A small-time Australian startup has outdone haute couture at one of the world’s most prestigious fashion events, stealing attention with just a shoestring budget and three very cold women.

Fashion blogging sisters Jess and Stef Dadon opted to shock, rather than spend, in marketing their new line of shoes, hijacking the frenzy of attention around New York Fashion Week.

And while most designers would pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into their shows, the Dadon sisters spent just $500.

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They went on a gate-crashing joyride around New York, turning up at fashion week venues between shows when hordes of photographers were at a loose end with their time.

Bikini-clad models, wearing the sisters’ everyday-wear platform shoes, were unloaded from a taxi and posed in wintry four-degree conditions as if they were enjoying a day at the beach.

With startups gobbling up the low-budget promotional potential of social media we could begin seeing a lot more of it, according to a marketing expert.

“It goes against people’s expectations and grabs their attention, and that was getting people to wear clothes that you’d wear in summer in freezing winter conditions – that’s how you get attention,” Queensland University of Technology Professor of Marketing Brett Martin told The New Daily.

“I think it’s something that naturally suits startups on a low budget, because they have to be creative in order to get maximum exposure for their dollar.

“There’s more startups these days, which means there’s more entrepreneurs on small budgets. That means we’re going to see more of it [this advertising].”

The girls explain the stunt in the video below.

‘Big companies could learn a lesson from them’

As companies grow in size, so does the marketing budget.

Although extra funds should expand possibilities, it could come at the expense of creativity.

“Frequently in marking we target the consumers, but they were targeting photographers, people who they had identified were clustered in the area and had a lot of downtime,” Prof Martin said.

“That targeting of people who are vehicles for the message is something that could big companies could learn a lesson from.”

‘Shows usually cost between $200,000 and $1m’

The Melbourne sisters gained popularity online for their same-same, but different, kooky style.

They launched their first blog in 2012, as a way to share their fashion when Stef relocated to Paris for six months, but others soon began following the siblings, who now have a healthy online presence and have since worked with designers like Windsor Smith and Princess Polly.

– with reporting by Rose Donohoe