Topshop launches Kate Moss video series ahead of new collection

Topshop has revealed the first in a series of videos in the run up to its new Kate Moss collection launch.

The line will hit stores on April 30 for the first time since 2010. Accordingly the retailer has teamed up with NOWNESS to tease its arrival through a total of eight films dedicated to the “supermodel, muse and designer”.

Each one will feature one of Kate’s friends and fashion contacts shot by Leigh Johnson, and providing “never before seen access to the notoriously private Kate”, as Grazia puts it.

The first, as above, stars BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw. Others will include Charlotte Tilbury, Amanda Harlech, Beth Ditto, Cara Delevingne, Vivienne Westwood and Natalie Massenet. That makes a total of seven, meaning the eighth may star the always-elusive Moss herself.

Here in the meantime is an additional Topshop teaser featuring the model talking about the collection from behind-the-scenes at the Topshop design studio:

Why Topshop is focusing on shoppers in-store with virtual reality #LFW experience

What’s interesting about Topshop’s digital plans for London Fashion Week this season, is its focus primarily on the store – on shoppers rather than showgoers.

The British retailer is partnering with a company called Inition to offer consumers a virtual reality experience from its Oxford Circus flagship. Specially commissioned Oculus Rift-based headsets will enable individuals to see its catwalk event taking place in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall on Sunday, February 16, through a 3D virtual world – from VIP arrivals and backstage sneak peeks, to the Unique collection show itself. The telepresence technology will make them feel as though the models are walking in front of their eyes, and the celebrities sat right beside them.

This is substantially more advanced than Burberry’s 3D streaming to customers in its stores in 2010. Wired has a great write-up explaining why: “Those wearing the [Inition] headsets – incorporating headphones and the Oculus Rift – will be able to see the live catwalk unfold if they look straight ahead on one virtual screen as well as the celebrities they are sitting ‘next to’, thanks to an 180-degree wide angle on the stream. If they look behind them at a second virtual screen they’ll get a view into the backstage area, where models will be having their hair and makeup done. If the wearer happens to look up, they will ascend into a higher level, where they will be able to see the rafters and a number of 360-degree images of, for example, celebrity selfies. All around the virtual screens and other elements, the environment has been designed to look like the Turbine Hall, with concrete and large girders.

“On top of the live stream will be built a number of animated elements that reflect the theme of decay that characterises the autumn/winter collection. So there will be leaves, flowers and crows that fly around on top of the space. Tweets using a specific hashtag will emerge in the virtual world as petals dropped by the virtual crows.”

Andy Millns, co-founder and creative director of Inition, said: “Virtual reality is the ultimate interface to the digital world with the power to transport the user to another place as soon as they put on a special display. This unique technology has the potential to open up fashion shows to the consumer at home and we believe this will be the first of many executions of this kind.”

Last season, Topshop partnered with Chirp, a start-up that enabled the sharing of content via sound. It was a cute idea, and was fun to play with for those who tried, but the truth is (according to those involved) it wasn’t all that successful. Very few people at the show actually downloaded the app you had to have, let alone then had it open ready to collect the specific sounds emitted as the show took place. The Chirp Garden hosted in the store was no doubt a smarter move in terms of engagement. That said, it led to content shared, rather than an immersive experience.

The headsets for this coming weekend, as abstract as they might look and feel to wear, go back to what opening up show access is really about: making consumers feel involved. And not just via the web or social media, but in the brand Mecca that is the flagship store. Topshop Oxford Circus is arguably one of the best global examples of this – a tourist destination, an immersive consumer experience, and a space that has played host to all sorts of other campaigns; a shoppable Pinterest wall, a series of talks and events for those interested in the industry, a Tweet Shop for Halloween and more.

The one downside with this virtual reality initiative of course is that it’s restricted to just a few. A competition is being held in the run up to Sunday’s show via social media, which will result in five winners who will be the first to experience it. The installation will then be available to further visitors – we presume those who sign up, or queue for it – on-demand, for three days.

