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!
Interactive images on Twitter? That sounds like something that would translate well to the fashion industry…
In which case, it’s worth knowing about ThingLink. A tool that let’s you “tag any image, with any content”, it was referred to by Mashable this week as having huge potential for brands and marketers following news of its link up with Twitter.
“Icons pop up when users hover over the image then, with a click, open up YouTube channels, audio clips, Facebook or Pinterest profiles, home pages, contact forms or anything else you would normally be able to link to the old-fashioned way,” reads their story. Click here to see an example of it in action.
They use an NBA team to illustrate an instance where images enhanced with links would work particularly well. But let’s translate it to fashion. Imagine a catwalk shot from (for argument’s sake, the easy option) Burberry. Now imagine if you could have a box that linked to play the full show on YouTube, or how about a click-through to the make-up looks up close.
Then we could also add in the Facebook page of the brand, not to mention one to Pinterest or to their all-new Instagram profile where all the backstage shots are housed. We might even consider adding the social profile of the model, thanks to a couple of nice integrated quotes from her. Now how about a link on one side that plays the soundtrack of the event via SoundCloud, or better yet sends fans to iTunes to buy it.
We could also think about an info box that lists detail about the product. And of course, a direct line into Burberry.com to enable everyone to pre-order it too.
The great thing is, ThingLink is ridiculously easy to use – so I did roughly the above with a Burberry SS13 show pic, and here immediately is the result (non-interactive version embedded below too).
As Mashable nicely sums up: “That single photo, in essence, just became a platform of its own.”
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.
Burberry kick-started the first in a series of global events last night with a multisensory experience in Taiwan that combined the brand’s pillars of British heritage, weather, music and fashion.
Staged in a custom cylindrical space, it included an eight-part 360-degree film featuring hologram Burberry models, digital rain that seemingly poured from the ceiling, and a live performance from British musician Tom Odell. The initiative follows on from the brand’s tech extravaganza in Beijing in 2011, and likewise celebrates the opening of a new flagship store; this time in Taipei’s 101 shopping centre.
Burberry World Live, as the series is being called, will now tour to other cities, including London, Hong Kong and Chicago.
“We created the Burberry World platform for our online community and tonight that came to life when we connected our guests with everything the brand stands for today, using original content to take them on an emotive and sensory journey, blurring the digital and physical dimensions of our brand,” said chief creative officer Christopher Bailey.
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.
Gucci is encouraging consumer interaction in its retail stores with the launch of a new immersive experience using groundbreaking technologies developed by experience design company OOOii.
Unveiled at its newly-renovated Milan via Montenapoleone flagship last week, the initiative includes 50 LCD video wall displays from Planar Systems tiled throughout the store that from 2012 will enable natural human-computer interaction.
Patrizio di Marco, Gucci’s president and CEO, said: “This multi-year Immersive Retail Experience initiative underlines our belief in the growing importance of creating highly impactful and sharable brand experiences across all of Gucci’s platforms and touch points by taking advantage of rapid advances in digital technology. The all-round sensory experience that a customer will now feel when approaching and entering our Montenapoleone store will create an unprecedented level of engagement.”
Three zones have been created in the store: the Immersive Window Display, the Immersive Entrance Display and the Immersive Women’s and Men’s Fashion Show Displays. Each one will showcase curated digital content.
In a second phase planned for 2012, additional functionalities will be introduced which will enable shoppers to interact via motion with the digital content they are viewing.
Inspired by the film Minority Report (on which OOOii also worked), simple hand gestures will enable consumers to pause, rewind and search what’s in front of them. They will also be able to receive images on their mobiles and send notifications to sales assistants in order to reserve items.
Kent Demaine, founder and CEO of OOOii, said: “For years Hollywood has perfected the art of merging virtual content into the physical world where the two appear to coexist. For Gucci, we have moved these techniques onto a scalable architecture so that this process can happen in real time. The ultimate goal is to allow consumers to explore the world of Gucci in effortless and highly engaging ways, while simultaneously allowing the brand to learn from this participation thereby informing the creation and presentation of future content.”
