Grindr, the Gay Dating App, Hooks Up With Fashion

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.

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).

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.

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.)

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

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