But as mentioned, that’s only at the Oxford Circus location, and not any of the other 400+ Topshop stores – directly owned or otherwise – around the UK and the rest of the world.

And that’s part of the issue with in-store tech innovation at present. It’s a costly move, it’s also an experiment most of the time, so it tends to be limited to one place. This campaign specifically is quite a unique example, and undoubtedy one best suited to the flagship on the basis it’s the theatrical homeland of the brand. With most other initiatives, however, the technology – no matter how far away from being a gimmick it is – won’t become more than a PR story if the majority of consumers don’t ever get to see or experience it.

Topshop is referring to this virtual reality installation as not just transporting the viewer, but providing an insight into how we will consume media in the not so distant future. This fashion week, it’ll still largely be an exclusive experience, but the potential is there.

2013: a designer meets digital year in review

What a busy year it’s been…

From 3D printing taking its first trip down the New York Fashion Week catwalk, to the launch of Vine and Instagram videos, not to mention the continuing debate about the role of bloggers as influencers, the increased focus on the potential market size of wearables, and Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year as ‘selfie’, one thing after another has rapidly impacted the role of innovation in this niche fashion x digital space.

Below then, are 10 of the posts you loved the most on F&M this year. It’s an interesting collection, nodding to familiar ideas like storytelling and crowdsourcing, as well as higher quality content, and a general reassessment of what it is that actually works in this space. Video content does of course also have its place, as does the continuing power of celebrity.

Thank you for reading and see you in 2014!

• Why and how fashion brands should be on Vine: Meagan Cignoli creative interview

• Press may have pushed “tech” angle of new H&M store, but less than a week since launch, nothing seems to be working

• Literal window shopping with Kate Spade Saturday’s digital, touchscreen storefronts

• Latest Topshop innovation will see #LFW content shared via sound

• Robert Pattinson’s Dior Homme film storms in 24-hours, #diorrob hashtag takes off

• Net-a-Porter calls for shopper content with #TheNETSet social campaign

• Burberry and Google bring emotion to digital with virtual kissing campaign

• Dolce & Gabbana: #MFW’s social media winner

• All the interactive elements accompanying John Lewis’ #bearandhare Christmas ad

• Live streaming fashion week: is it worth the cost?

• And a bonus post as a thought-starter for the New Year: An inspirational note, fashion needs to take risk

Retail’s 7 most innovative Holiday campaigns

This article first appeared on Fashionista 

The holiday season can account for up to 40% of a retailer’s annual revenue, and thus it’s no surprise to see some of our favorite stores (and fashion brands) go all-out with festive campaigns in a bid to capture as many dollars as possible.

Multiple initiatives have lined up to grab our attention this year, but if there’s one thing tying them together, it’s interactivity. From singing contests you can enter to touchscreens you can explore, participation is the biggest push for 2013.

Pinterest is also proving big news. According to a recent study by Lab42, 94% of users say the virtual scrapbooking site has changed how they prepare for the holidays, while 42% have created their own holiday-themed boards. Meanwhile, stats show such activity is also affecting sales. Revenue on retail sites that originated from Pinterest doubled over Thanksgiving weekend, and brands like Target and Topshop have quickly taken advantage.

Here’s our pick of the top seven activations.

1. eBay’s Touchscreen Storefronts

First up is the digital storefronts eBay set up for Rebecca Minkoff, Toms and Sony in the Westfield San Francisco Centre shopping mall this season. Shopping from them is easy. As with any smartphone or tablet device, you just touch the screen and start browsing products, then complete the order via PayPal on your mobile device. Items can either be delivered to your home for free or picked up at the Sony Gallery on the floor below.

2. Gap’s VSCO-Powered Gift Guide

Gap gave an indie twist to its holiday gift guide by partnering with seven well-known users of photo-editing app VSCO for its Make Love campaign. Those artists acted as both models and photographers, captured in various Gap products themselves and completing their own photo assignments based on one of Gap’s holiday themes: fair isle, indigo, metallic, plaid, stripes, texture and warmth. The results are featured on both a dedicated page on VSCO’s website as well as in Gap.com’s “Give A-Z” holiday guide.

