Burberry Autumn/Winter 2010 | Source: Burberry

LONDON, United Kingdom — It was billed as the world’s first truly global fashion show, taking place on the penultimate day of London Fashion Week, beamed live in 3D to five global cities, and streamed to the rest of the world via 73 websites, including Vogue, Grazia and CNN, which all picked up the video feed in a global simulcast. It was undoubtedly the  most widely distributed fashion show a luxury brand has ever staged, potentially reaching an audience of more than 100 million users, according to Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts.

At first, I was disappointed that BoF had not been invited to attend the real event at London’s Chelsea College of Art, but in the end I’m glad to have experienced Burberry’s live internet stream. It all felt very 2010, especially as I ducked into the Regent Street Apple Store to watch the show after a late lunch. It was a fashion moment.

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LONDON, United Kingdom — As the fashion industry continues its march into the digital age, London — always known for its raw creativity and emerging talent — can now add digital innovation to that list.

This is no overnight story. To the contrary, it’s taken ten years for fashion players here to plant seeds which are only beginning to bear fruit now, as fashion’s digital tsunami really begins to take hold.

The British capital, after all, is home to revolutionary fashion website SHOWStudio, e-commerce pioneer Net-a-Porter, and online hub of youth culture Dazed Digital — all of which were founded many years ago. These seminal businesses have created a foundational and fertile seedbed for other digital businesses and attracted and developed digital talent that has gone on to shape and inspire other online companies here including mywardrobe.com, Fashionair and farfetch.com. And, while American Vogue is in the midst of setting up its website now, British Vogue has had its own website for fifteen years.

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Peter Pilotto, Holly Fulton and Marios Schwab, A/W 09

LONDON, United Kingdom — Today marks the start of London Fashion Week, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the British Fashion Council and heralding the return of big brands like Burberry and Pringle and star talents who had left the city to show elsewhere, like Jonathan Saunders and Matthew Williamson.

But the strength of London has always been its emerging designers, whose creativity is born out of the unrivaled energy, top fashion schools and international fabric that make up London’s recipe for truly innovative fashion design. So, while it’s great to have the big brands back, we are also looking forward to seeing what’s in store from the newest crop of young designers.

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Sojin Lee, Co-Founder, Fashionair.com

LONDON, United Kingdom — Over the last decade, the internet and the mp3 have revolutionised the way people access and consume music, fundamentally threatening the system of controlled distribution that traditional record companies had built. Now a similar digital tidal wave is giving consumers unprecedented access to the once closed, “insider” world of fashion.

The rapid pace of chance is causing disruption across the industry and calling into question the logic of the current fashion calendar, where consumers have access to collections online months before they arrive at retail and fast fashion copycats create and market look-a-like merchandise faster and cheaper.

In the context of these underlying shifts, Sojin Lee, former chief buyer for Net-a-Porter, has teamed up with multi-millionaire and founder of 19 Entertainment, Simon Fuller, whose impressive track record in the music industry includes managing the Spice Girls through the peak of their success. Together, they have launched Fashionair, a new platform for “fashion entertainment” that’s both digital and democratic.

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LONDON, United Kingdom — After months of speculation and almost a year of going without a head designer, Halston announced in May that it had appointed Marios Schwab, the half-Austrian half-Greek Lond0n-based designer, as its new Creative Director.

Many in the industry breathed a sigh of relief. Amongst the various names that had been bandied around in the rumour mill, including Olivier Theyskens (apparently the strong choice of Anna Wintour), Schwab’s name was the one that seemed to create the most excitement amongst fashion insiders for his potential to develop commercially viable collections in the spirit of the brand’s DNA.

Making the final cut was no easy task. Amongst others, Schwab had to pass the muster of board members including Bonnie Takhar, Halston’s CEO, Harvey Weinstein, the notoriously demanding Hollywood heavyweight and investor in the Halston brand, and Tamara Mellon, Founder and President of Jimmy Choo. With a vested stake in the Halston brand, each of these big guns also knew that their decision would directly impact the bottom line at a critical time for the newly-relaunched label.

I caught up recently with Marios on a sunny day at London’s Shoreditch House to learn more about his decision to join Halston, his plans for balancing two labels, and his advice for young designers just starting out in the business of fashion.

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Images from SHOWstudio's "Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down"

Last time we surveyed the rapidly changing landscape of digital fashion media. Today, in the second part of our series on the future of fashion magazines, we explore the experimental approach that online pioneers like Jefferson Hack and Nick Knight are using to create unique content and experiences that truly bring fashion magazines into the digital age.

LONDON, United Kingdom — The internet’s ability to transmit information immediately, impossible in print and too expensive on television, has changed the way in which we create and consume content perhaps more than anything else. “Print magazines will never be the first to break any news,” said fashion blogger Diane Pernet, whose influential website, A Shaded View on Fashion, has been reporting live from fashion weeks, showrooms and studios around the world, capturing and transmitting the moment almost instantaneously with inexpensive camera phones and laptops.

