Sep 23 2011

Zoe Saldana’s new venture an ‘IMDB for fashion’

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In “Avatar,” she was the fearless, blueberry-hued heroine whose intensity captured our attention. Now Zoe Saldana is bringing that same passion to style.

The accomplished actress has teamed up with her fiancé, former model Keith Britton, to help bring order to the glamorous, envy-inducing mess that is often the fashion world.

The couple’s new website, My Fashion Database (MyFDB.com), aims to be to fashion what IMDb is to entertainment, organizing the sometimes chaotic universe of models, photographers, designers and brands into a user-friendly resource. Before MyFDB, there was no central online database tracking the industry’s movers and shakers — a lack that insiders, fashion fans and even Saldana found confusing.

“There were times when [my fiancé and I] were frustrated to know which photographer was shooting [us] that day,” the actress told TODAY.com. “In Hollywood, I can’t live without IMDb; thirty minutes before I go out to meet a director, I look up what studios he’s worked with, what movie he wrote … I wanted to do the same for fashion. “

MyFDB users can search through ad campaigns, magazine photo spreads, professional profiles and other information about more than 5,000 brands, 60,000 industry workers and 60 different job titles. “People forget that there’s a lot of effort that takes place in the fashion industry,” said Saldana. “There are a lot of people that come together to build a brand, campaign editorial or fashion spread.”

More than just a useful contact or crediting tool, MyFDB even enables users to shop the looks (just hover over an image and you’ll discover the products’ name, price and website). And in coming months, Saldana intends to add a vintage section that will play homage to iconic images and famous campaigns of yore.

For Saldana, whose mother and grandmother were seamstresses, enthusiasm for style is only natural — it’s in her blood, her city. As a native New Yorker, Saldana recalls growing up surrounded by copies of Vogue or Vanity Fair, inspiring her to design a clothing line with her sisters as a child. “If I’m going to do something, it’s full-on,” she said.

The actress and her fiancé hope their growing database will provide one-stop shopping for fashion fans – and that it might just curb the plethora of stolen images all over fashion blogs. Though incredibly supportive of designers and labels, the online fashion community has rarely offered proper credits.

“When you do a Google search for Calvin Klein or Gucci, you get all those Tumblrs just copying all those images,” Britton explained. “We need less images — and more credits.”

Read More at MSN: HERE



This entry was posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2011 at 8:29 PM and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.



One Response to “Zoe Saldana’s new venture an ‘IMDB for fashion’”

  1. Comment by Fashion in October 5, 2011 @ 12:28 PM

    very nice and informative post… thanks for sharing.



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