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

eBay opens social shopping experience in London’s Covent Garden – pictures

eBay is hosting a “social shopping” pop-up in London over the weekend to tie in with what it predicts to be its busiest online shopping day of the year in the UK. Over six million people are expected to log on to its site this Sunday, and a significant number of those are likely to come from mobile, it says.

No surprise then, the Covent Garden setup is built around how to make the most of eBay using your smartphone or tablet, recognising at the same time how important social media is in that space too.

I just went along to check it out, as the pictures above and below show. On display is a real-time barometer of the most talked about gifts and products over Twitter, an augmented reality experience highlighting this year’s must-have toys (note the Furby in the below shot), an example of its image recognition technology in action, and more.

That latter one sees a number of fashion bloggers pictured on the wall alongside a fabric swatch they’ve picked out. Each one can be scanned using the eBay fashion app to bring up similar colours and items available across the site. We trialled our scarves to double check they weren’t preloaded results – it did of course work wonderful.

eBay says mobile technologies such as this, as well as augmented reality and 3D, will present the UK retail industry with a potential boost of £2.4bn by 2014.

Carrie Bienkowski, head of buyer experience at eBay, said it’s changing the way we shop. “Consumers now carry a global showroom in their pocket and are increasingly as inclined to seek recommendations online and shop mobile as visit the high street. At eBay we expect 2012 to be our most successful mobile Christmas ever with around 30% of the most popular Christmas products being bought through a smartphone.”

eBay’s social shopping pop-up space is open from today until Sunday – if you’re in the area, check it out.

Farfetch celebrates Christmas with designer augmented reality wrapping paper

Farfetch.com’s augmented reality gift wrap by (left to right) Meadham Kirchhoff, Melinda Gibson, Margot Bowman and Gary Card

Online marketplace Farfetch.com is launching augmented reality gift wrap for the holiday season using image recognition technology from Aurasma.

Based on exclusive illustrations from four emerging creatives, the wrapping paper can be scanned using the Aurasma app on smartphone or tablet devices to reveal behind-the-scenes videos of the respective design process.

These fly-on-the-wall films document the gift wrap from sketchpad to sign-off, alongside interviews with each of the four creatives: design duo Meadham Kirchhoff (film shown below), photographer Melinda Gibson, artist and DJ Margot Bowman, and set designer and illustrator Gary Card.

The designs will be printed on 40,000 reams of wrapping paper and dispatched with all Farfetch orders from now until December 19.

CEO and founder of Farfetch.com, Jose Neves, said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with four dynamic names from the worlds of art and design, bringing these one-off creations to our online platform and sharing with a worldwide, fashion-forward audience. The campaign as a whole will offer users and customers exclusive access to the entire ‘Unwrap’ journey, creating what we hope will be an unrivalled online shopping experience.”

That ‘Unwrap’ concept will also see each design featured as wallpaper on the site (as with Meadham Kirchoff below) for a week, and a social Pass the Parcel game. Here, consumers are invited to click to win daily designer gifts and then share the parcel with their friends to gain more entries into the grand prize draw. The game also includes a world map that features a live feed of players around the globe.

In another phyiscal translation of the campaign, the Meadham Kirchoff print is also wrapping two London taxis (also shown below) from November 26 for a week. Passengers jumping in for a ride will receive festive cakes from food blogger April Carter of Rhubarb & Rose, and another chance to win designer gifts from Farfetch.com.

Digital snippets: Georg Jensen, Macy’s, Muji, Sanctuary Spa, Marc Jacobs, Pinterest

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

• Holition and Georg Jensen create 3D augmented reality app (as pictured) [Retail Jeweller]

• Macy’s Twitter and Facebook pages overrun with anti-Trump comments [Mashable]

• Muji to push knitwear via e-paper tallies of Facebook likes [Nikkei]

• Sanctuary Spa rolls out beauty e-commerce platform on YouTube [Marketing Magazine]

• Marc Jacobs launches new luxury, e-commerce experience [InsideFMM]

• Pinterest launches business pages to get cozy with brands [AdAge]

• Deciphering the devices: tablets versus smartphones [WWD]

• Why mobile commerce is set to explode [Business Insider]

• Most e-commerce froth since 2000 stirs up investor doubts: tech [Boomberg]

DVF introduces Google Glass to NYFW catwalk

Models took to Diane von Furstenberg’s New York Fashion Week catwalk yesterday wearing augmented reality eyewear supplied by Google.

Google Glass, as the technology is known, lets users interact with the digital world through what looks like a cyborg cross between glasses and headgear, with a small square of glass functioning as a screen over the right eye.

Although still in early stages, it’s designed to offer a variety of smartphone capabilities, including effortless viewing of messages, taking pictures and recording video.

“It’s been under development for over two years now, and the goal is to really connect you to digital life without really taking you away from real life,” Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, told WWD. In a statement from Google he added that beauty, style and comfort are as important to Glass as the latest technology.