The technology will be progressively introduced to Gucci’s other stores worldwide over the next two years.
Burberry has partnered with Twitter for its spring/summer 2012 show due at 4pm today, providing fans with a backstage Twitpic of every look before it hits the runway.
The “Tweetwalk”, as it’s been named, will allow @Burberry Twitter followers to see the collection moments before anyone else and in so doing once again confirms the luxury label’s status as a digital innovator.
Twitter’s new media gallery photo functionality also allows all of the images to be viewed in full – click here to see.
“We are thrilled to create the first ever ‘’Tweetwalk show’’ in partnership with Twitter. Twitter is instantaneous and I love the idea that streaming a show can be in many different forms. This collection is all about the most detailed hand crafted pieces and fabric innovation, creating a beautiful physical experience that is communicated digitally in dynamic and diverse ways and I love balancing those two worlds,” said Burberry’s chief creative officer Christopher Bailey.
“Burberry was one of the first brands to truly understand Twitter’s ability to connect people all over the world with what’s most meaningful to them. Thanks to their creativity, fashion lovers everywhere will be able to see the new Burberry collection even before those in the front row,” added Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter UK.
The initiative comes as part of a move to offer fans the experience of the show from start to finish, providing them with greater access than ever before – in fact more so than those present – to enable them to feel a real part of the story.
Accordingly, the live-stream continues as per previous seasons with coverage of the red carpet in the build up to the event. It can be seen on various media partner sites as well as on Burberry.com and the brand’s YouTube and Facebook pages. For the first time, the brand’s 8m Facebook fans are also able to stream the show on their own page.
Meanwhile, the brand’s Instagram account is also joining in the action, this time with British photographer Mike Kus, the most followed user in the UK, at the helm.
And for those interested in buying spring/summer 2012 immediately, the brand’s runway to reality concept continues this season too – offering consumers the ability to purchase items from the collection exclusively online and at in-store events worldwide for one week for delivery within just eight weeks.
Meanwhile, those lucky enough to have a ticket to the show, will also be welcomed by “an immersive, multi-faceted experience” surrounding the brand’s new Burberry Body fragrance.
A 4-D hologram of face Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will be showcased in a scented room using innovative virtual imagery first pioneered by the brand for its Beijing store launch earlier this year.
Burberry’s “music, fashion and tech extravaganza” is streaming live from Beijing, now. Expect to see ground-breaking virtual image technology placing live models against animated footage and life-like holograms. Not to mention British band Keane performing for the first time in China.
Burberry is set to celebrate the opening of its new flagship store in Beijing with its most immersive experience to date, combining music, fashion and technology.
Live-streamed from the Beijing Television Centre on April 13, the event will see ground-breaking virtual image technology placing live models against animated footage and life-like holograms. British band Keane will perform throughout.
A sensory element is also supposed to feature, with rumour of the weather playing a part.
“I love the creativity, vibrancy and history of China with its exciting and dynamic energy and it is a huge privilege to be flying the flag for Britain in the magnificent city of Beijing connecting all of our global communities to celebrate everything Burberry represents today from music, to heritage and innovation,” said chief creative officer Christopher Bailey.
The event will welcome 1,000 VIP guests, but as usual with Burberry, also be live-streamed online and to 50 stores around the world.
At the new Beijing store, a 12,500sq ft space at Sparkle Roll Plaza (as pictured), the extravaganza will be viewable on the giant flat-screen LED video walls.
On Keane’s participation, lead singer Tom Chaplin, said: “I met Christopher Bailey a few years ago. He’s a big fan of Keane and I’m a big fan of what he does for Burberry, so we hit it off. Christopher suggested that we should team up to create an incredible event combining music, new technology, and fashion in one of the world’s most vibrant and exciting cities, Beijing.
“It’ll be our first trip to China, and we hope to put on a show that will surprise and delight the folks of that fascinating and brilliant country.”
He announced the band’s participation in the event through a short video on Facebook, as below:
