But what makes a good fashion film? And are these the same primary concerns that go into a good fashion photograph? While these questions have been circulating since SHOWstudio’s early experiments in moving image, this season, as the medium of fashion film matures, we saw the debate condense around two distinct points of view.

Some industry figures say that creating a successful fashion film is very different to creating a fashion photograph and underscore the primary importance of elements like narrative and acting. “What makes a good fashion film is exactly what makes any good film: direction, lighting, acting, script, sound,” said Diane Pernet, influential fashion blogger and founder of A Shaded View on Fashion Film. “These are elements that go beyond a static photo shoot,” she continued.

Ms. Pernet’s emphasis on the fundamentals of filmmaking was echoed by Alistair Allan, Digital Director at Dazed Group: “Anything near or over two minutes needs to have some form of narrative to keep the viewer engaged. The pace of editing is also important, as is the correct use of cinematography technique, which sadly a lot photographers don’t understand or sympathise with.”

Others think that great fashion films are driven by exactly the same concerns as great fashion photographs where the visual or stylistic story comes first. “I don’t think there are any rules when it comes to communicating a feeling, but for me, a fashion film is always led by the fashion — the lines, the colours,” said pioneering fashion filmmaker Ruth Hogben, who frequently collaborates with Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio. “Rather than film, it’s better to think about fashion: what makes a good fashion communication? It’s exactly the same as a photograph,” she emphasised.

Over the last two fashion cycles, we’ve brought you our seasonal ranking of the Top 10 Fashion Films. This season, the Top 10 includes powerful narrative films, like Karl Lagerfeld’s “Remember Now” for Chanel, as well as stunning films driven primarily by a stylistic story, like Ruth Hogben’s latest film for Gareth Pugh. We’ve also included “Act da Fool,” Harmony Korine’s controversial piece for Proenza Schouler, a piece that, we think, manages to place equal importance on narrative and visual storytelling. As you sit back and enjoy the films, let us know which approach you think works best.

(RSS and Email subscribers, click here to view the films).

1. Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 by Ruth Hogben

Starring a future-forward, silver-haired Kristen McMenamy, Ruth Hogben’s 11-minute geometric epic for Gareth Pugh captivated hundreds of editors, buyers and other industry insiders at Paris Fashion Week, where it was projected at giant scale in the Palais Omnisports in Bercy. Since then, it’s been beamed across the world via SHOWstudio and video sharing sites Vimeo and YouTube, entrancing thousands more. Directed by Ruth Hogben and conceived in collaboration with a close-knit team that included artist Matthew Stone, stylist Katie Shillingford and set designer Simon Costin, this is a film that puts fashion first, exploring Mr. Pugh’s S/S 2011 collection with laser-like focus. But the film also demonstrates with great effect how a designer can leverage abstract, visually-centered storytelling to perfectly communicate a collection and articulate a broader brand vision in one powerful communication.

2. Proenza Schouler “Act da Fool” by Harmony Korine

Proenza Schouler gave Harmony Korine, writer of “Kids” and director of disturbing features like “Gummo” and “Julien Donkey-Boy,” carte blanche to create this controversial film about teenage angst, resulting in what is possibly the most controversial fashion film released since the movement began a few years back. Shot in Nashville, Tennessee (where Korine lives) the film follows a group of African-American girls in as they drink, smoke, write graffiti and skulk around a schoolyard in Proenza Schouler’s Fall 2010 collection. “It’s about girls who sleep in abandoned cars and set things on fire,” said Korine. “It’s about the great things in life. The stars in the sky and lots of malt liquor.” While the film has attracted both severe criticism and praise — provoking a raging debate and discussion online — we rate it highly because it feels like an authentic piece of cultural content and perfectly integrates both narrative and visual storytelling by threading a poetic and mesmerising voiceover through a series of beautifully composed “moving stills.”

3. Chanel: Remember Now by Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld’s “Remember Now” for Chanel is a great example of a successful fashion film that’s driven primarily by narrative. Pascal Greggory stars as a veteran playboy who encounters a young and glittering group of friends played by a high-wattage cast including Elisa Sednaoui, Baptiste Giabiconi, Heidi Mount, Abbey Lee and others. We think the film nicely complements Mr. Lagerfeld’s nostalgic, Riviera-inspired 2011 cruise collection and tells a powerful brand story that perfectly captures the gilded and care-free hedonism of summer in Saint-Tropez. Mr. Lagerfeld’s cameo appearance is fun. But our favourite part is the brief intro sequence where Leigh Lezark plays Coco Chanel.