3. John Lewis’ “The Bear and The Hare”

Over in the UK meanwhile, John Lewis wins for the biggest budget when it comes to advertising this year. It spent £7 million ($11.4 million) on a hand-animated and very cute tale called “The Bear and The Hare,” which has garnered more than 10 million views on YouTube to date. What’s innovative is all the components that go with it, and none more so than the windows of its flagship store in London. They feature some of the 188 animal sculptures made from 7,000 everyday products tied to the bear and hare theme, like a reindeer made of Dyson vacuums, a polar bear of Nintendo Wiis and a turkey crafted from a series of rolled up towels. The retailer is also running a contest with the campaign, calling all aspiring singers to record and upload their own versions of Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” for a chance to have their recording play with the commercial on Christmas day.

4. JC Penney’s “Jingle Mingle” Singing Contest

JC Penney also called for singing content from its fans this year. Up until Dec. 3 it invited aspiring vocalists to upload videos of themselves singing “Silent Night” to its Jingle Mingle website. Hundreds of the best are then going to be played on the facade of the retailer’s Manhattan Mall store. For each one submitted, JC Penney donated $20 to the United Service Organizations (USO).

5. Topshop’s “Dear Pinterest” Campaign

It was all about Pinterest for Topshop this season. The UK-based retailer used Pinterest to power its online gift guide, and even attached oversized tags to in-store merchandise identifying the ones that had been pinned the most. In November, there was also a giant touchscreen in Topshop’s New York and London flagships that allowed shoppers to pin, share and shop from a gift list there and then.

6. Target’s Pinteresting “Awesome Shop”

Pinterest also makes an appearance at Target this season. Target has launched an e-commerce storefront powered by Pinterest as well as its own reviews this year. Target Awesome Shop, as it’s called, incorporates over 1,000 products that have received four stars or higher in the customer reviews on Target.com and are one of the retailer’s most-pinned products on Pinterest. The result: a highly curated, not to mention awesome, list of recommended items. You can search by category and then click on each product for more information (such as those reviews), before being redirected to the main Target.com site to add them to your shopping cart.

7. Louis Vuitton’s “The Goose Game”

Louis Vuitton created an online board game to feature its holiday gifts. The game, which functions much like “Snakes and Ladders,” is made up of squares featuring Louis Vuitton products that players can purchase in just a few clicks.

Honorable Mention: Kmart’s “Show Your Joe”

It may not be a stunning piece of innovation, but Kmart’s “Show Your Joe” commercial sure brought the laughs — and the views. The video, which was made for TV, has racked up more than 16 million views on YouTube alone since its Nov. 15 release.

Digital snippets: Holiday retail round-up special

Given it’s the day before Thanksgiving in the US – meaning retailers are about to go all out on heavy promotions – here’s a special round-up of all the ways they’re using social and digital to help lure the seasonal shopper and start converting those all-important Holiday sales…

• eBay debuts shoppable touchscreens and digital storefronts for Sony, Toms And Rebecca Minkoff in San Francisco (as pictured) [TechCrunch]

• Target launches “most digitally enabled campaign” in its history, pins hopes on Pinterest this holiday season [Co.Create]

• Macy’s Santa mail campaign invites mobile users to submit images [Mobile Commerce Daily]

• Topshop partners with Pinterest for online and offline Holiday campaign [Fashion&Mash]

• JC Penney launches first Holiday campaign under new marketing head, includes crowdsourcing initiative inviting users to upload videos of themselves singing ‘Silent Night’ [AdAge]

• ‘Reserve in Store’ service rolling out to all Banana Republic stores across the US, 200 Gap [CNBC]

• Jingle all the way at Kmart with #showyourjoe Christmas ad [Fashion&Mash]

• Kohl’s adds emotional brand spots to Holiday mix [AdAge]

