Digital snippets: Alexander Wang, Warby Parker, Gucci, Nars, Ray Ban, J Crew + more

It’s been a little while since one of these round-up posts on other interesting fashion and digital stories sourced from around the web, so there’s far more than usual. Each of them is however, of course, as interesting and relevant as ever…

• Alexander Wang teams up with Samsung for crowdsourced handbag (as above) [Mashable]

• Google reportedly in talks with Warby Parker to design stylish Google Glass frames [Techcrunch]

• Gucci ups mobile conversion 70% via optimised site [Luxury Daily]

• Nars tests Pinterest’s selling potential [Mashable]

• Ray Ban launches real-life ambermatic lens app installation [DigitalBuzzBlog]

• This is personal: J Crew debuts an in-store styling app [Refinery29]

• How John Lewis uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ [Econsultancy]

• Lizzy Caplan’s Viva Vena fashion film is one of the best satirical ads you’ll ever see [Slate]

• The business of blogging: Garance Doré [BoF]

• Shopping in the future: Glasses.com’s augmented reality fitting-room app [AllThingsD]

• Will Apple’s plans for an iWatch herald a new era of wearable tech? [The Observer]

• Farfetch fashion hub: meet the curator of curators [Wired]

• Business Of Fashion gets $2.1m seed funding from Index, LVMH and more for its no-nonsense B2B fashion blog [Techcrunch]

• How your tweets during fashion shows are driving sales [Fashionista]

• Fashion buys into social tools [NY Times]

• Online upstarts explore a new model for fashion media [BoF]

• Why retailers are pinning hopes on Pinterest [Reuters]

• 10 great uses of Vine during fashion week [The Cut]

• And just on the off-chance that you didn’t see it already, here is Google’s How it Feels Through Glass video

Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence features in making-of Miss Dior handbag ad

 

In case you hadn’t heard enough about Jennifer Lawrence this week (be sure to watch this and this by the way), here now is a video from the behind-the-scenes of her debut Miss Dior handbag ad.

Shot by Willy Vanderperre, it shows the new Oscar-winning actress posing for the spring/summer 2013 stills shots, all the while speaking over the top about her love of Dior and the timelessness of the bags in question.

“Dior represents beauty and strength in women and that’s how I feel when I’m wearing his clothes, they just make you feel so confident,” she says.

Kudos to Dior for adding her to their Academy Award-winning line-up: Marion Cotillard, Charlize Theron and Natalie Portman included.

On that note, Portman’s latest Miss Dior fragrance film, directed by Sofia Coppola, is also just out. “La vie en rose”, as it’s called, is a beautiful spot, and well worth the watch…

Digital snippets: Diesel, Wrangler, John Lewis, Covetique, Daily Mail, Grazia

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

• Diesel’s pre-internet shoe experience challenges consumers to go offline for three days [Creativity Online]

• Wrangler video reveals new Leipzig store design process [Checkland Kindleysides]

• John Lewis seeking to make social media a ‘more integrated’ part of its business [Marketing Magazine]

• Asos invests in luxury resale site Covetique [Telegraph Fashion]

• Daily Mail group launches fashion sharing website [Media Week]

• Grazia magazine launches on the iPad [Grazia]

• In a click, a vivid fashion garden: how technology is enabling a new genre of prints (as pictured) [NY Times]

• Everything you need to know about how mobile wallets work [Business Insider]

• Five ways to assess fashion / tech start-ups [Fashion's Collective]

British GQ launches watch-dedicated iPad app

Condé Nast Britain has launched its first standalone iPad app with the annual GQ Watch supplement this month.

The “essential guide to the world of watches” comes in an interactive digital format complete with special animated cover, enhanced editorial content and media rich ads. It was designed in-house at GQ and is also the first high definition app for the company.

Meanwhile, the main November issue of GQ is a dedicated James Bond special. It marks the 50th anniversary of the franchise and this month’s release of Skyfall.

Nina Ricci handbag campaign turns artsy with GIFs

Nina Ricci is the latest fashion house to turn to animated GIFs in its advertising, launching a beautifully artistic campaign for its new La Rue bag.

There are a total of four images seen brought to life by the handiwork of British artist Jo Ratcliffe. Each is reworked into what the brand refers to as “a series of modern, poetic illustrations”.