4. Iris by Barnaby Roper

Barnaby Roper’s techno-robotic “Iris,” starring Iris Strubegger, is a stunning visual experiment that dissects a range of fall looks from Stella McCartney, Miu Miu, Givenchy, Céline and Proenza Schouler. We love the way Roper — who has directed music videos for bands like Razorlight, Snowpatrol and Moby, alongside his work for fashion magazines — hypnotizes the viewer with his surgically precise editing technique. “It’s the rhythm of the edit that’s the key to the film, the key to all films,” said Roper in an interview with Nowness, where the film first appeared.

5. H&M Designer Collaboration Teasers (series)

H&M developed a brilliant short video teaser campaign to get consumers excited for the launch of their annual designer collaboration. Featuring stereotypical designer types like a man in a skinny dark suit and a woman in an extreme blouse and chunky jewelry, the series of black-and-white videos engaged viewers in a collective guessing game on the identity of the yet unannounced designer, dropping a sequence of clues specifically designed to lead fashion-savvy viewers one way, then another. Discussion raged on YouTube, spilled onto Twitter and sparked countless posts in the fashion blogosphere that named Carolina Herrera and Thomas Maier of Bottega Veneta among suspected collaborators, before the identity of the real designer was revealed to be Alber Elbaz of Lanvin. Overall, we thought this was a fun and highly effective use of the short video format that was intelligently conceived to generate positive conversation across the social web. Bravo.

5. Holly Fulton by Quentin Jones

“Holly Fulton” by London-based illustrator, animator and director Quentin Jones is a riot of flash bulbs, humming birds, lions and Manhattan skyscrapers that brought a great big smile to our faces, and recalled the signature aesthetic of one of London’s rising design talents. Commissioned by British Vogue art director Jaime Perlman for her experimental fashion platform TEST, we think the film is a perfect complement to Fulton’s bold and graphic, 60s meets Art Deco collection.

7. Burberry Acoustic (Series)

Debuting three days before the brand’s menswear show last June, the “Burberry Acoustic” series cleverly highlights the brand’s longstanding connection to British rock bands with a collection of nicely styled music videos that populate the brand’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. The short films feature Burberry product, integrate with in-store happenings and function as a kind of digital support platform for emerging British music talent. Plus, the music selection is great.

8. Chronology by Luca Guadagnino for NOWNESS

NOWNESS commissioned Luca Guadagnino, director of “I Am Love,” to create this abstract, surrealist film featuring a stunning Mariacarla Boscono in tightly edited highlights from the fall 2010 collections of luxury fashion etailer Net-a-Porter, styled by Cathy Edwards. In a characteristically sharp move from Net-a-Porter, famous for their shopable weekly web magazine and accompanying iPad app, the video content leads consumers directly to commerce opportunities. When the film launched, all the looks seen on Boscono — including fashion from Christopher Kane, Chloé, Miu Miu, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Sigerson Morrison and Azzedine Alaïa — were available for instant purchase.

9. Nike Gyakusou (Dark Edit) by Jamie Morgan

Jamie Morgan created this evocative film to launch the first collaboration between Nike Sportswear and Jun Takahashi’s cult brand Undercover: the Nike x Undercover Gyakusou performance running collection. The slow-motion visual treatment and playful yet deliberate soundtrack brilliantly capture the surreal sense of pace, stamina and inner focus that lies at the heart of performance running. We think the rain and smoke looks amazing as well.

10. Black Light by Suzie Q & Leo Siboni

Commissioned by Diane Pernet in collaboration with Vogue Italia, Suzie Q and Leo Siboni’s Blacklight appeared at A Shaded View on Fashion Film in Milan last May as part of a special series of one-minute fashion films inspired by “light.” The film plays on codes of fantasy and sporadically immerses the viewer in a blacklit netherworld to dramatic and haunting visual effect.

Did we miss someone? Which fashion films captured your imagination this season? Let the BoF community know which films you liked most.

London Fashion Week tent at Somerset House | Source: FashionSpot

British fashion industry now worth nearly £21bn a year (Guardian)
“The research highlights not only the direct impact of the fashion industry, including wholesale, retail and manufacturing, on the economy but also its effect on other industries including financial services and tourism.”

