The Fashion Twitterati | Source: DKNY and Oscar de la Renta

NEW YORK, United States — To tweet, or not to tweet. That has been the question on many fashion business minds over the past year. Not every brand needs a Twitter account, but if a brand does decide to stake out a presence on Twitter, they should do so with a clear plan in mind and a voice that is consistent with the brand, while also opening up a new point of view. Most of all, Twitter should be a tool for engagement with a brand’s fans and followers.

That is all easier said than done. Some brands on Twitter don’t follow anybody else and only broadcast information out, which is the schoolyard equivalent of talking all the time, while shutting your eyes and ears and not listening to anybody else. You don’t make many friends that way. Then there are the brands that set up a Twitter account, and then fail to keep it active, which is kind of like inviting a brand’s fans to a big event, and then not showing up to greet them. It 0nly serves to disappoint fans and followers. Still other brands require tweets to be ‘approved’ by legal and PR departments, which takes away from the spontaneous, real time nature of Twitter.

Thankfully, there are a few fashion businesses that are doing it right. They have found ways of communicating about their brand that have caught the attention of tens of thousands of followers, and more importantly, have made those followers feel like part of the brand’s online community.

BoF sought out three of the most prolific and successful fashion twitterers, and for the very first time, spoke to the people behind fashion’s greatest tweets to learn from their success.

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CFDA Winner Jason Wu | Source: Jason Wu

Asian-Americans Climb Fashion Industry Ladder (NY Times)
“It was the first time that all three prizes given by the [CFDA] were awarded to designers who are Asian-American. That same night, the fashion council announced three scholarships, each for $25,000, won by student designers of Asian heritage.”

Fashion brands are turning to the lucrative homewares market (Independent)
“The trendy Swedish denim company Acne is having a go, as is the avant-garde designer Martin Margiela. Diane von Furstenberg will be launching a homeware line in 2011; Diesel started one last year, and is now moving into lighting.”

Victoria Beckham: Is She for Real? (NY Times)
“Her sinuously curvy cocktail dresses… are showcased in stores alongside luxury labels like Narciso Rodriguez and Vera Wang. ‘Don’t underestimate her,’ said Anna Wintour.”

A morning in the life of Donna Karan (National Post)
“Twenty-five years ago, Donna Karan made her first Canadian personal appearance at Holt Renfrew’s Toronto flagship store to launch her ready-to-wear label. The New York fashion designer recently returned to mark the occasion.”

Steve Madden Might End Up Owning Betsey Johnson in 2012 (The Cut)
“Madden already holds a license for handbags, small leather goods, belts and umbrellas under the Betsey Johnson and Betseyville trademarks. The collateral for the loan includes the company’s intellectual property.”

Carré Hermès | Source: Hermès

Jean-Louis Dumas, Chief of Hermès, Dies at 72 (NY Times)
“Jean-Louis Dumas, who revived the flagging fortunes of Hermès in the late 1970s and in his nearly 30 years as the company’s chief executive transformed it into one of the world’s most successful luxury brands, died Saturday at his home in Paris.”

Louis Vuitton Tops Hermes, Gucci as Most Valuable Luxury Brand (Bloomberg)
“Louis Vuitton, the French fashion brand known for its monogrammed luggage, topped Millward Brown Optimor’s 2010 BrandZ ranking of the most valuable luxury labels for the fifth straight year.”

Costumes On Display at the Met (WSJ)
“There are really no other evenings in New York like the Costume Institute Gala, which falls on the first Monday in May and is hosted, as it has been for years, by Vogue. This is partly because there’s a great element of surprise.”

YSL’s Stefano Pilati (South China Morning Post)
“‘More or less I have done everything I have had in mind so far – in terms of collections, playing with the heritage but not too much and preserving the runway as something directional yet true to what I feel. Sales, for me, show I have done a good job.’”

The Collector: Jason Wu (WSJ)
“In 2008, he was a finalist for the Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund award, a prestigious prize for emerging designers. But when the inauguration gown went viral in the multimedia world, he became a household name overnight.”

LONDON, United Kingdom – For many of fashion’s iconic characters, from Vogue‘s Anna Wintour to the prolific designer Karl Lagerfeld, who designs for Chanel, Fendi and his eponymous label, fashion and fur go hand in hand. Just last week, Lagerfeld vigorously defended the use of fur to the BBC saying that “in a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and clothes and even handbags, the discussion of fur is childish.”

Of course, there are plenty of people who would disagree with this point of view – the folks at PETA, for one.  A PETA spokesperson told London’s Daily Telegraph that Lagerfeld is “a fashion dinosaur who is as out of step as his furs are out of style. The vast majority of fur these days comes not from hunters as he suggests, but from Chinese fur farms, where no law protects the millions of animals who are routinely beaten and skinned alive.”

So, who’s right?

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Marks & Spencer, photo courtesy of the Sun UK.

Marks & Spencer to Cut 1,230 Jobs (WWD)
Marks & Spencer’s chairman expects its “gross profit margin to be 1.75 percentage points lower than the previous year,” and plans to cut 1,230 jobs.

New Year, bad news (Just Style)
The “disastrous holiday sales will spark a domino effect of store closures and bankruptcy filings over the next couple of months.”

Calvin Klein, Michael Kors Confirmed For New York Fashion Week (WSJ)
Not everyone is bowing out of fashion week as IMG confirms the shows of Calvin Klein and Donna Karan.

Iconix’s New Latin America Joint Venture (WSJ)
Iconix, which owns Candies and Badgley Mischka, will distribute its brands to Latin America in a joint effort with New Brands Americas LLC.