• Hollister teases Black Friday deals on YouTube [ClickZ]

• All the interactive elements accompanying John Lewis’ #bearandhare Christmas ad [Fashion&Mash]

• Cath Kidston, Bauble Bar driving traffic with Christmas treasure hunt campaigns [Fashion&Mash]

• Michaels offers interactive Holiday help with live elf available through streaming video [Chain Store Age]

• M&S teases Christmas #magicandsparkle campaign over social [Fashion&Mash]

• Louis Vuitton highlights gift ideas on interactive goose game [Luxury Daily]

• HSN taps SMS, push notifications to drive mobile-only holiday sales [Mobile Commerce Daily]

• Tillys runs ugly Christmas sweater contest over Instagram [Tillys]

• Neiman Marcus teams up with Shapeways to offer 3D printed holiday capsule collection [PSFK]

Topshop partners with Pinterest for online and offline Holiday campaign

  Topshop’s campaign for the coming festive period sees Pinterest integrated both online and in its stores.

The British high street retailer has partnered with the virtual scrapbooking site in a bid to “showcase key product and facilitate the gifting process”, said its newly appointed global head of marketing and communications, Sheena Sauvaire.

“Dear Topshop”, as the initiative is called, sees a gift search embedded on its site allowing shoppers to explore by quirky categories such as “A gift that will wow”, “All things that sparkle” or “A bit of romance”. The results of each can all be pinned, shared and, of course, shopped.

Those pinned the most will be featured on the Topshop.com homepage daily.

Tying the campaign to the physical space, key products in store will also have a Pinterest call to action on their tags. Meanwhile, giant touch screens in the retailer’s flagship London and New York stores will likewise allow customers to pin, share and shop.

Staff in other stores will be wearing Pinterest t-shirts and carrying iPads in order to walk customers through the campaign.

Added Sauvaire: “Pinterest, being a strong visual platform, was the ideal platform as it allows our customers to collect products and inspirations to share with family and friends. Add the physical component, and we are creating true ‘social shopping’ during the festive period.”

Consumers are also invited to submit their own inspirational boards on Pinterest tied to the Holiday theme to be in with the chance of winning a variety of prizes including shopping sprees, front row seats to fashion week, and more.

Topman pulls in consumer content with #topmansprayonjeans campaign

 

User-generated content might be somewhat of an old phrase in the digital space these days, but there’s a phenomenal amount happening around it of late.

From #thenetset at Net-a-Porter to #framesofyou from Armani, as well as multiple other examples via Warehouse, Estée Lauder, Kate Spade and more, everyone is getting in on the act.

The latest is Topman. The men’s arm of the Brit retailer has been pushing its new spray on jeans for the last few weeks using the hashtag #topmansprayonjeans.

Taking full advantage of the #selfie phenomenon, it’s been calling for consumers to send images of themselves wearing the super tight skinny jeans over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with the best looks winning Premium Spotify accounts daily.

A series of short videos were released as inspiration for fans on how to get the look. Meanwhile, another fun video was posted today (as below) demonstrating the speed with which it’s possible to put the jeans on.

Reads the write up: “We’ve listened to your feedback and some of you have struggled to get our Spray On Jeans on quickly. We got ours on in 7 secs, how quick can you get yours on?”

London amps digital to make fashion week more public than ever

This article first appeared on Mashable

New York Fashion Week came to a close Thursday, heralding the return of another fashion week in London. Once again, anticipation for the week is not limited to the collections themselves: The industry and the public are equally interested in what digital innovations the top design houses will introduce during their shows.

When one fashion house introduces a new digital innovation, it doesn’t take long for others to follow — if it’s good. One need only remember that fashion shows weren’t live-streamed five years ago, nor did designers reveal behind-the-scenes snapshots over Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr. Today, those are a matter of course.