From Runway to Retail (WSJ)
“After a New York Fashion Week of dramatic and extreme, if gorgeous, clothes strutting down the runways, now the outfits must become shirts, skirts and pants women will actually wear.”

Dazed & Confused’s Digital Relaunch (PSFK)
“With their new site, which went live on the seventh of September, after a period of hiatus with nothing but a countdown visible, they’ve cemented their position as one of the most advanced and forward thinking British publications.”

Facebook ‘Places’ Campaigns Debut With Betsey Johnson (ClickZ)
“A Betsey Johnson store in California and a novelties e-tailer will each launch Facebook Places campaigns… The location-based efforts represent the first-ever Places initiatives.”

Does Fashion Make Good Theater? (NY Times)
“From a layman’s perspective, the jostling melee of entry, seating and the all-important photo-taking constitutes the liveliest part of the show. It’s a comedy of manners to rival anything on a Broadway stage.”

Screenshot of Dazed & Confused March Trailer | Source: Pokeware

NEW YORK, United States — “Moving image is the future of fashion communication.” It’s a mantra we’ve been hearing from influencers across the industry. Indeed, the number of unique viewers of online video has increased 10.5 percent year-over-year, according to The Nielsen Company, from 127.6 million unique viewers in February 2009 to 141 million in February 2010.

With this kind of reach and rapid growth, it’s no surprise that both fashion brands and publishers are investing in short digital films shot by some of the world’s best photographers and directors.

But while these videos have proven to be powerful and cost effective vehicles for creating emotional connections and buzz online, it’s been difficult to directly tie them to sales figures — until now.

Thanks to a tool called Pokeware, which lets consumers explore and shop products featured in a video, brands can better track and monetise their video content. “Viewers who are interested in elements within the programming (an article of clothing, or an accessory) can explore these items just by clicking,” said Quynh Mai, the founder of Moving Image & Content, a New York-based company that creates and distributes video content and has exclusive rights to deploy the Pokeware technology in the luxury, fashion and beauty industries.

Pokeware has previously been used by powerful media companies like MTV, ESPN and Paramount Pictures. But in March, London-based magazine Dazed & Confused used Pokeware to embed product information about clothing into a video trailer for its March issue.

“On every printed page of a magazine, there is always a credit telling the consumer what the subject in the image is wearing, and sometimes how much [it costs] and where to buy it. Dazed did the same thing, but the content was video and the medium was online,” explained Mai.

“Pokeware helps shrink the distance between desire and consumption down to one click,” she said. Indeed, the technology has the potential to transform glossy short films and videos into highly engaging virtual storefronts.

While sites like Fashionair have broken ground in the way they present shopable products alongside associated editorial content, Pokeware can make the integration more seamless than ever. The tool can also help brands track consumer interaction and performance metrics like click through rates.

But Pokeware isn’t the only player in the video “hotspotting” and metrics marketplace. Clikthrough enables users to browse and buy products like Dior jeans, Adidas trainers and Alexander McQueen sweaters that appear in music videos, while Conciseclick has created interactive videos for Estee Lauder and Mattel.

That said, what makes Pokeware particularly interesting is this: on their website, Moving Image & Content claims that “once affixed to our partner’s content, Pokeware cannot be separated from it, regardless of where and how it is distributed … across all digital media.”

While YouTube runs click-through advertising of its own and generally disables videos that connect to outside urls, with the proper deals in place, this is the kind of technology that could turn a viral video into a virtual shopping spree.

Robert Cordero is a contributing editor of The Business of Fashion

Jennifer Aniston by Steven Klein | Source: W Magazine

NEW YORK, United States — In recent seasons, fashion brands have learnt to think like publishers, creating original digital content to earn attention and attract fans who will carry their message across the internet. But the reverse is also true: squeezed by shrinking advertising budgets, traditional content creators like magazines are learning to think like retailers, embracing e-commerce to open new revenue streams and monetise their content.

“Publishers are the number one generators of purchasing intent for brands every day, but are being allocated an ever shrinking amount of ad dollars,” said Philippe von Borries, co-founder and publisher of popular fashion website Refinery29.com.

Indeed, “intent generators” like magazines are losing their fair share of sales revenue to “intent harvesters” like shopping sites at the end of the purchasing process, observes internet entrepreneur Chris Dixon in an insightful blog post entitled “A Massive Misallocation of Online Advertising Dollars.”

