Es-Tu Fashion 2.0?
The fashion industry can get their first look at “Digital IQ”, a ranking report by LuxuryLab who has compiled data on the digital competence of the luxury industry. Included in the report are the world’s top fashion brands, but only two were able to break into the top 10 - Louis Vuitton (#6) and Ralph Lauren (#7).
The 37-page report cheekily gives a rating from “Feeble” to “Genius”, of which Apple tops the list (unsurprisingly) as the savviest of them all. According to Business of Fashion, the majority of fashion brands are clumped somewhere around the middle hover over “Average” and “Gifted”.
The brands are judged on online presence in new media such as Facebook and Twitter, and overall performance of their e-commerce website. Some of which don’t sell through their sites at all such as Chanel and Marc Jacobs.
Louis Vuitton is not a surprising winner in this category, as they are perhaps the only brand who keeps up to date with the market by being virtually everywhere, 24/7.
Ralph Lauren champions as the online retail guru, perhaps being one of the few brands who has adopted the QR codes for mobile phones, and establishing one of the most comprehensive e-commerce sites for all of its different brands.
It’s a fascinating read! You can download the Digital IQ pdf file here.
Montreal designers take note.
Image credit: LuxuryLab
Fantasme and Style
Last night’s Fantasme event was a pretty big success considering the last minute venue change from The Darling Foundry to SAT on St-Laurent. It was perhaps the best congregation of stylish Montrealers that I’ve ever witnessed in my life. A true street style photographer’s wet dream.
The mash up of the 80s trends with strong shoulders, boyfriend jackets teamed with mini dresses, strappy booties galore, and several men dressed in high heels and skinny jeans and rockin’ the casbah. I envied them as even I wouldn’t be able to walk in their fabulous shoes.
Where have you guys been hiding all this time??
I apologize for the lack of photos, I’m not exactly papparazzi skilled.
Fantasme is a collaboration between Andrew Ly and Melissa Matos, both a fashion designer and a jewelry designer respectively. Conceptually, it was a multi sensorial experience they wanted to project to the audience with video and audio projections and of course, a fashion show. It is their first show collaboration but they both have shared the stylist scene working for various local publications.
When asked about Ly’s ideas behind his collection, he had stated about the “complexity of simplicity”, where garments were stripped to their very essentials - such as a jacket only joined at the arms and not the shoulders, or leggings represented by strappy, stretchy bandages around the legs, as well as the geometry of garments such as an architectural caged skirt.
Matos’ collection was created in conjunction to her jewelry designs for PowerHaus, although it was the first time creating a clothing collection, she too made allusions to the semblance of garments as coiled pearls were wrapped around the arms to create a sleeve effect. She described the soft flowy see-through tops as armor that people wear, separating their self with the world.
But what about commercial purposes?
Ly’s response was that any fashion creation has a commercial purpose in the sense that it can be sold to those who are interested in buying. If there is a demand, they’d be more than happy to provide. Imran Amed, chief editor of The Business of Fashion, was in attendance and he had wondered during the presentation as to why would they show a fashion collection outside of season. Matos responds in true Montreal spirit: why not? Why not show a fashion show out of the season, instead of designated fashion weeks? As most natives know, Montreal follows its own creative beat.
We’re not expecting mass production here, this is still a showcasing event of concepts and ideas, and Fantasme fulfilled its purpose that night.
I had contributed with Business of Fashion on a few occasions, and was delighted to meet Imran in person. We chatted for a bit about his “Canadian tour”, as well of an upcoming project concerning BoF. While seated and waiting for the show to start, I had realized I sat next to Rad Hourani, whom I’ve interviewed through email for BoF and had yet to meet him in person. Exciting! Imran caught up with him and chatted about his upcoming show in New York. I had the opportunity to squeeze in a couple of curious questions like how he came to collaborate with Tommy Ton, of Jak and Jil Blog, which apparently they’ve known each other a few years and that they happened to bump into one another at a show. Small world! He also spoke about his admiration for Cathy Horyn of The NY Times and Suzy Menkes of IHT as how these women really knew fashion and know how to write about it. My idols. I felt incredibly lucky that night to have met both of them.
Other guests naturally included Canadian fashion editors from Flare, Loulou, Fashion, and The Gazette, and some local fashion designers like Denis Gagnon and Yso, whom I wasn’t sure if it was really him (was later confirmed on Twitter) and he had this amazing sparkly (sequined?) white jacket and the smoothest skin ever. Amazing.
Image credits: me! and Melissa Matos
Gucci.com Gives Canada Their Own Online Blip
Let’s face it Canada. We’re not exactly country numero uno when luxury brands think about the list of countries that deserve their own slash subfolders in their URLs. It’s actually more of a question for demand, but still. Canadians usually have to click over to the US site to view stuff, but can never order since they don’t ship over to Canada. It’s fine if third party sites like ShopBop and Net-a-porter are able to ship over to you from that “Choose your country” drop down list, but many labels will usually only have a US, UK, or European only shop sites.
Thus, it comes to as a surprise that Gucci has come up with Canada’s own slash subfolder URL, and had initially reached out to Canadian fashion bloggers first to tell you about it. It’s ground breaking in the sense that such a huge company like Gucci not only gives a new blip for Canada as a country deemed worthy of their own site, but also that Gucci is following through with their “fashion blogger outreach program” as I’d like to call it.
If you recall, last year, Gucci had launched their flagship store in New York and had invited 5 fashion bloggers (including Susie Bubble, now a staple fashion blogger icon) to blog about their experience. This was a new venture and I think every fashion blog in the loop were talking about it and dying of envy. Also through Business of Fashion, I had learned that Gucci also had their online banners splashed across Hint Magazine’s front page (which is now boasting ads of the likes of Seven New York and Swarovski).
It’s a healthy sign that luxury brands are turning towards online sites to promote as well as earn extra revenue through their shop sites, as more and more people are purchasing online instead of visiting stores. What with the iPhone allowing users to purchase on the spot, it seems that shoppers don’t even have time to stay on a computer to shop. I mean, just look at what Business of Fashion has said on WWD yesterday, that the future is online for luxury brands.
The site itself is pretty much a replica of the US site, with horizontal browsing, several angle views of the products, etc. Overall a pretty seamless shop site and offers you practically the entire collection at a click of a mouse. For Montreal especially, we’re not graced with a Gucci stand alone store, let alone Gucci clothes, so it’s a nice added bonus that it is possible to break the bank without breaking a sweat. It’s obvious, things don’t come cheap.
But it just goes to show that even a huge company like Gucci can recognize the value of the online experience and it’s users. So who will be next to step it up for fashion bloggers (and Canada)?
Images courtesy of Gucci
