Fashionably Digital at New York Fashion Week
21 February 2012
Having marked the first major fashion event of 2012, New York Fashion Week’s Fall/Winter 2012 presentations recently came to a close. However, the next big occasions on the fashion calendar are well underway, with London Fashion Week taking place this week, to be followed by Milan and Paris.
From world-renowned names to more discreet new players, designers from all (cat)walks debut their Fall 2012 visions this month. Besides the highly anticipated designs and buzz surrounding celebrities, the plethora of digital innovations that were adopted at New York Fashion Week, have caught the attention of the industry. The majority of the main players live-streamed their shows and fashion brands big and small were highly active on the social media scene. We take a look back at some of the digital highlights from New York Fashion Week, initiatives that will surely set the scene for the fashion weeks to follow.
A fashion platform for the real VIPs
Fashion PR giant KCD Worldwide, in collaboration with leading digital agency King and Partners, pioneered an invitation-only internet platform for the real VIPs (buyers and fashion editors) to view fashion shows. The first presentation featured Prabal Gurung’s flirtatious debut collection for ICB.
It’s a dream come true for press and buyers, not only having an undisrupted front row view, but more importantly, access to high resolution images with product details, close ups, and videos, all immediately available from their computers and mobile devices.
Backstage with Diane Von Furstenberg
The iconic fashion house joined forces with iPhone video app Viddy (like Instagram for video) to provide snippets of behind the scenes footage of their activities at New York Fashion Week. The videos were posted to the brand’s dedicated DVF NYFW tab on Facebook shortly after being filmed and were also shared on Twitter. The videos featured model castings, snapshots of hair and makeup, backstage interviews, and frantic preparations before the runaway (including Diane’s special message to the models before the show). This allowed fans with backstage access to a real and in-depth experience of the show as it happened.
Oscar de la Renta calls on fans for digital inspiration board
Immediately following their fashion week show, Oscar de la Renta announced the launch of a branded platform ‘The Board’ which invites people to post images or videos on a virtual inspiration board. The platform is live for the next three months and the images posted will serve as inspiration for the upcoming resort collection. The site, best described as a mini Pinterest with a live feed, is a way for the brand to encourage participation with their fans.
Made’s app for fashion week a runway radar
Made, a platform for fashion, art, and media created by Milk Studios, teamed up with Sonic Notify to create a mobile app that recognizes inaudible sound waves which automatically sync to mobile devices in real-time. This allowed participants at the shows to view photos from the collections on their mobiles as they went down the runway. The images included details about the designers and merchandise which could be tagged to favorites, re-tweeted and posted to Facebook, making it easy to for users to share information and manage their reviews right after the shows.
Tommy Hilfiger’s Twitter model walk
During its menswear show earlier this month, Tommy Hilfiger shared images of the fall shoe collection via Twitter as they premiered on the runway. Fans had a chance to win a pair shoes by re-tweeting their favorite style, or by entering in the competition on Facebook, where the brand also live streamed their show. Tommy Hilfiger’s Twitter model walk may have gained inspiration from Burberry’s initiative when the British fashion house tweeted images from their Spring 2012 collection, moments before the runway.
As New York Fashion Week so prominently demonstrated, digital is increasingly changing the way fashion brands communicate. With Paris and Milan shows soon to follow, we will be closely monitoring the next interesting and exciting moves in digital.