In response, forward thinking magazines have done two things. Web pioneers like Dazed Digital, a fashion and culture platform launched in November 2006 by the publishers of Dazed & Confused magazine, have begun “live blogging” themselves, posting realtime reports from fashion shows in Paris, London, New York and Milan. But they’ve also learned to focus less on what’s new, a commodity that’s instantly available everywhere, and more on a unique point of view and reader experience that aren’t easily replicated. “It’s got to be more about experiencing the fashion; a stylistic point of view. It’s less and less about information,” said Jefferson Hack, founder and co-publisher at Dazed Group. … Continue Reading

Behnaz Kanani

LONDON, United Kingdom — Behnaz Kanani is the name to know for buyers in search of a shoe designer with an age-old emphasis on craftsmanship paired with a modern eye. This month, our BoF logo showcases her aesthetic which mixes contrasting colours, exotic skins, and luxe leathers in immaculately-constructed shoes that are designed to catch a bit of attention.

After graduating from Cordwainers College in London in 1997, Kanani set her sights on Italy’s traditional shoe industry at Bruno Magli in Bologna to get the kind of old-world training that money can’t buy. With that technical foundation in place, she flexed her design muscle working with Sandra Choi, Creative Director at Jimmy Choo, just as the brand was starting to take off and reach uber-hot status. Then, in 2006, with brother and business partner Reza by her side, she launched her own label and has experienced promising success in the first few years of her business.

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Uniqlo visual merchandising

LONDON, United Kingdom — “Men’s and women’s polo t-shirts in 25 colours from £12.99!” Ads announcing this Uniqlo promotion have been plastered alongside London buses this month, as well as being featured front-and-centre in Uniqlo shops everywhere. Same-store sales rose 18.3 percent in May 2009 over last year for the Japanese retailer, and the company’s stock hit five-year record highs.

Over at American Apparel, which uses a similar merchandising approach, total retail sales increased 16.5 percent to $78 million for the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. It would seem that both American Apparel and Uniqlo have managed to accurately address the mood of the market, hitting a sweet spot in an otherwise suffering sector. Although many factors play into these high street success stories, it is worth having a closer look at the merchandising strategy shared by both, offering a functional item in a variety of colours and encouraging the purchase of multiple units.

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LONDON, United Kingdom — London, of course, is widely known in the fashion world for its unbridled creativity and superb emerging fashion talent. But, increasingly, it could also be described as fashion’s Silicon Valley, with a growing number of innovative fashion ecommerce startups sprouting in the city, following in the footsteps of the ultimate luxury e-tailing pioneer, Net-a-Porter.com.

During my visit to Vienna for the 9 Festival for Fashion & Photography, I had the privilege of hosting a discussion amongst some of the newest fashion e-tailers on the London scene, bringing together Sarah Curran, CEO of my-wardrobe.com, José Neves, CEO of farfetch.com and Stephanie Phair, Director of theoutnet.com.

Thanks to our easy-to-use Flip Video Mino, we managed to capture some of the most poignant responses from our illustrious panel and are pleased to share them with you in the coming weeks. First up: How are your clients changing their shopping habits in the downturn?

RSS and email subscribers, click here to watch the video.

Matthew Williamson for H&M, courtesy of H&M

H&M’s 8% April Comparable Sales Gain Breaks Trend (WSJ)
“Fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB Friday said April sales in comparable stores rose for the first time since July, indicating that it may be recovering from the global trend of consumers reining in spending amid the economic slowdown.”

Dior Jumps on the Viral-Video Bandwagon (NYMag.com)
“The House of Dior will release a short film on May 20, directed by Oliver Dahan and starring the ever-lovely Marion Cotillard,” featuring artistic shots of stockings, Lady Dior handbags, clothes by John Galliano, the Eiffel Tower, and gangsters. To whet our appetites, Dior has released a 30 second trailer. (see video here)

Esprit says to open more stores, meet target (The Guardian)
“Esprit Holdings, the world’s No.6 fashion brand, said on Thursday it will continue to open new stores and is confident of meeting its target of adding 110 outlets in the fiscal year ending in June.”

Richard Prince Wraps Hong Kong Museum For Vuitton (WWD)
“The installation, which takes its theme from Prince’s ‘After Dark’ series, heralds a significant exhibition of paintings, photographs and video installations collectively called ‘Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation’ that will be displayed inside the Museum of Art from May 22 to August 9 as part of Hong Kong’s annual French May Arts Festival.”

De La Renta to Open Stores in the Gulf Region (WWD)
“Not about to be mired down by the U.S. economy, Oscar de la Renta Ltd. is heading to the Arabian Gulf region to increase international sales.” (Subscription required)