The New Fashion Media Frontier
Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and the numerous blogging engines on the web, fashion bloggers who have applied to Montreal Fashion Week have gone up to 15% of the media being accredited, according to Sensation Mode’s PR rep Sophie des Marais to La Presse. One accredited blogger wasn’t really a blogger, but a Facebook girl with over 1200 friends who loved fashion. This follows hot on the heels of internet sensation Scott Schuman, Bryan Boy, Tommy Ton, and Garance Doré who have had front row seats (and laptops) at the recent Dolce & Gabbana show in Milan.
This past Spring Summer 2010 fashion “month” has seen some of the most remarkable change of attitude towards fashion bloggers and the relationship between fashion and technology as a whole. A handful of shows have streamed their fashion shows live online, most notably Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton, as well as the timely release of LuxuryLab’s Digital IQ list of the most technologically competent luxury brands. Fashion 2.0 has never been such a hot commodity than now.
But, fashion bloggers are still languishing below top journalists and fashion editors at reputable publications in terms of recognition, according to UQAM’s Chairman of Public Relations and Communications, Bernard Motulsky. But the fact that fashion bloggers are making their own space at Montreal Fashion Week and to get recognition for it, is a step forward.
As we move further into the online fashion revolution, we can only expect more online innovations and initiatives.Style Coalition, for example is already one of the first to curate events that involve fashion and new media.SHOWStudio collaborates with some major designer brands and fashion forward artists by melding together fashion, art and technology with video, music and projections. It’s only with time will we see who will emerge as the leading voices of the new fashion media frontier.
Image credits: Kurt Geiger, Bryan Boy, Garance Doré
Louis Vuitton SS2010 Show On Facebook For 24hrs
Recently Louis Vuitton was deemed #1 on Digital IQ’s list of most competent fashion brand when it comes to new media and social media. The mega brand did not disappoint when it announced that it would show their Spring Summer 2010 collection via a world premiere on Facebook.
LV has a cult following on Facebook, it boasts 700,000+ fans, so to project a live fashion show through the popular site, they would have to devise a way to stream the video to thousands of fans simultaneously watching. But it seems there was nothing to worry about. The live video feed seemed like child play for LV.
As per my experience just this morning, I had very little trouble loading the video, and the show started on time, which is a feat because Marc Jacobs was known to start fashionably late. There were a few glitches where the feed would die, but nothing but a re-click on “Play” couldn’t fix. It was flawless. Fans could update their Facebook status and share it amongst LV fans as they watched the show.
In 15 minutes, the show was over. Such is a fashion moment. For those of you who have missed the show, you can view it on their Facebook page and rewatch it for 24hrs. It’s been a successful run, and a great step forward towards the future in fashion. Watching videos and sharing your thoughts simultaneously with others.
Live McQueen Show Online - w/ Technical Difficulties
As I partake in the online phenomenon of live streaming an Alexander McQueen Spring Summer 2010 show, it is unsurprising that even with all the buzz of fashion designers making their transition online, they have yet to grasp the technical end of web traffic.
More than previous years, the online presence of fashionistas has probably increased significantly. So for a superstar designer like Alexander McQueen to announce the world that he will be broadcasting his show live online in collaboration with SHOWStudio, it’s a big deal.
A very BIG deal.
So big that there are about 30 tweets a minute about the Alexander McQueen show as I type this. And this is not gushing about the clothes, this is about the live streaming site being down for the past 20 mins. Alexa.com has yet to release any info on just how much traffic the alexandermcqueen.showstudio.com site has generate, but it’s enough traffic to bring a site down, and Twitter is the only outlet where people can share their miseries with the woes of downed servers.
Democratizing a live fashion show to the public is a huge deal, and I think fashion brands should be aware that this will be generating huge peaks in traffic, and they better be prepared for it.
Louis Vuitton will be set to live stream their show through Facebook on Oct 7th at 8:30am EST, and I’m not sure if Facebook would be able to handle the traffic, since it’s not really an ideal platform for video streaming purposes. The Facebook page alone boasts over 700,000 Louis Vuitton fans, will the social media platform be able to handle the traffic? We will see tomorrow!
Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture
Louis Vuitton Unveils Largest Store in SouthEast Asia
It is the second largest LV store in the world, trailing behind only its mammoth mother ship in Paris (clocking in at 1800 sq. meters), Singapore’s LV store is still a comparable size of 905 sq. meters and is the only other store that carries the full range of the brand’s products including menswear, womenswear, shoes, watches, and iconic handbags.
I’ve never been to Singapore, but is their luxury business there really that big? I would expect at least Japan to carry some of the biggest stores since they have nothing to spend on (meaning a car and a house) except on luxury goods.
Still, would be worth seeing just for the sheer size of it.
Image credit: Luxuo
[Luxuo]
