The Internet is continuing to get more and more attention from the fashion and luxury industry…from Contemporary shoppers in America to greying Babyboomers.

Boom Time (Financial Times)
The hugely valuable babyboomer segment is taking Internet-knowhow with them as they ease into retirement. The FT cites credible experts who say that in order to reach these "silver surfers" in the years to come, brands will have to find them on social networking sites like Eons (nope, we had never heard of it either – who knew!?) where they will seek refuge from loneliness caused by high-levels of divorce and fading social structures like the Church.

Tech and fashion just off the runway (CNET)
The gaping divide between technologists and fashionistas was exposed at a fashion and technology conference in Boston a few days ago. Apparently even the speakers’ ease with the presentation technology was a sure give-away of this gap. We were intrigued to hear about the thriving fashion scene on A Second Life. Yes, it’s true. And one of the hottest trends was to carry around a chicken as an accessory.

Shoppers click on Contemporary (WWD)
Women’s Wear Daily documents the rise of the Contemporary shopper on the Internet. Key to attracting these customers is providing hard to find items like XL Juicy Couture tracksuits. Online demand has also driven many brands to take to the Net themselves.

When London’s only mega-luxury brand (Burberry) throws a launch party, invites the city’s model-du-jour (Agyness Deyn), and recruits East-End club kids from the city’s hippest club night (Boombox) to add to its street cred and sell its new fragance (Burberry Beat), it is definitely a formula for fashion marketing success.  Analysts and journalists have been commenting on the brand’s new found hipness and pictures have appeared in all the right places, despite the extra-Zone 1 location and late start.

For Boombox, however, it’s likely to be a sign that the party’s over. That’s not to say that Boombox hasn’t had a great run. From the start, it was an ultra-cool hangout for the East End fashion and music scenesters (and a great excuse to dress up in wacky clothes). Then, almost as quickly as it emerged on the scene, websites appeared with party photos, pop-up Boombox parties were held in Paris and Milan, a book by the club’s promoter Richad Mortimer was published, and most recently the "rent-a-Boombox-crowd" party was held for Burberry.

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The Made in Italy label is a source of pride for every Italian. You see, Italians have fashion in their blood and style in their DNA. It’s not surprising that more than 4 million of them tuned in to watch the RAI3 documentary Schiavi del Lusso, or Slaves of Luxury, on Sunday evening which revealed a slimy world of underpaid immigrant labour, huge price mark-ups, and what was portrayed to be undue influence from American heavyweights like Anna Wintour.

This is not the first time that the industry has come under attack in recent months. The Dana Thomas book De-Luxe and the WWF Deeper Luxury  report have called into question the ethical and environmental practices of major luxury companies. While the first two have only seemed to generate a discussion within the luxury industry itself, RAI 3’s televised approach seems to have struck a real chord with end consumers. Since the television show was aired on Sunday, many Italians have been up in arms and have stormed the RAI 3 website with comments of indignation and Italian bloggers have been propagating the dicussion.

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Three different men, three different strategies for conquering the fashion business. They couldn’t be more different from each other (French "cult" fashion designer, legendary American couturier, and rapper entrepreneur), but they are each at the top of their game.

Oscar: Why Is This Man Still Fashionable? (Wall Street Journal)
75 year old Oscar de la Renta gives a candid interview on his longevity in the "family" business. CEO Alex Bolen, whom we met at the last Oscar show, chimes in towards the end with some business commentary.

JayZ: JayZ Expands Fashion Portfolio (BlackEnterprise)
JayZ continues to prove himself as a savvy businessman. The latest news is his acquisition of the Artful Dodger brand.

Roland: Moon Over Manhattan (New York Post)
Roland Mouret’s moon dress is out today at Bergdorf Goodman in NY and apparently half of the inventory was pre-sold before it hit the floor. A pop-up shopt at Selfridges was also stormed by Mouret-lovers.

P.S. We finally got around to securing a URL in sync with the Business of Fashion – welcome to www.businessoffashion.net. To all our friends, linkers and supporters, it would be great if you could update your links and bookmarks.

The fourth article in our BoF Basics series for emerging designers has been a long time coming. We have been receiving emails every other day asking when the next article would be published. So, here it is, and  thank you for your patience.

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So you’ve done it. You’ve cobbled together some financing from family and friends or squeezed a loan out of your bank manager. If you’re a little farther along, perhaps you have managed to raise an injection of capital that will help take your business to the next level. The question is, now what to do with your funding? And, how do you make it last?

It’s likely that you will have had to agree fund allocation to some extent with your investors prior to securing the funds, but it will be important to re-visit and re-confirm this now that you are past the negotiation stage. In reality, you will make spending decisions every single day, how ever small. The fourth part of the BoF Basics discusses the allocation of your capital, or more simply, how and where to spend your money.

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Red Herring: Gilt Groupe Scores VC Funding
The market is beginning to acknowledge the potential of online communities in selling fashion. The Red Herring is reporting that Gilt Groupe, which was featured in a Q&A on The Business of Fashion last week, has raised $5m of venture funding from Matrix Partners. Even the New York Times ran a short article.

IHT: Supreme Luxur y 2008
All week we have been posting Suzy Menkes’ videos from the IHT’s Supreme Luxury Conference in Moscow. Don’t miss the written content – it’s just as interesting, especially this article on India that somehow appears within a sea of articles on Russia.

The Wall Street Journal: MySpace for Millionaires
Asmallworld is no longer alone. A raft of new online sites targeted at high net worth individuals have emerged in the past few months, including SQUA.RE, a site we featured in an article for the JC Report.