Mr. Dixon suggests that better techniques for tracking how publishers generate purchase intent could lead to a more favorable allocation of advertising dollars, allowing content sites to focus purely on producing content. But many magazines are hedging their bets, becoming both “intent generators” and “intent harvesters” by launching their own online shops and integrating them into their editorial platforms.

SHOPPING CHANNELS

Time Inc’s key fashion title InStyle first launched InStyle Shopping back in 2007, letting consumers browse and buy an edited array of products from retailers like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Bergdorf Goodman, and earning the magazine a share of the sales revenue. According to Simeen Mohsen, InStyle’s director of digital business operations, InStyle Shopping has “moved more than $10 million in product since launch.”

While InStyle declined to quantify exactly what this number means in terms of revenue for the magazine, other online publications and blogs earn 8 to 12 percent on clicks that lead to successful sales via affiliate programmes. Even if InStyle only earned about half as much — say 5 percent — this would translate to $500 thousand in revenue since 2007.

But ShopStyle, the social shopping engine that has powered InStyle Shopping since launch, states on their website: “The rate you are paid per click depends on a number of factors, including how often clicks result in sales for the retailer, the amount of each sale, and whether those products are returned for a refund. As a result, the rate you are paid can vary over time.”

Building on the success of InStyle Shopping, Time Inc. recently made a strategic move to deepen the integration of e-commerce across InStyle.com. In January, the publisher acquired StyleFeeder, a personal shopping engine that uses pattern recognition technology to make product recommendations. StyleFeeder is expected to be woven throughout InStyle’s website and replace the current partnership with ShopStyle. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Fran Hauser, head of digital strategy for the group that manages InStyle, explained: “Our editors are generating significant consumer demand for products in the retail market. And what StyleFeeder allows us to do is share in that value creation.”

InStyle isn’t the only magazine that’s been integrating e-commerce into its offering. Last November, Condé Nast’s Lucky magazine added online shopping to its editorial platform, bringing intent generation and intent harvesting together in one destination. “We felt strongly that we wanted to weave the eboutique into Luckymag.com rather than create a separate ecommerce site,” said Mary Gail Pezzimenti, Lucky magazine’s web director. “We believe that women want to shop alongside great fashion how-to advice, styling videos, fashion news and galleries of great outfits or hairstyles.”

Independent fashion titles have also been experimenting with e-commerce. Last Autumn, AnOther Magazine launched AnOther Shop, an online boutique with specially commissioned merchandise, from artworks by Jake and Dinos Chapman to laptop cases by Gareth Pugh. Then, a couple of months later, AnOther Magazine launched AnOther Loves, a product recommendation engine that sits alongside, but separate from AnOther Shop. It’s a bit like a collective blog, with product picks crowdsourced from a carefully selected list of contributors. “We wanted to turn this collection of desirable goods into a collaborative stream, and with a little semantics have realised this could be very useful for recommendations,” said Alistair Allan, digital director at Dazed Group which publishes AnOther.

CURATED COMMERCE

Magazine brands are also positioning themselves to generate and harvest purchase intent beyond their websites. During London Fashion Week in February, AnOther Loves teamed up with London department store Liberty on an initiative called AnOther Loves Liberty, a curated selection of Liberty products that appeared on AnOther Loves, as well as on Liberty’s website and at their Tudor-style flagship.

Partnerships with sample sale sites have also been popular. Lucky has teamed up with Net-a-Porter’s online outlet, theOutnet.com, to host flash sales curated by Lucky editors, Hachette Filipacchi’s Elle magazine has a deal with Rue La La and Vogue is partnering with Gilt Groupe to let consumers shop select products from the current issue.

SHOPABLE ADVERTISING

A few weeks ago, Vogue also launched an iPhone app designed to make the magazine’s advertising shopable. Called Vogue Stylist, the app is loaded with styling advice and monthly trends supplied by Vogue editors, alongside products advertised in the magazine, which consumers can browse, mix and match with items uploaded from their own closet, and ultimately click to buy. “Vogue Stylist pairs a user’s wardrobe with products from Vogue advertisers to produce a look that is both chic and new,” said Holly Tedesco, integrated marketing director at Vogue. Using the camera built into the iPhone, the app even allows readers to scan and shop physical ad pages in Vogue’s print issue.

