Digital snippets: Tumblr, Versace, Club Monaco, Chanel, Abercrombie, McQueen

A round-up of recent stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital:

• Is a Yahoo-owned Tumblr more attractive to brands? [AdAge]

• Versace transforms Versus line into a ‘digital brand’ (as pictured) [Fmag]

• Club Monaco creates all-blogger look book (and launches it on Tumblr) [DisneyRollerGirl]

• Keira Knightley stars as Coco Chanel for new Karl Lagerfeld film, Once Upon a Time [Fashionologie]

• Video takes aim at Abercrombie & Fitch for “exclusionary” policy, spurs homeless campaign [Hollywood Reporter]

• Alexander McQueen and McQ websites get new look [WWD]

• Why Victoria’s Secret and Burberry win in social media — and other fashion brands fail [Business Insider]

• The seven species of social commerce [Mashable]

• YouTube jumps into retail with shoppable videos for brand channels, first client is Unilever’s Tresemmé [BrandChannel]

• Wearable technology market set to explode, could reach $50 billion, says Credit Suisse [BoF]

Infographic: wearable tech and the significant lack of fashion brand presence

There was a great piece on The Business of Fashion last week looking at the lack of fashion brands in the wearable technology space and calling for them to start taking it more seriously.

This is an industry that’s estimated to be worth $10bn by 2016, making those in the fashion business at risk of “losing highly lucrative real estate on the emerging battleground of the human body”, it highlights.

“People only have two wrists and one face. And personal accessories are where fashion and luxury brands make a sizable chunk of their revenues,” it continues. “As young technology companies slowly but surely start to develop wearables with more evolved aesthetics, will consumers still have room for bracelets, watches and sunglasses that may look good, but lack appealing functionality?”

Footwear retailer Brantano meanwhile, has just released an infographic via Mashable detailing some of the devices that are either on the market already, in prototype or rumoured to be coming. Laid out from head to toe, it includes the likes of Google Glass, of course, followed by the Pebble smart watch, the Lumoback posture belt and a Kinect jacket called Woven.

If it does anything, however, it’s to support the BoF piece – there is next to zero fashion brands present in the list. Will we get to the point where this shifts?

2012: a designer meets digital year in review

Well what a year it’s been…

From designer musical chairs to the launch of the Nike FuelBand, not to mention Facebook’s overhyped IPO, the increasing use of animated GIFs in online communications, and Burberry as our ever-present tech powerhouse, one thing after another has rapidly impacted the role of innovation in this niche fashion x digital space.

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!

• C&A Brazil puts Facebook likes on store hangers to push Mother’s Day collection

• DVF introduces Google Glass to NYFW catwalk

• Topshop #LFW show to offer customisable, instantly shoppable looks online

• Physical Pinterest board pops up at Westfield UTC mall

• ThingLink’s interactive Twitter images could be a natural fit for fashion brands

• Levi’s launches first brand magazine on Flipboard

• Asos partners with Aurasma on scan to shop app

• Chloé launches digital archive for 60-year celebration

• Harrods launches Pinterest contest for Queen’s Diamond Jubilee windows

• Shoppable films: fad or future?

Lacoste film envisions intelligent polo shirts of the future

 

Lacoste is celebrating its 80th birthday and honouring the visionary spirit of its founder, Rene Lacoste, with a video short that highlights how future technology might impact the classic polo shirt.

Created by agency MNSTR, the spot sees the item reinterpreted as an intelligent and dynamic piece of design – one that can change colour to its surroundings, adjust its crocodile logo at the touch of a finger and even add longer length sleeves or better fitting shoulders appropriate to the occasion.

“[It's] an intelligent polo, a connected polo, one that listens to its environment… a polo with no limits,” reads the write-up.

As though the surface of a tablet or smartphone, the models are seen effortlessly swiping, pinching and adapting various features of the styles they wear throughout. A tennis player keeps score on her front in another frame for instance, while a cyclist turns her horizontal stripes into portrait ones.

And that’s not all… While the spot highlights an “attainable future”, a dedicated microsite at www.lacoste-future.com encourages consumers to imagine “possibilities [that] are endless”. Accordingly, they are invited to send in their own vision of tomorrow’s polo shirt via Facebook.com/Lacoste. The most original and unique ideas will then be featured on that page at a later date.

Appropriately, the initiative launches for December 12, 2012, otherwise known as 12.12.12, which also ties in with the code name Rene Lacoste first gave to the polo shirt in 1933: L.12.12.

You might also like this story: Bloomingdale’s pushes wearable technology with Microsoft Printing Dress for #FNO and this infographic on wearble tech

Bloomingdale’s pushes wearable technology with Microsoft Printing Dress for #FNO

One of the technology highlights from yesterday’s Fashion’s Night Out in New York, was the presence of Microsoft’s Printing Dress in Bloomingdale’s.

A research project exploring the intersection of fashion and technology, it showcases real-time tweets by integrating computer components and a projector under the surface of its skirt.

Consumers were encouraged to tag their Twitter posts with #MSBloomingdales to then see them appear on the dress.

The award-winning protoype (first presented at the Design Exhibition at the International Symposium of Wearable Computers in San Francisco in 2011) is otherwise made almost entirely out of black and white rice paper.

Although at this stage it’s essentially an art installation, the dress could also theoretically see wearers typing messages on the keyboard incorporated in its bodice to then project for everyone to see.

Bloomingdale’s was also playing host to the Swivel virtual dressing room from FaceCake in its window displays, which makes use of Microsoft Kinect to allow consumers to try-on items by interacting from the other side of the glass. See more in the video below, and read what else Microsoft is up to during New York Fashion Week, here.

Wearable tech: infographic

There’s an incredible Infographic on Mashable today looking at up-and-coming wearable technology from head-to-toe. Check it out below: