Below, then, are the 10 posts you loved the most on fashion & mash this year. It’s an interesting collection, seemingly tied together by tangible experiences over purely inspirational concepts. We’re talking physical pop-up platforms, real-time shoppable integrations, heavily interactive images and of course, wearable technology hitting the catwalk.
Thank you for reading and look out for a very exciting update from us early on in 2013!
It’s great to hear therefore, the team has launched a browser verison. At www.valentinogaravanimuseum.com, users can now explore the archives of the designer within their internet journey. There are still a couple of hoops to jump, such as downloading a plug-in, but the overall result is simpler, more appealing and should help up traffic.
At the original launch last year, Valentino Garavani’s business partner Giancarlo Giammetti spoke about keeping the virtual concept exciting by staying abreast of technological change. He also promised frequent content updates to the museum, including new drawings and videos.
That is finally happening with the web browser launch too. Two new videos have been added: one from Valentino’s collaboration with the New York City Ballet (as below), and the other of the recent presentation of his Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, in Paris. Hopefully there’ll be more to follow.
The site also has a dedicated homepage (before the plug-in) featuring news, pics of the week and an ‘In the Press’ section – nice for SEO and further suggestive of more regular content updates.
Offline, Valentino’s couture archive specifically is the subject of a new exhibition at Somerset House in London, opening this Thursday, November 29.
Appropriate for the forthcoming holiday period, the “X”, like each of the other letters before it, comes with online content relevant to the history of the French fashion house. In this case, it’s a specially-commissioned track called “I follow you (Melo’s Chloé Christmas Kiss Mix)” by Paris-based singer Melody Prochet of Melody’s Echo Chamber (embedded below).
“This song is in tribute to Chloé, Chloé women and celebrating 60 years of all of us, it’s our theme tune in a way. So to all who have supported, designed for, bought, worn, written and talked about, shared, followed, loved and lusted after Chloé, we say thank you – this is for you. Enjoy!” reads the write-up.
This 26th and final letter also sees the archive – created by digital agency Guided Collective – become an “intimate invitational tool” from Monday. Users will be able to type in the name of a friend and send them a bespoke version of the Chloé heritage, relative to the letters that make up their name (demonstrated below).
“As [founder Gaby Aghion] once used the alphabet to inspire creativity and fun, we want you to continue the journey and introduce this wonderful story to a friend,” it says.
Lanvin has released another video of its founder Jeanne Lanvin, this time at work supervising fittings and making final adjustments on her collection before its unveiling to the press.
The historical, recently-discovered footage shows the designer, who lived from 1867 to 1946, busy with the last-minute preparations at 22 Faubourg Saint Honoré, which remains the flagship store of the brand today.
A beautiful glimpse into fashion history, it documents the launch of her “Sorbier”, “Tubéreuse” and “Azalée” eveningwear designs. It also provides a look inside her office. “This is not just a dressmaking studio; it is a veritable cabinet of curiosities furnished by the famous Eugène Printz and houses her fabric library,” read the notes.
The notes also suggest films resurfacing from the founder’s era such as this one are “thanks to the digitalisation of cinematic archives by companies such as INA or Gaumont-Pathé”.
It might not be the industry’s most exciting story, but it’s great to see Chanel not only announce something digital-related, but do so with an exclusive on a tech site – Mashable.
The French fashion house launched a new miscrosite dedicated to the history of its founder and its legacy products on Friday.
Inside-chanel.com currently features a timeline of the brand from Coco Chanel’s birth in 1883, to its direction under Karl Lagerfeld in present day, as well as a section focused on the No. 5 fragrance.
“Chapter One”, as the latter is referred to, looks at how “a revolutionary scent created in 1921 continues to be the best-selling and most famous fragrance in the world,” according to the company’s Facebook page.
It includes chronological ads (print and TV) as well as a short film called For the First Time, as shown below.
According to Mashable, additional sections accompanied by films will be introduced to the site over time.
“Telling our history on the web and making it accessible to as many people as people is yet another way of marking our difference, reaffirming our values and forming emerging markets by enabling them to discover a world to which until now they had little — or no — access,” a Chanel spokesperson said. “We have always been an innovative brand — that is what we wanted to get across.”
Mashable adds: “Chanel, it’s worth pointing out, only sells its fragrance and beauty collections online, but the company has upped its investment in online content over the past couple of years, particularly in the development of short films.”
A couple of other examples worth checking out include Valentino’s digital archive, and Dior’s online magazine. Check out the No. 5 film below, as well as a number of images from the Inside Chanel site…
Chloé is celebrating its 60th anniversary with an interactive digital archive to accompany its Chloé.Attitudes exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
The Alphabet, as it’s called, is an online exploration of the French fashion house’s heritage from 1952 to current day. Created by digital agency Guided Collective, it plays on the idea of founder Gaby Aghion’s own naming of her collections and garments, taking each letter of the alphabet and assigning it a relevant theme.