FULL INTEGRATION

But some magazines are going beyond branded shopping channels, curated e-commerce partnerships and shopable advertising. They are integrating e-commerce directly into their center-of-book editorial. This month, W magazine launched a shopping guide alongside images of covergirl Jennifer Aniston, with numbered bullets — and links to external shopping sites — that correspond to the clothing Ms. Aniston wears. Indeed, the integrated shopping guides appear in all of W’s fashion spreads for April.

If this kind of deep integration of commerce and core editorial content appears to pose an inherent conflict of interest, it’s worth remembering that at fashion magazines, these lines have long been blurred. Across the industry, the products featured in editorial are often a function of a magazine’s advertisers.

Furthermore, in the real lives of fashion consumers, magazines and shopping are already integrated. People have used magazines as inspirational product guides since their very inception, a behaviour that’s even easier now that editorial sites and online shops are just a click or tab away from each other. So why shouldn’t publishers offer shopping services that streamline the process for consumers and capture a share of the sales revenue that’s rightfully theirs?

That’s not to say that an independent stylistic point of view is not important. It’s tremendously important. It’s what attracts readers in the first place. Going forward, the most successful magazines will be those who are able to maintain their unique point of view, while capitalising on content that’s shopable. A contradiction? Not necessarily. A challenge? Definitely.

“Over the next few months we will be launching several new commerce products,” said von Borries of Refinery29. “We firmly believe that commerce should be an integral element of a digital content site that features new fashion products, trends and designers every hour. Commerce and community also belong together. Whoever does not embrace the two will lose out in the long run.”

Indeed, people love to shop, but even more than that, they love to shop together. While forward-thinking youth apparel brands like Vans have experimented with realtime social shopping, letting users share the experience of customising shoes, we’ve yet to see a content site that lets readers explore and shop fashion together, in realtime.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is Managing Editor of The Business of Fashion

LONDON, United Kingdom — As we enter the dog days of August, The Business of Fashion is going to take a holiday. But before we take our little sabbatical, we have a request for you, our loyal readers.

We were delighted to learn last week that BoF has been shortlisted for the first Dazed Digital RAW Blog Awards, in the fashion category. The awards have now been opened to a public vote — and the competition is fierce. We are honoured to share the nomination with several other excellent fashion blogs, including Jak & Jil, DisneyRollerGirl, and our friends over at the Fashion156 daily blog.

Everyday, thousands and thousands of you around the world log in to www.businessoffashion.com or enjoy our BoF Daily Newsletter on your Blackberries, iPhones and laptops as a free tool for research, intelligence and inspiration in your day to day work in the fashion business. Today, we are counting on you to click here and scroll down to find our BoF logo and vote for The Business of Fashion!

VOTE FOR BoF IN THE DAZED DIGITAL RAW BLOG AWARDS

Share the link with your friends on Facebook, Tweet it to the world and help us win. From all of us at BoF, thank you!

In the third and final installment of our in-depth feature on the future of fashion magazines, we address the biggest online trend of all — the fashion film.

LONDON, United Kingdom — Pioneered by SHOWstudio and powered by the spread of broadband internet and the popularity of video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, fashion film has emerged as the most influential new format for fashion editorial online. Shorts like “Black and White,” captured on set by Nick Knight and former assistant Ruth Hogben during Mr Knight’s shoots for British Vogue, use music and movement to communicate the power and poetry of fashion in a way that static editorial simply can’t.

Fashion film has taken off at Dazed Digital also. “We have been experimenting with some of these directors to shoot fashion videos direct to the web and the results are cost effective and really impressive,” said Jefferson Hack. For a recent editorial previewing the Autumn/Winter 2009 menswear collections, Dazed Digital published an online fashion film, shot by Matt Irwin and styled by Robbie Spencer, to accompany the still images.

But what’s resonating with readers? The beauty of digital is that publishers can monitor success and failure in realtime. “We’re able to pin-point with incredible accuracy, article by article and shoot by shoot, what people are really looking at,” said Jefferson Hack. “The blogging and re-tweeting of content also shows what’s really capturing people’s imaginations. It’s a tremendously useful feedback loop for the editors.”

Indeed, the ability to capture and quantify realtime feedback from readers themselves has helped build a stronger business case for lots of digital experiments and encouraged others in fashion media to follow suit.

Faced with the new digital reality, more and more fashion magazines are launching interactive experiments of their own. POP plans to redevelop thepop.com to coincide with its re-launched next season under new editorial direction, while i-D has promised that its “restructuring” will come with a renewed focus on the web. According to Matthew Hawker, Production Director at the magazine and the person charged with relaunching i-Dmagazine.com, the revamped web experience will include “a sophisticated content management system that will allow the world’s best photographers, stylists, DJs, filmmakers and designers to create their own environments within the editorial control of Terry Jones and the i-D team.”

