Digital Archaeology at #IWNY

The guys over at Story Worldwide have put together the most incredible exhibition dedicated to the history of the internet.

Digital Archaeology, as it’s called, is central to Internet Week New York this week, which I’m in town for especially. Dating from 1991, it brings together some of the most significant sites from each year since, displaying them on the original computers they were created on.

From Tim Berners-Lee’s “The Project” to games such as Noodle Box and a film portal for Requiem for a Dream.

There were a nice couple of fashion examples thrown in as well including Barneys.com from 2000. Using Flash 4.0, it featured full-bleed images, parallax movement and floating palettes.

Agent Provocateur’s site from 2007 meanwhile starred actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. A content-rich experience, it was based on the trashy novel and created in Flash 8. It was also one of a number of sites Story Worldwide worked on for the brand between 2004 and 2007, which were referred to by Vogue as the “sexiest sites on the web”.

Check out some of the Instagr.am pictures I took below:

Digital Archaeology from 1991 - 2011

Apple Macs at Digital Archaeology

Barneys.com at Digital Archaeology

Agent Provocateur at Digital Archaeology

Kaboodle to crowdsource runway show

Social shopping platform Kaboodle is teaming up with Bloomingdale’s to celebrate its fifth anniversary and relaunched site as part of Internet Week New York tonight.

The Fab at Five Fête and Fashion Show will fuse fashion and technology with a crowdsourced catwalk event that sees looks inspired by moodboards from Kaboodle’s community members.

Participating models are from across the NY fashion and tech scenes too, including the likes of Grace Gold of AOL StyleList, Meghan Peters and Brian Hernandez from Mashable, and Valerie Nome of OK! Magazine.

UPDATE, June 8: the redesigned site aims to focus on greater social integration.  As well as being more user-friendly, it has added new features such as a ‘Style Friend Finder’, which suggests other like-minded people a user should follow based on what they click on.

Its new ‘Trend-o-Meter’ meanwhile, highlights what’s popular on the site in real time, ranking products, brands and people based on activity happening across the service.

Social strategy at camp Olsen

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s social efforts across their various brands were exposed in WWD last week.

While the business-savvy twins don’t participate in any of the digital activity themselves, they are said to recogise the importance of it.

Accordingly, across The Row, Elizabeth and James, and Olsenboye, there are campaigns on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as well as relationships with bloggers.

The approach taken, however, varies brand to brand.

“Elizabeth and James, for example, has a strong feeling for music, and its designated Tweeter will write about Fleetwood Mac if that’s the music Mary-Kate and Ashley are playing in the showroom. They also run contests and sponsor giveaways for items not available in stores, like colorful Elizabeth and James notebooks,” the article reads.

For Olsenboye’s launch at JCPenney meanwhile, the company invited bloggers to create a series of videos.

The forthcoming launch of the twins’ t-shirt e-commerce site StyleMint (expected in July) was also touched upon.

“StyleMint ‘s digital footprint will include the e-commerce site, the StyeMint blog, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel, as well as regular e-mail trend reports full of insider tips on the latest trends and styling advice from Ashley and Mary-Kate,” said Josh Berman, CEO of BeachMint, the e-tail company partnering with the sisters on the launch.

He went on to highlight the site’s Twitter account at @mystylemint and Facebook page at facebook.com/mystylemint.

For those with access, the full story can be read here: The Olsens’ Social Swirl

 

Digital snippets: The Outnet, Tiffany & Co, Coca-Cola, My-Wardrobe, #IWNY

Tiffany & Co's Love is Everywhere

Some more great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital this week:

• Net-a-Porter’s designer discount site The Outnet launches iPhone app [WWD]

• Tiffany & Co releases multimedia microsite inviting users to tag ‘Love is Everywhere’ map with most romantic memories [Mashable]

• Coca-Cola teams with Yahoo for digital fashion channel ‘Style it Light’ [Brand Republic]

• Outdoor clothing brand Merrell launches website to create world’s largest ever panoramic picture [Contagious]

• E-commerce sites turn to stylists to cash in on consumer desire for Hollywood experience [WSJ]

• Online retailer My-Wardrobe sees sales soar 96% [Drapers]

Meanwhile, next week looks set to be another exciting one – I’m off to Internet Week New York, attending events including the CM Summit, the IAB Innovation Days, Realtime NY11, OMMA Social and more.

There are also some fun fashion inserts including talks from Sarah Bernard of The Thread on Yahoo! Shine, and a crowdsourced runway show to celebrate the 5th Anniversary and relaunch of social shopping site Kaboodle.com.

I’ll post all things relevant as often as I can.

‘Vogue experience’ to hit London June 8

Franca Sozzani, editor of Vogue Italia is set to host a day dedicated to showcasing life behind-the-scenes at her world famous magazine at London department store Harvey Nichols next week.

The “Vogue Experience” follows in the footsteps of similar events held in Milan and Rome. With Lisa Armstrong of The Times and UK Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman as co-hosts, it will offer visitors the chance to learn about working in the fashion industry.

Designers including Christopher Kane, Manolo Blahnik, Philip Treacy and Giles Deacon will also play a part, as will Sarah Mower, Katie Grand and Ronnie Newhouse.

“Vogue Italia’s aim is to actively support the creativity of fresh talent, thus helping to build up a new generation of designers, photographers and stylists able to play a dynamic role in the world of fashion. London is a lively, inspirational city, and I am very happy to share this experience with those who live here and those whose ideas and creativity have made a huge contribution to the fashion system in its broadest sense,” says Sozzani.

It will take place on Wednesday June 8, from 11am – 5pm in a designated area of the store’s fashion and lifestyle fourth floor. To register to attend, visit www.vogue.it.

For those not able to get down to Knightsbridge, however, the whole event will also be live streamed from Sozzani’s blog throughout the day.

Barneys.com launches international shipping

Luxury US department store Barneys New York has expanded its e-commerce offering to 90 countries.

The launch is in partnership with FiftyOne Global Ecommerce, the recognised market leader in international e-commerce. Shipping will span from the UK to Australia, South Korea, China and more.

“Barneys has always been a destination for International tourists and it is a natural step to offer our web services to the rest of the world. Barneys has incredible global brand recognition, but we could only service here in the US. International shipping has fundamentally changed that reach,” says Daniella Vitale, chief merchant and executive vice president at the retailer.