時尚品牌盯上同志交友APP

When the monthlong marathon of men’s Fashion shows kicks off this week, so will the scrimmage to cover it: the race by newspapers, magazines, television networks, social media platforms and blogs to get a piece of the action for themselves and their viewers.

本週，長達一個月的男裝秀開始了，報道男裝秀的混戰也烽煙再起：報紙、雜誌、電視臺、社交媒體和博客競相爲自己和讀者分一杯羹。

Joining the melee for the first time will be Grindr, the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) social-networking app primarily for gay men. On Sunday, the app will live-stream the fall 2016 men’s wear show of J. W. Anderson as it hits the runway at London Collections: Men, the city’s biannual men’s fashion week.

今年第一次加入混戰的是Grindr。它是主要面向男同性戀的著名（看你怎麼看了，也有人覺得是臭名昭著）交友應用程序。週日（1月3日），該應用程序在線直播J. W. Anderson在兩年一度的倫敦男裝周(London Collections: Men)上的2016秋季男裝秀。

Grindr’s purview has admittedly been narrow. The app introduces users to others in the surrounding area who are looking to make a connection — as often as not, a sexual one. Its buffet of thumbnail-size photos is, by design, bare-bones (and, not infrequently, bare-chested).

不可否認，Grindr的用戶羣很窄。這個應用程序把用戶介紹給周圍想要交友的人（大多是想發生性關係）。它的用戶照片庫只提供簡單的小照片（很多照片都是赤膊）。

“Grindr is a very, very visual experience,” the app’s founder and chief executive, Joel Simkhai, said in an interview in 2014.

2014年，這個應用程序的創始人兼首席執行官喬爾·西姆克海(Joel Simkhai)在接受採訪時說：“Grindr非常注重視覺體驗。”

So, of course, is fashion — even if Grindr is more traditionally thought of as being for those dispensing with clothing than acquiring it.

時裝當然也是如此——雖然傳統觀念認爲，Grindr是面向那些想脫掉衣服而非穿上衣服的人。

“I think fashion is a sexy platform as well, ultimately,” said Jonathan Anderson, 31, the British designer behind J. W. Anderson, during a break from fittings in London. “We’re all humans, so we all have to be somewhat sexually attractive to someone. That’s the name of the game, with clothing.”

J. W. Anderson31歲的英國設計師喬納森·安德森(Jonathan Anderson)在倫敦試衣的間歇表示：“我認爲，說到底，時裝也是一個性感平臺。我們都是人，所以我們都必須具有一定的性吸引力。服裝就是用來達到這個目的的。”

The designer, who won British Fashion Awards for both women’s and men’s wear designer of the year in 2015, called Grindr “incredibly modern as a platform,” and his decision to put his show on it “a no-brainer.”

安德森獲得了2015年英國時尚大獎(British Fashion Awards)的女裝和男裝最佳設計師獎。他認爲Grindr“是一個非常現代的平臺”，稱把自己的時裝秀放到這個平臺上展示“是自然而然的”決定。

Grindr will be the only place to live-stream the show. Users of the app will receive a link and a code to stream the video, which will not actually play in the app itself, but in phone and tablet browsers.

Grindr將是唯一一個在線直播這場時裝秀的平臺。這個應用程序的用戶將收到一個鏈接和一個代碼，視頻不是在應用程序上播放，而是在手機或平板電腦的瀏覽器裏播放。

The show is the first time Grindr is experimenting with fashion content, and most likely not the last. According to the company, it now has one million active users on the platform worldwide every minute, and is aiming to broaden its offerings and its appeal.

這場時裝秀是Grindr首次試驗提供時裝內容，這很可能不是最後一次。該公司稱，現在這個平臺每分鐘擁有來自世界各地的100萬活躍用戶，它計劃擴大自己的內容和吸引力。

In the fall, Grindr hired Landis Smithers, a veteran of Ogilvy & Mather and Old Navy, to spearhead its marketing and collaboration. It made waves in the fashion industry when it signed the powerful publicity agency PR Consulting shortly after. (Not by coincidence, PR Consulting also represents J. W. Anderson.)

去年秋季，Grindr聘請Ogilvy & Mather和Old Navy的資深創意總監蘭迪斯·史密瑟斯(Landis Smithers)開拓市場和合作。不久之後，它與著名公關公司PR Consulting簽約，在時裝界引起轟動（PR Consulting也代理J. W. Anderson，這不是巧合）。

Fashion is “a very big topic of interest for a certain segment of our consumer,” Mr. Smithers said, adding that he did not rule out future projects involving music or night life.

史密瑟斯說，時尚是“我們的部分用戶很感興趣的重要話題”。他補充說，將來有可能增加與音樂和夜生活相關的內容。

He envisions a future for Grindr well beyond the scope of its grabby classifieds, and wants to shed the stigma attached in some corners to using the app.

他給Grindr展望的未來遠遠超越貪婪的分類廣告，他想消除在某些地區使用這個應用程序的羞恥感。

“There’s a generation out there that doesn’t seem to care if people know that Grindr is on their phone, and there’s a generation that does,” Mr. Smithers said.

史密瑟斯說：“有些年齡層的人似乎不介意別人知道自己手機上下載了Grindr，但也有些年齡層介意。”

“The app is free to download,” he added. “You don’t have to use it for what its prime function is.”

他補充說：“這個應用程序是免費的。你可以不用它的主要功能。”