So recently my bitches at my favorite afternoon addiction The Cut: New York Magazine's Fashion Blog wrote a posting about why the discount luxury fashion websites namely Gilt.com, Ruelala.com, and Hautelook.com are so heavily favored towards women's shopping experience rather then men's. The opined the fact that the websites male to female percentages ranged from 70-85% women. They asked the obvious questions, why aren't men shopping here? What is it about this experience that appeals so much more heavily to women? Yet I think they missed a key answer to this question. GAYS.
So what is the answer to this question? Heavy heavy research into what gay men are wearing, what they buy, and how you can cater to that in an online shopping atmosphere. At this very moment Rue La La is featuring Valentino (fucking Valentino) for their women's sale and on the men's side Johnston and Murphy dress shoes.
Now I must admit Gilt does pay a certain level of attention to what gay men are actually wearing (at least in New York). Y3 is a current fixture on high top stomping, loose short, tank topped gays of New York these days and it's also one of Gilt's most common brands. Without having actual sales information in front of me and from a purely customer perspective the brand sells immensely well for Gilt.