But what’s next? New York saw Tommy Hilfiger introduce Lytro cameras and a “social concierge” service to its show this season, while Rebecca Minkoff experimented with messaging app Snapchat to debut its collection. For London Fashion Week, which runs from Sept. 13 through Sept.17, yet another round of ideas are on their way. Here’s a preview.

Celebrating London

Natalie Massenet, founder of Net-a-Porter and chairman of the British Fashion Council, published an open letter in UK newspaper The Evening Standard ahead of this season’s shows, calling for the whole of London to help raise the profile of British fashion by engaging in the excitement surrounding Fashion Week.

“All eyes will be on you as our international guests will be tweeting, Instagramming and reporting in nearly 50 countries across the world,” Massenet wrote, adding that this “will help grow our brands, stimulate exports, create new jobs and generally make us a must-visit city.” She invited the public to be their most stylish selves for the week to show their support.

Once a trade-only event, London Fashion Week has increasingly become an opportunity to speak directly to consumers. This is especially the case at the event’s headquarters in Somerset House, where an “Instabooth” has been set up to celebrate the best of the capital’s street style. Visitors will be able to print images of themselves as souvenirs as well as share their favorite looks on Facebook. Highlights will also be posted on the official London Fashion Week Instagram.

Meanwhile, a social media wall in the courtyard of Somerset House will provide running commentary on the shows, as pulled from anyone using the #LFW hashtag. Posts will be regulated to keep them appropriate, but the aim is for a visual insight into the experience of Fashion Week, whether that’s through catwalk looks, front row pics or celebrity sightings.

This consumer-facing strategy is being pushed out across the city in a year-long campaign. The British Fashion Council last week announced that every Friday for the next 12 months it will broadcast a fashion news bulletin, dubbed #FashionFridays, on screens situated on the London Underground. Beyond news and other fashion-related content, the BFC will hold competitions to encourage consumers to engage with the broadcasts using the hashtag.

The BFC is not the only one taking to the streets of London this season. Belstaff, which cancelled its New York presentation last weekend to focus on the opening of its London flagship this Sunday, is doing so with a bold statement. Playing on its motorcycle heritage, the British-born brand is closing off part of New Bond Street to welcome a parade of 50 bikers. In lieu traditional models, Belstaff is using “rugged” British guys in the parade, ones who are passionate about the brand, Emilie Hawtin, senior marketing and digital media manager, tells Mashable. “They are already wearing Belstaff; they’re getting it dirty and using it the way it’s supposed to be used,” Hawtin says.

During the parade, the bikers will perform tricks on vintage bikes, which The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman will be on hand to capture. The well-recognized street style photographer will also shoot a series of intimate portraits of the bikers before and during the ride. The resulting images will be hosted on the Legends section of Belstaff’s website, which is already home to images of its oldest jackets and the icons who have worn them.

Enhancing show experiences

When it comes to the shows themselves this season, the two big moves come from Burberry and Topshop once again. Both are partnering with technology companies, albeit ones at radically opposite ends of the scale.

Burberry is teaming with Apple to capture its Spring/Summer 2014 collection using a set of not-yet-released iPhone 5S devices. Its team will capture both photos and video of the runway looks as well as backstage, which will be shared via social media. It’s a promotional rather than an innovative partnership, a way to leverage the buzz created by Apple’s latest device.

Having partnered with more established technology players in the past, this season Topshop has sought out a young mobile startup called Chirp to create a new experience for its show. Chirp is a mobile app that transmit images, notes or links through “digital birdsong” — users post their content, then hit a yellow button to emit a unique 20-note chirp, which other devices running the app nearby can pick up. The retailer will be using the app to send out images, including prep and backstage shots, to attendees of the show via several “Chirp locations” around the event site. Its Oxford Circus store will also feature a Chirp and Twitter “garden” full of digital content for shoppers to explore.

Other content highlights

Other London designers will be sharing their collections via a variety of digital means. Twenty-nine of 58 shows will be live-streamed throughout the week, including 18 from Somerset House, eight from Topshop’s new Regent’s Park venue, and from off-site locations chosen by Burberry, Mulberry and Paul Smith. The Christopher Raeburn, Sister by Sibling and Simone Rocha shows will also be streamed directly to the BFC’s Twitter feed.

