All manner of social initiatives took place during New York Fashion Week last week, ranging from a digital concierge at Tommy Hilfiger to the use of Snapchat at Rebecca Minkoff. Here’s a round-up of it all:
Over 630,000 viewers watched New York Fashion Week online, but designers still fail to live up to their European counterparts [Mashable]
#NYFW digital highlight: Tommy Hilfiger’s social concierge [Fashion&Mash]
Rebecca Minkoff to debut runway looks on Snapchat [Mashable]
Kenneth Cole unveils Vine mosaic during #NYFW show [Fashion&Mash]
Revlon provides collection sneak peek over Pinterest during #NYFW [Fashion&Mash]
Pinterest entices huge brands in special fashion week pages [Venture Beat]
Giant digital installation anchors Phillip Lim for Target NYFW event [Fashion&Mash]
How designers make the moments when fashion clicks [WSJ]
A look at how Instagram is changing New York Fashion Week [Fashionista]
This interactive fashion feature from The New York Times is also worth checking out, it showcases seven big shows in a series of expandable visual sliders, as well as what it calls ‘fashion fingerprints’ – a digital breakdown of the key colours for the new season.
Topshop is partnering with a start-up called Chirp for its upcoming Unique show at London Fashion Week in order to share pieces of content via sound with those in attendance.
Chirp is an iPhone app that refers to itself as a “magical new way to share your stuff”. Essentially it encrypts pictures, notes or links as a type of “digital birdsong” – users post their content, then hit a big yellow button to emit a unique 20-note chirp, which other devices running the app nearby can pick up.
Here’s its own explanation of how it works: “You can think of a chirp as a tiny piece of music. Each chirp lasts about two seconds. The system listens out for a couple of dozen notes played rapidly in a certain order, within a certain range, at a certain speed. The audio engine tries to decode the sequence of notes into a sequence of letters which our server understands. The server then returns a link to the user so they can go wherever the short code points: to a webpage, say. This decode all happens in realtime on your phone.” A more technical introduction can also be found on its website.
What all this means is that users don’t need to login and follow Topshop to be able to receive the content, rather by being in proximity (i.e. at the show) they will be able to simply “hear the data” when they’re running the app. The retailer will be sending out images from several Chirp locations around the site, ranging from shots of the pattern room where the clothes were made, to the collection backstage, the hair and make-up tests, and the models walking down the catwalk. It has also added a new and unique aspect to the application whereby tapping on each image will flip it around to reveal more info and extra content.
Further reading shows Chirps can also work over PA systems, as well as in YouTube videos, meaning Topshop could potentially share the same pieces of content with anyone listening from home.
Its website however will host a gallery of the images so anyone tuning into the live-stream can also see them. As below, they will sit atop additional content pulled from Twitter from both the brand’s own account and from key fashion insiders it has asked to contribute from front row and backstage.
Meanwhile, its Oxford Circus store will feature a Chirp and Twitter Garden full of digital content for shoppers to explore (as the picture above demonstrates).
“Each season, we set ourselves the challenge to innovate and excite in a different way with the Unique show; not only in terms of our collection and show space, but also how to engage with and involve Topshop fans worldwide. The link with Chirp is fun and we love the fact that it allows people to discover new aspects of the collection and what goes on behind the scenes at Unique through creating iconic images to story tell,” said Sir Philip Green.
Topshop has of course previously made its mark in the digital space by teaming up with mega-tech companies including Google and Facebook around its collections. But it says this move is all about supporting emerging talent – taking the same approach it has with burgeoning young designers for instance, to what it believes is a pioneering new app.
Its team members told me they’re “experimenting with something that’s new”, “just having a bit of a play” and “seeing what they can get out of it”.
The brand will also be continuing its Customise the Catwalk and Shoot the Show initiatives, as well as offering followers the option to download the show’s soundtrack from iTunes and click to buy the make-up looks. Check out its trailer for the event below:
It was created by one of Twitter’s own video producers, Ian Padgham, and nicely plays on the idea of models as dolls; moving, flicking and capturing them as they walk down the catwalk with his own fingertips in a clever form of stop motion animation.
I started this post with every intention of writing only about the beautiful videos Dolce & Gabbana has been posting on Vine surrounding its Milan Fashion Week show this week. Three in particular stand out – each of them zooming in on the intricate detail of the brand’s autumn/winter 2013/14 collection; the Byzantine and Venetian mosaic dresses, the elaborate jewellery and the beautifully beaded accessories.
Alas, those six-second loops are only viewable within the app itself and not on the brand’s Twitter or Facebook pages where they could also have been posted. On those instead however, is such a wealth of rich and relevant content on the collection otherwise, that it still seemed worth highlighting.
The craftsmanship and the inspiration behind the line – that would be the golden mosaics of Sicily’s Cathedral of Monreale – are the focus.
“It’s all in the details: the shoes of the Mosaics Collection are as intricate as the clothes,” reads a photo album dedicated to footwear images on Facebook. It was posted less than 12 hours ago and already has 30,000 likes and over 5,000 shares. The shot below by itself, meanwhile, has 7,000 likes, nearly 2,500 shares and over 500 comments.
There are also albums dedicated specifically to the collection as a whole, the handbags individually, and the action backstage at the show. Each were originally posted on Swide.com, the Italian brand’s editorial property, which also hosts pages all about the sunglasses, the jewellery and the textures, not to mention the architecture and the mosaics of the cathedral itself.
