Digital snippets: Prada, John Lewis, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Sephora, L’Oréal

A round-up of the latest stories to know about surrounding all things fashion and tech:

• Prada delves into visual past with Pradasphere microsite [Luxury Daily]

• John Lewis picks iBeacons, smart-home Sonos rival, and 3D planning start-ups as final partners for JLab incubator scheme [The Drum]

• You can now buy Comptoir des Cotonniers directly from ads on bus shelters in France [Fashionista]

• The ROI: Sephora, Thismoment share results of Pinteresting beauty board launch [BrandChannel]

• L’Oréal targets ads based on hair colour in online photos [AdAge]

• ‘Vogue’ makes its Instagram shoppable with Liketoknow.it [Fashionista]

• adidas promises to exclude consumers unless they opt ‘#allin’ to World Cup campaign [Marketing]

• Visual search set to make world of imagery instantly shoppable [BoF]

• Condé Nast drafts an internal ‘Magna Carta’ for native advertising [AdAge]

• Lingerie brand turns to Snapchat for a voyeuristic, vanishing lookbook [PSFK]

• Fruit of the Loom turns GIFs into Father’s Day gifts [AdWeek]

• The power women who are reinventing the way you shop fashion online [Forbes]

• Mary Meeker’s 2014 internet trends report: all the slides plus highlights [Quartz]

Vogue Paris tells #storyof1million Twitter followers with dedicated microsite

French Vogue has celebrated reaching one million followers on Twitter by launching a microsite dedicated to its digital history.

Storyof1million – available in both French and English – is an interactive experience featuring highlights of the @VogueParis Twitter handle, through images, music and video.

It documents over four years of coverage; from launch on September 4, 2008 to today. Its first ever tweet read: “Retrouvez dès le 5 septembre les télégrammes de Vogue.com en direct de la fashion week de New York” (See our Vogue.com telegrams from New York Fashion Week from September 5).

Sarah Herz, director of Condé Nast France’s digital operations, explained it as “a unique digital narrative with over 400 elements, created entirely by the editorial staff to celebrate the site’s most exciting and pivotal moments yet”. She added that the initiative was designed to express the magazine’s deepest gratitude to all the followers, fans and celebrities that have supported it.

The one million mark makes Vogue Paris the most followed French publication on Twitter. It continues to tweet from behind-the-scenes with its editorial team, covering everything from exclusive interviews to fashion week shows, news exclusives and after-party snippets.

Chanel launches microsite documenting its history

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…

Calvin Klein to reveal interactive digital challenge for new fragrance

Calvin Klein is set to launch an interactive digital campaign to help celebrate the release of its new men’s fragrance, Encounter Calvin Klein, this September.

“Dare to Encounter” as the initiative is called, encompasses a virtual journey and a series of challenges for users to unlock and engage with on a dedicated website.

Fronted by True Blood actor Alexander Skarsgård, who was announced as the face of the scent in June, it follows a tale of desire with the brand’s other campaign star and supermodel muse, Lara Stone.

It uses animated GIFs (as shown) to “capture moments from the television advertising shoot and bring them to life in an unexpected way”.

All those who complete the challenge will be granted access to watch the Encounter Calvin Klein short film, and be entered into a prize draw.

The campaign was created by Fabien Baron of Baron + Baron, alongside Calvin Klein’s in-house advertising agency CRK, and interactive media and technology agency AKQA.

Hermès taps into heritage and craftsmanship with digital launches

Hermès has launched a fun campaign through its Paris Mon Ami blog that engages with its fans while promoting the heritage of the company.

The ‘My Horse And I‘ initiative, encourages consumers to upload pictures of themselves with their favourite bangle or scarf alongside their equestrian best friend – be it hobby horse or real thing.

“Share your adventures, your friendships and your style,” reads the post dedicated to the search.

Meanwhile, the French luxury brand also has a microsite called Hearts and Crafts that provides an inside look at the making of its goods and those responsible for them.

10 employees are featured ranging from leather cutters to glass-makers, a jeweller and a colourist. Each one is profiled in a short video.

The site is based on the brand’s 48-minute feature film of the same name, created by Frédéric Laffont and Isabelle Dupuy-Charant. It was released in select theatres last year.

Chanel offers activity area for kids on exhibition microsite

Hidden alongside the more sophisticated pages of the Culture Chanel microsite – an online accompaniment to the Parisian brand’s current Beijing exhibition – is an interactive area called Kids’ Corner.

Within it sit two classic offline activities for children, translated for the web.

First up is a virual colouring book, which provides users with drawings of seven iconic Chanel items including a tweed jacket, brooch and clutch, and a choice of 36 different shades with which to fill them in with. Each picture is also available to download for printing.

And then there’s a memory game based on flipping over and matching up pairs of cards. Unsurprisingly, the face of each one features another series of classic Chanel symbols such as buttons and a bottle of Chanel No.5 fragrance. The back of each card is stamped with the interlocking Chanel C’s.

