholesale market is built on relationships among designers, sales representatives, retailers and editors. This collaboration made room for another kind of participant: someone whose authority came from working directly with the brides the market ultimately serves.
The creator was no longer outside the institution, reporting on what happened. She had a role inside it.
“She wasn’t reporting on the market. She had a role inside it.”
How Frost Created It
Influence Strategy · Role Design · Creator Casting · Market Partnerships
What Moved
The Official Market Host role connected The Fringe Collective with boutiques, industry media and its designers.
New retailers reached. Boutiques unfamiliar with the market learned about it through Alysia Cole’s outreach, and buyers she had met at another event came to Fringe afterward.
Every designer featured. She created content with each participating designer, plus professional photography they kept using.
Industry media in the room. She spoke directly with The Knot’s marketing team about the market.
Independent coverage. The collaboration was featured in an editorial interviewing both Alysia and Marteal Mayer about size inclusivity in bridal.
Selected Coverage
AnnKM · November 5, 2024
This Stylist Teamed Up With a New York Collective to Change How We See Bridal Fashion