The first five letters were, unsurprisingly, C H L O and E. They launched simultaneously last week with a short film each (shown below) directed by Poppy De Villeneuve, Julie Verhoeven, Kathryn Ferguson, Stéphanie Di Giusto and Mary Clerté, who interpreted the themes of counter-couture, horses, light, O (roundness) and embroidery respectively.
The rest of the archive letters will be brought to life with further documentary films, previously unseen imagery, past advertising, sketches and collection references, editorial and even specially-commissioned music.
“Individually [they tell] a fragment of the story; collectively [they form] a mosaic of Chloé’s iconic moments, inspirations and heritage,” reads the write-up.
A new letter is currently launching every other day, revealed by a famous blogger worldwide before appearing on The Alphabet microsite. Once they are all live, users will be able to send friends an invitation featuring their own version of the heritage, relative to the letters that make up their name.
Referred to as playful, immersive, imaginative and compelling, the site is available in six languages worldwide and across multiple devices.
It’s been kept under cloak and dagger for months on end, but finally the Vogue Archive is live.
And what a feat…
Every page of every issue since 1892 has been digitised; that’s over 400,000 full-colour images of covers, ads, features, fashion portfolios, illustrations and more, in their original context. As they say, “the essential resource for fashion, design and marketing professionals”.
Powered globally by online trend analysis and research service WGSN, it offers an unparalleled record of fashion, social and cultural history. As such, it provides a rich resource for everyone from designers to students.
Steve Markov, president of WGSN Americas, says: “As the world’s leading trend forecaster and supplier of digital inspiration tools for the fashion and design industries, WGSN is ideally suited to maximize the commercial potential of the Vogue Archive. Both WGSN and the Vogue Archive are must-haves for any creative, design, or fashion business. The integration of two such powerful resources is an industry first.”
The archive is enhanced by the fact it also allows users to search and refine results; sorting by articles, images, covers, or advertisements; as well as decade, issue, brand, designer, photographer or model. That’s hours on end of my day gone then…
As reported last month, it showcases five decades of the designer’s fashion history in an immersive 3-D experience; 300 dresses, 5000 images, 100 show videos, all in an equivalent real-world space of 10,000sq m.
Although officially retired from Valentino ‘the brand’, Valentino Garavani and his business partner Giancarlo Giammetti (pictured above) have been working on it for the past two years.
Speaking at a press conference in New York this morning (watch on YouTube), the duo explained that the aim was to showcase the work of a “life dedicated to beauty”, and make it accessible to as many people as possible.
It’s a particularly interesting move for a traditionally non tech-savvy brand (Giammetti joked at Valentino’s inability to even turn the television on).
“It all started with where to keep the enormous amount of things we’ve collected for nearly 50 years,” said Giammetti. “How to make it available to everyone that wants to see it; and how to make it exciting year after year without things becoming dusty or obsolete. Why not then use modern technology… where everyone can move with just a click.”
Albeit in essence a legacy space, Giammetti was quick to highlight that the work continues tomorrow; both in terms of keeping up with technological change, and providing fresh content.
Indeed to encourage return visitors, there will be frequent updates to the museum, be it additional rooms, new drawings and ideas – as suggested by Valentino – or video insights from the likes of Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue who also spoke this morning.
Giammetti pointed out that the museum was funded by themselves and has no sponsors. For them, the numbers are irrelevant, he said. The app is free to download in anycase.
Nonetheless, it will be intriguing to see how it actually does. The McQueen exhibition at the Met was one of the Costume Institute’s most successful of all time; if you were interested in fashion – indeed even if you weren’t – it proved a must-see on the New York calendar this year. Could an online museum ever have the same pulling power?
But perhaps that’s irrelevant. What counts is that Valentino is advancing the fashion industry. While digital destinations to accompany exhibitions have been played with for a few years, virtual archive museums in their entirety are now likely to become increasingly commonplace.
Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway, who hosted the press conference, explained how Valentino and Giammetti together helped shape the industry in the 1960s. “Now, they’re repeating that inspiration,” she said, “setting the bar for other fashion brands around the world.”
I agree.
See below for a virtual tour of the museum, as well as a number of pictures from within it…
Valentino is set to launch a virtual museum that will showcase five decades of the designer’s fashion history in an immersive 3-D experience.
A downloadable desktop application connected to an online database, it captures over 300 dresses from the Valentino archive, organised by theme.
Users can explore different galleries and wings that would likely cover over 10,000sq m in an actual museum. There are also sketches, illustrations, advertising campaigns and red carpet as well as event photos accompanying each dress.
Photos and videos celebrate the special events and exhibitions from Valentino Garavani and his business partner Giancarlo Giammetti’s history, from the 1968 White Collection to the 2011 White Fairy Tale Love Ball. And there’s a media library cataloguing more than 5000 images including dresses, photos, drawings and 95 show videos.
A short video introduction has just launched (as below), while users are currently being invited to register their email addresses on the site to keep up with news on the December 5 launch.
The museum has been created by Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, with support from Valentino SpA. It was designed and produced by Novacom Associes in Paris, in collaboration with Kinmonth-Monfreda Design Project in London.
