The Ifashion Revolution

Posted on 23. Sep, 2009 by Antonella Stellacci in Mobile

The fashion industry is under-going radical changes. For better or for worse, it’s a matter of personal opinions. It used to be an elitist world, accessible only through glossy magazines acting as influential gatekeepers. The impact of the digital economy couldn’t be more disruptive. Instant access to fashion shows means a flat democratic ecosystem is being built, where everybody can watch a runaway event on its PC; online shopping aggregators and blogging have made consumers savvier and in charge of their own style; lower costs of distribution have made designers less dependent on the runaways laws. You can buy online collections exclusively designed for eBay, shop smarter for high-end fashion brands on Gilt, watch the fashion week in real-time.

Brands are shrinking and a consumer-centric ecosystem is taking shape.Mobile and smartphones with their higher-end demographics are closing the circle.

FASHION SHOWS

-London Fashion Week on Blackberry. For the London Fashion Week, Viigo launched a dedicated Blackberry app commissioned by the British Fashion Council. It lets attendees create their schedules for the week, get live updates and access designer bios, photo galleries and recommendations for the most trendy places in London. The official Twitter feed is also included. Get it here.

-New York Fashion Week Mobile Game . For the month of September, Cellufun is running a fashion-themed store. The event kicked off with clothes from Jillian Lewis, a finalist in US reality TV show Project Runway season four. Items in the mobile store are priced at between 100 – 300 Fun coins ($1-$3). Other options for the mobile fashionistas include products from the Cygalle Healing Spa, a luxury holistic spa. Neil Edwards, CEO of Cellufun, says that “Jillian’s decision to preview her designs on a mobile platform shows tremendous awareness of how women use technology. They don’t want to be tethered to their PCs, and rely on their phones more than ever for access to all kinds of content.”

DESIGNERS

Norma Kamali “Technology is opening up many new worlds and democratizing fashion by making it instantly available” says the designer as she unveiles an iPhone app for viewing all three of her collections, press clips, YouTube videos and her personal blog.

“All the things on here,” she said about the iPhone app “are available here today, not three months from today.” Anyone could walk out of the Apple store that minute and order an item from the app.

Want to talk about a consumer-centric approach? The Kamali app comes with a “Try before you buy” option, that lets you consider an item for 48 hours before committing. Still got questions? Norma Kamali’s customer service will video-chat with you on Skype!

Polo Ralph Lauren. The venerable brand behind Polo and Club Monaco is pursuing the philosophy of merchantainment, making your shopping entertaining and personalized. The Iphone app speaks to it: it lets you customize 19 products, including sweaters, shirts, and sweatshirts from their Rugby’s collection. Users can also download photos of themselves in their creations.

FASHION RETAILERS

-Net-a-porter.com The potential for shopping on phones “is massive,” says Alison Loehnis, vice president of sales and marketing at Net-a-Porter.com. “We feel very strongly that third-generation technology is the new shop window. “No one wants to be bound to their computer anymore.” And so we get a Net-a-porter Iphone app with a ClosetFlow tool, which shows users small images of new products to thumb through before deciding about that $1,000 styletto!

THE FASHIONISTA KIT

The tech-savvy fashionistas already have their IPhone must-haves: Lucky at Your Service from Lucky magazine, ShopStyle Mobile from ShopStyle and obviously Style.com, ”the online home of Vogue magazine”.

AUGMENTED REALITY

Just wait for Augmented Reality to kick in for a new fashion revolution 3.0 to begin! Here’s a taste of it with the Zugara Webcam Social Shopper app demoed.