Here’s a round-up of the rest of the social content to look out for:

• The BFC is continuing its live Twitter Q&A sessions with industry insiders, including blogger Susie Lau of Style Bubble, using #AskLFW. This time, all of the responses will be recorded using six-second Vine clips.

• Matthew Williamson is handing out props branded with the hashtag #ohMW (Oh My Williamson), encouraging attendees to tweet and Instagram photos of themselves with the prop. “We wanted a cute prop to make people feel at ease with the camera – we want to show personality and character,” says Williamson’s head of digital Rosanna Falconer.

• Jonathan Saunders will use an app called Slidergram to showcase “slideshow-style videos” of key looks from its show, as well as backstage and close-up shots. All will be accompanied by the show’s soundtrack.

• Paul Smith himself will be taking over the brand’s Instagram for the majority of the week, revealing pictures of Sunday’s show prep as well as the new Mayfair store opening Friday night using the #takenbypaul hashtag.

• eBay UK has teamed up with video blogger Patricia Bright of BritPopPrincess for a series of videos focused on street style at LFW, with looks shoppable straight from eBay’s YouTube channel. eBay will also be revealing a capsule collection by designer Holly Fulton.

• Pinterest’s fashion week hub continues in London, this time showcasing boards from the likes of Harvey Nichols, Anya Hindmarch and Mulberry.

Latest Topshop innovation will see #LFW content shared via sound

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:

 

Justin Cooke departs Topshop, launches innovate7

In a move that doesn’t come as a huge surprise to those tracking his movements in the industry, Justin Cooke today announced he is departing his role as CMO of Topshop to launch his own agency. innovate7, as it’s called (lowercase intentional), aims to “challenge businesses both creatively and strategically to look at the evolution of their business model”.

Cooke, formerly also VP of press at Burberry, has long-considered “innovation” as part of his daily vernacular. Most recently he can be credited for Topshop’s Shoot the Show initiative with Facebook in September 2012, its #whosthatgirl campaign in the lead-up to Kate Bosworth’s holiday music video last December, and The Future of the Fashion Show launch with Google+ at London Fashion Week in February 2013. At Burberry he also worked on the Art of the Trench and Retail Theatre projects.

“I wanted to change the fashion industry and challenge it to understand what the future of retail might look like. With the customers’ behavior shifting so dramatically, enabled by technology and mobile devices, I realized I could disrupt a number of industries and that this was the perfect moment to do that,” explained Cooke. “We will be partnering with brands to understand their heritage and define their future. Encouraging them to embrace modern thinking, integrate new technologies and shape emotive experiences.”

Emotion is another keyword of Cooke’s.

His reputation in the digital space was cemented by Joanna Shields, currently CEO of the UK government’s Tech City Investment Organisation, formerly VP and managing director at Facebook EMEA: “Justin is one of the brightest young talents I have ever come across. He has an extraordinary vision of what the future looks like and the ability to connect with people in a time when the world is primed for digital disruption. London needs more technology fuelled success stories and digital leaders like him, and I am confident that innovate7 is going to be one of them.”

The company launches with seven employees, including Nicola Peters, also formerly of Burberry. She joins others said to be from the likes of Apple, Facebook, Red Bull and Nike. The aim is for clients that span “music, fashion, technology, sport, publishing and automotive”, with two announced already including tech start-up Rockpack and the tailor Tissimans.

Cooke also revealed he is developing a new multi-dimensional media site; a social platform that will reportedly “have relevance to brands and challenge the top five social networks”. Due to be revealed later this year, it has already received an investment stake of 19.9% from a large media group, alongside private venture capital funding.

Cooke’s successor at Topshop has been announced as Sheena Sauvaire, formerly marketing director at the company. She will lead the team this fashion week with a new social initiative said to still be in place.