For record – albeit a little repetitive by this point – there are also multiple posts on the brand’s Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr pages.
A pre-show video meanwhile documents in a beautiful 30-seconds the artisans at work on their “slow and precise” mosaic-making. “The Mosaics Collection is perhaps one of the most intricate yet by Dolce & Gabbana which makes the video and crafts displayed all the more special,” reads the write-up.
And that’s the point here – the craftsmanship, talent and beauty of fashion is what so often makes it speak for itself if you just push the content out in the right direction. You don’t even have to like this collection to see why it works so wonderfully on social media.
Personalisation just got a whole lot smarter thanks to a new initiative from Burberry, which is launching as part of its London Fashion Week show on Monday.
The British heritage brand is embedding digital chips that will unlock bespoke content in its new season’s coats and bags in a bid to entice consumers to pre-order them immediately after they hit the catwalk.
The chips will activate short films (as demonstrated below) to bring the product in question to life, telling the story of its creation, from sketches to runway edits. They will also show video of the customer’s name being engraved on metal nameplates — also new this season — that are stitched into the lining of the coats and bags.
Users will be able to see the videos when their items are put in contact with smartphone or tablet devices logged into Burberry.com thanks to a new technology the company will reveal more information about at the delivery date (expected within nine weeks). For consumers in London who are able to visit the brand’s digitally integrated Regent Street flagship store, the same chips will prompt the videos to appear on its large-scale mirrors, which turn into screens.
While this “Smart Personalisation” concept demonstrates how technology can benefit Burberry shoppers, the brand also has plans to connect with its broader fanbase using social media. On the day after the show, Burberry will invite followers to tweet with the hashtag #madefor, so they can receive personalized images of their own bespoke nameplate, for example.
The show will also be live-streamed within Burberry’s Twitter feed for the first time, as well as online and in the Regent Street store. Additional access will be provided through two Instagram accounts: @Burberry will share images from backstage, the red carpet and the runway, while @Burberry_Live will take more detailed images of the collection to feed into Burberry.com’s dashboard.
Where Topshop launched a model cam for its show on Sunday, Burberry is also promoting backstage interaction with its models. The “Burberry Beauty Booth” will share images taken by models with the brand’s followers in real-time, when they tweet with the #BeautyBooth hashtag.
The Digital Fashion Shows initiative launched by PR agency KCD in 2012 as an invite-only online catwalk series for press and buyers, will be open to the public for the first time this season.
Kickstarting for autumn/winter 2013/14 during New York Fashion Week, the virtual runway shows aim to provide fans with the same “front row experience” as industry insiders. A slicker version than live-streamed affairs, however, they incorporate a pre-recorded catwalk presentation, high res images ready for download, detailed notes about the collection, and even beauty shots.
“The log-in response from non-invitees was tremendous and as it continued to grow with each digital show it became necessary to respond to our client’s request to open the platform’s doors wider for greater exposure,” said Rachna Shah, KCD’s digital managing director.
Accordingly, the now open nature of the platform will also enable users to share each show via email and social media for the first time this season, as well as invite friends to watch.
Designers Peter Som and Pierre Balmain have already announced participation, hosting their runways on the site on Wednesday, February 13 at 9am EST, and Friday, February 8 at 9am EST, respectively.
Som said: “The eye goes through an added process designing for the digital runway. You see the looks more dimensionally and more cinematically which is an inspiring new challenge.” He explained that the format will provide “an opportunity to try out a new platform that can reach a lot of people. The show will tap right into the digital and online presence of my brand and it will allow me to try something new creatively.” It is being shot at Made at Milk in New York and wil feature eight models.
Pierre Balmain meanwhile is using DFS for the second season, previously with a show recorded in Beijing, this time in Paris. Menswear brand Alexander Plokhov will also show on the site on Saturday, February 9 at 10am EST. Further announcements will follow for Paris.
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!
Forget playing dress-up, forget virtual shopping malls, forget anything too girly or flirty, a new mobile game called Fashion Hazard has just hit the app store from Condé Nast that’s all about action.
Set on the catwalks of New York, London, Milan and Paris, it requires players to swipe, tilt and tap their way through all manner of obstacles to collect virtual currency, known as “bling”.
Competing to begin with as a naïve model called Ellie, there is everything from hissing snakes (a not-so-subtle metaphor for fashion industry types, says AdWeek) and retro stereos to contend with, not to mention the occasional can of red paint as though straight from a live PETA demonstration. As you progress, a more experienced model becomes available to play as.
“Begin as a model new to the world of high fashion and at the bottom of Fashion Week’s totem pole. Make a runway round-trip before the clock runs out without tripping, losing balance, or taking the ultimate spill,” reads the write-up.
“From New York through Europe, the rewards get bigger, the stakes get higher and staying on top gets harder. Stay in time, stay in line, stay in season…or become a Fashion Hazard.”
The idea for the game came from Juliana Stock, Condé Nast’s senior director of business and product development for its Interactive Product Group (IPG), whose 11-year-old daughter enjoys action games such as Temple Run).
“When we started to look at action and adventure with her interests in mind, which are girly, we didn’t find any,” she explained. “There was a need in the market to create an action game that was challenging, and yet still feminine and visually appealing to this demographic.”
It is currently available for the iPhone and iPad with an Android version due to follow, and costs 99c in the app store.
It also provides options for additional purchases including wallpaper and ringtones, suggesting future advertising opportunities could follow. It launches with a cross-promotional initiative with Frenzoo, developer of the Me Girl series.
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