As Fashionista said, “we guess [it] is technically for children, but we like it too”, and that’s the interesting part. As gaming has opened up to a far wider audience (71% of females aged 20-49 now play games, according to IGN Entertainment), there’s been an increasing move towards the idea of game mechanics within campaigns, and I believe there’s enormous potential for further application within the fashion industry.

More thoughts to follow, but this piece from a few months back is worth re-reading in the meantime: Gaming as fashion’s jackpot.

A thumbs up for Louis Vuitton’s interactive campaign site featuring Angelina Jolie

The full campaign surrounding Angelina Jolie’s Cambodia journey with Louis Vuitton has been released on the brand’s website, offering users an interactive experience designed to keep them on the page.

And it works.

This is a great example of content that surrounds everything to do with what the brand is about, yet doesn’t ever actually push the product. Even the bag Jolie holds in the stills shot by Annie Leibovitz is her own six-year-old one.

Under the heading “A single journey can change the course of a life”, the interactive microsite features a series of short video interviews – a great example of ‘snacksize content’ – with the star explaining her relationship with the country.

In the first one, she says: “I first came to Cambodia about 10 years ago for a film and we were the first film back since the war, so we didn’t know quite know what it was going to be like, or what the people were going to be like, and it was the first time I became aware of landmines.

“I remember standing in the waterfall during one of our shots and they said ‘just stay on this side of the waterfall because that side of the waterfall still hasn’t been de-mined’. And I thought, as somebody from America, what does that mean, hasn’t been de-mined? It’s just the craziest, it doesn’t cross our mind that all these children, and people walking around these areas, have landmines in the ground and that’s just a part of their daily life.”

As the spot finishes, users are invited to enter the name of a place that has changed them the most in front of a map highlighting the locations chosen by others.

Further videos are available to watch for those who connect through Facebook, such as Jolie talking about being inspired by the people of the country, or how important it is to leave home comforts behind and become immersed in local culture even if that means sampling delicacies like crickets or beetles as her children do.

There are also portraits of local people in their natural surroundings, the chance to see Jolie and Leibovitz on set, and an interactive video through which you can hear sounds from the country such as the temple of Pradak Village or children playing in a rice paddy.

The brand’s reference to travel is cleverly integrated throughout the site, evoking a sense that the user too is on a journey. By selecting a left-hand tab that says “find your way” for instance, videos that have been seen appear under a heading called “where you’ve been”, and those still to be watched under “yet to discover”.

The video series finishes with a spot called “Advice for the journey from the world’s greatest travellers”. In it are lines such as “The world is a book and those who do not travel see only one page” from St. Augustine, and yet another chance to interact as users can either share the quotes with their Facebook friends or click for another.

Before you know it, you’ve been on the site for quite some time. Nicely done.

Digital snippets: The Outnet, Tiffany & Co, Coca-Cola, My-Wardrobe, #IWNY

Tiffany & Co's Love is Everywhere

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

• Net-a-Porter’s designer discount site The Outnet launches iPhone app [WWD]

• Tiffany & Co releases multimedia microsite inviting users to tag ‘Love is Everywhere’ map with most romantic memories [Mashable]

• Coca-Cola teams with Yahoo for digital fashion channel ‘Style it Light’ [Brand Republic]

• Outdoor clothing brand Merrell launches website to create world’s largest ever panoramic picture [Contagious]

• E-commerce sites turn to stylists to cash in on consumer desire for Hollywood experience [WSJ]

• Online retailer My-Wardrobe sees sales soar 96% [Drapers]

Meanwhile, next week looks set to be another exciting one – I’m off to Internet Week New York, attending events including the CM Summit, the IAB Innovation Days, Realtime NY11, OMMA Social and more.

There are also some fun fashion inserts including talks from Sarah Bernard of The Thread on Yahoo! Shine, and a crowdsourced runway show to celebrate the 5th Anniversary and relaunch of social shopping site Kaboodle.com.

I’ll post all things relevant as often as I can.

Costume Institute’s McQueen exhibition microsite

The web is awash today with the beautiful images of everyone at the annual Met Costume Institute Gala last night in celebration of the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition. My favourite? Diane Kruger.

But so too has the event drawn my attention to the microsite set up especially about the exhibition. At blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen users can find all manner of images, videos and commentary.

Included are snapshots of some of the items included in the show, as well as short films of some of the late designer’s catwalk presentations. There is also a full rundown of the different areas that can be seen throughout the museum.

The retrospective of McQueen’s extraordinary contributions to fashion is open to the public from May 4 – July 31, 2011. It celebrates his work from 1992 when he was at Central Saint Martins, through to his final collection shown after his death in February 2010.

Approximately 100 outfits are on display as well as some 70 accessories. They were drawn primarily from the McQueen Archive in London, with some pieces from Givenchy in Paris, as well as private collections.

For iPad users, there is also an app available, created by Vogue. It features never-before-seen videos, pictures, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, including a personal tribute to McQueen from Vogue ed-in-chief, Anna Wintour.

From May 6, there will also be exclusive celebrity coverage from inside the gala made available on the app. Read more, here.

UPDATE: You can also see a video tour of the exhibition and an interview with curator Andrew Bolton, from New York Magazine, here.