Set in iconic places in Paris, the nature of each ad is said to illustrate the different characters of the bag.

“[Within] the Promenade Plantée – Paris’s answer to the High Line – it appears soft and romantic, while on the Rue de Verneuil on the Left Bank, it is bewitching and bold. Chic and charismatic on the Avenue Montaigne, it becomes mysterious and elusive at Pigalle,” reads the write-up.

The three other images are shown below…

Mimco invites fans to create personalised digital kaleidoscopes

Australian accessories brand, Mimco, has launched a digital initiative called The Social Kaleidscope, which invites fans to create a personalised piece of artwork merging images from its new collection with their own photographs.

Selecting from three different shapes to fill, they can import pictures from their Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram accounts, and can combine them with Mimco product shots and its Season 2 campaign images starring model Jessica Gomes. They can then share their creations with friends back through social media.

The brand has also enlisted a number of tastemakers to the initiative, such as actress and presenter April-Rose Pengilly, blogger and stylist Micah Gianneli and illustrator Sarah Hankinson.

Below is one we made using a Mimco ring, vintage car from the brand’s campaign images, yellow fixture from one of its bags, a rainbow photographed on a grey day in our own back garden, and an Instagram shot of a turquoise painted wall with international clocks on it! Check it out:

Video: Anna Dello Russo announces H&M collection

This is a great video interview with fashion icon Anna Dello Russo in conjunction with today’s announcement of her forthcoming accessories collection for H&M.

Set in her private home, it simultaneously provides an intimate look at her own enormous collection of clothes and accessories (which she refers to as her “fashion bibliothèque”), and amusingly touches on her self-opinion as a fashion victim.

 

The H&M line will include jewellery, sunglasses, shoes and bags, and launch on October 4.

“I am excited by this collaboration: this is the first time H&M involves a fashion director in a special project. This is the sign of an important evolution in fashion, and I am both thrilled and humbled to be the one chosen to lead it. I wanted to create precious accessories that are impossible to find.  As a stylist I know accessorization is essential: it is the personal touch to any outfit. With these pieces everybody can have fun, turning an ordinary day into a fantastic fashion day,” she said.

New Roger Vivier line inspires digital puzzle

Roger Vivier has created an online puzzle as part of the launch surrounding its new Prismick accessories line.

Based on the late designer’s love for assembling collages, the simple game invites users to reconstruct an image of one of the collecion’s handbags by dragging surrounding tangram-like shapes into its shell.

It is housed on the brand’s website, which is also designed to reflect similar geometric patterns, tying in with the overall theme of the collection, as conceived by current creative  director, Bruno Frisoni (and as pictured below).

“Pumps and bags which play with fluctuating geometry,” reads an update on the Roger Vivier Facebook page. “A jigsaw puzzle in three dimensions.”

Digital snippets: Givenchy, Miu Miu, Chanel Boy, 7 for all Mankind, Gap, M&S

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

 

• Liv Tyler cover INXS song for new Very Irrésistible Givenchy Electric Rose fragrance ad (as above) [YouTube]

• Woman turns into a dress in Miu Miu’s new short film [The Cut]

• Alice Dellal stars Karl Lagerfeld’s short 1920s-inspired silent film for Chanel Boy [Fashionologie]

• First episode of 7 for all Mankind’s James Franco-directed video series starring Lily Donaldson, launches [7 for all Mankind blog]

• Gap uses bloggers for new Styld.by digital catalogue [PSFK]

• M&S brings discount Outlet offering online [Brand Republic]

 

Marion Cotillard in fifth Dior film short: ‘L.A.dy Dior’

The fifth installment in the Lady Dior short film series starring French actress Marion Cotillard has been released, this time shot in Los Angeles by director John Cameron Mitchell.

A comedy going by the name of “L.A.dy Dior”, it takes its inspiration from a 1973 Richard Avedon clip starring supermodel and actress Lauren Hutton. It focuses on a star being overwhelmed by a photoshoot:

As Mitchell says in the accompanying making-of video: “It’s something new for Dior”. See the rest of the behind-the-scenes interview with Cotillard and Mitchell, here:

[Pursuitist]