But it’s the idea of sharing that DVF particularly wanted to tap into. “Are you ready to see the DVF runway show from an entirely new perspective?” she teased over social media along with the #dvfthroughglass hashtag ahead of its start.

What that referred to was not only the fact the Google Glass eyewear would be taking to the catwalks, but also that she and team had been using it to record footage from their own viewpoints throughout. The result will be documented in a short film called “DVF through Glass” due for release this Thursday on the designer’s  Google+ page and Google’s YouTube channel.

“For the past week, we’ve been using Glass to capture the DVF creative process from entirely new perspectives. Soon you’ll get a glimpse into what it’s like to design, prepare and experience the DVF show at New York Fashion Week through Diane’s eyes and a few other views,” reads the statement.

A series of images were also posted during the show of the device in action (shown below), including it being worn by Brin with DVF herself (as above).

Although introduced as Project Glass in April, this is the first time it has been experimented with in a commercial capacity, especially within the fashion industry. Reports suggest a launch could be expected as early as 2013, with a retail price in the region of $1,500. DVF’s versions were colour-coordinated with her new spring/summer 2013 collection.

[Images via DVF, Mashable, WGSN and WWD]

 

Stylist mag launches interactive #Olympics issue with Blippar

Stylist magazine launched its first augmented reality issue today with an interactive cover featuring Great Britain’s synchronised swimming team.

Enabled through a partnership between the UK free weekly title and image recognition app Blippar, the cover can be scanned to trigger a video of the Olympic hopefuls performing an exclusive routine.

“We knew we wanted to do something really special to mark the Olympics, and when we spoke to the Blippar team it became apparent they could help us create something innovative that would totally engage our readers and celebrate this incredible event,” said editor Lisa Smosarski.

The issue has various additional scannable pages throughout (recognisable by the Blippar logo), giving readers access to more videos as well as social media content and a “Style List” you can shop directly from. There’s also an Olympic medal leader board due to be updated daily throughout the Games.

“There’s so much to see, do and play with in this issue,” Smosarski adds in a video explaining how to use the app, here.

Stylist follows in the footsteps of Tatler and Asos who have previously made their magazines come to life using augmented reality.

Digital snippets: Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, Rebecca Minkoff, Next

It’s set to be a bit of a quiet week on here as I head to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and become consumed in all things ad-land.

Be sure to check out all the action via Twitter as usual though, and in the meantime, read on for a handful of great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

• Michael Kors launches digital series ‘Living the Kors Life’ (episode one above) [FashionGoneRogue]

• Next rolls out Facebook app to mark 30 years of fashion [Marketing magazine]

• Louis Vuitton pushes Kusama collection via augmented reality app [Luxury Daily]

• Rebecca Minkoff to bring new lookbook to life with animated GIFs [WWD]

• E-Commerce is head over heels for Pinterest, and for good reason [All Things D]

• Retailers feast on free Facebook tools, shun ads [Reuters]

• Luxe brands register for domain names [WWD]

Holographic model animates Paris lingerie windows, AR to facilitate ‘street shopping’

There’s been a couple of great examples of virtual technologies applied to the fashion industry this past week.

The first is from Empreinte, a French underwear brand that showcased a 3D holographic mannequin in its Paris store from May 23 – 26.

The masked and lingerie-clad model, who only appeared after 9pm when it was dark outside, grabbed attention by moving around in the window of the boutique for passersby to see, before disappearing in a shower of stars.

Take a look at the video below:

The second example is actually just an idea, but I loved the pic that went with it, not to mention the very simple concept of being able to see what items people are wearing by using augmented reality.

How many times do we like the look of someone else’s outfit in the subway and never know where it’s come from? And how long until we can, giving new meaning to the term ‘street shopping’…

Asos partners with Aurasma on scan to shop app

Asos is making its print magazine shoppable straight from the page, thanks to a new partnership with augmented reality technology company Aurasma.

The online retailer has introduced a “Scan to Shop” app that will enable the mag’s 450,000 readers to bring any one of 50 pages to video life via their smartphones, and then click to buy immediately from the Asos mobile site.

Asos has also incorporated a digital treasure hunt in the magazine, with hidden symbols leading to exclusive offers when unlocked.

Duncan Edwards of Asos Magazine, said: “We know our readers love fashion and their mobiles and this app unites the two. Our readers look forward to receiving the magazine in the post, but they also want the convenience and immediacy of shopping via their phones. Our new “Scan to Shop” app uses Aurasma to bring the two experiences – reading the magazine and shopping online – together seamlessly.”

To use the feature, readers must just download the Scan to Shop app from the App Store or Google Play.

The initiative sees Asos added to a rapidly growing list of fashion brands using Aurasma’s innovative image-recognition technology, included among them Net-a-Porter, Dunhill, Debenhams and most recently eBay.