So what will fashion magazines look like in a few years’ time? While websites like Dazed Digital and SHOWstudio point the way forward, offering readers greater immediacy and access, new opportunities for participation, and more multi-sensory content than ever before, nobody really knows the answer to that question. That’s because unlike print, digital is a medium that’s always evolving.

“We are now entering the restless world of interactive, self-created, digital-imaging: accessible, downloadable and constantly changing,” said Nick Knight. Indeed, unlike traditional photography that “ends” when the image is developed and printed, digital imagery on the internet has no fixed ending. It can be changed constantly by its creator or programmed to evolve based on inputs as varied as user interaction or time of day.

What Mr. Knight observes about digital imagery is true of digital media at large. Unlike print, the internet is not a stable medium with fixed properties. Quite the contrary. The web is an ever-changing universe in which new media forms like Twitter and Tumblr are literally being born every day. In this ecosystem of constant change, fashion magazines must accept revolution without end and learn to embrace constant experimentation, constant innovation and the constant birth and death of new editorial formats.

Read Part One – A Changing Landscape here and Part Two – Lots of Little Experiments here.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is a digital strategist and writer based in New York.

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.

Indeed, the success of physical magazines like Purple Fashion and Katie Grand’s new venture Love, which sold-out on newsstands within days of its release, proves that an original point of view and well-crafted reader experience are important, no matter what the medium. But online, where information is easily and instantly exchanged, originality and experience are even more essential in attracting and keeping readers. “Where so many sites are aggregating content or acting as filters, it’s important that all the content on Dazed Digital is originated by us,” underscored Mr. Hack.

The immediacy of the internet has also given readers unprecedented access to the behind the scenes of the fashion industry. “Before, fashion shows were a closed affair for only a handful of professionals around the world. Now the news is dispersed instantly. Fashion is no longer the domain of a very few,” said blogger Diane Pernet. Indeed, amplified by the fashion world’s enthusiastic adoption of Twitter last season, consumer interest in the people and process behind the scenes of fashion is exploding and expectations are rising for fashion media to deliver.

Magazines have responded in some interesting ways. Olivier Zahm of Purple has launched a website called Purple Diary. Using the “micro-blogging” platform Tumblr, the site lets Mr. Zahm and his contributors chronicle their lives in realtime and post instant, and often intimate, updates directly to readers from fashion parties, runway shows, art happenings and photo shoots around the world.

Photographer Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio, which calls itself a “fashion website” rather than a magazine, has gone one step further, allowing its audience immediate and unparalleled access to the entire creative process of making fashion editorials for magazines like V and British Vogue. “The philosophy of the site is based on Nick’s belief that showing the entire creative process – from conception to completion – is beneficial for the artist, the audience and the art itself,” said Alex Fury, fashion director of SHOWstudio.

What’s more, on SHOWstudio the audience is encouraged to respond and contribute to projects that feature some of the most influential names in fashion like Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh and Kate Moss. For example, a project called “24 HRS” let viewers influence the narrative of a short film for the launch of Stefano Pilati’s “Edition 24″ collection for Yves Saint Laurent. Directed by Nick Knight, the entire shoot was broadcast live online, while model Jessica Miller acted out treatments submitted by SHOWstudio viewers. Another project, “Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down,” let viewers style model Liberty Ross for a photo shoot. “In a virtual chatroom, viewers posted their ideas for styling outfits for Liberty and forty ‘Stylists’ were chosen from the chatroom to style Liberty in their looks, live, via chatroom instructions,” said Alex Fury.

“Digital is breaking down the boundaries between artist, curator and consumer,” observed Ken Miller, a freelance editor and contributor to V, V Man and Interview magazines. “It’s become much more about the creative experience for all of the participants.”

Dazed Digital has also been experimenting with new ways to let readers participate in the creation of content. In April, Dazed became the first fashion magazine to stage a “twinterview,” giving readers the chance to interview Nathan Howdeshell and Hannah Blilie from The Gossip (Beth Ditto also joined at the last minute) live via Twitter. Dazed has also been using photo sharing site Flickr to source new talent, showcasing young photographers from their Flickr group on Dazed Digital and sometimes commissioning them to shoot for the print edition. “Social networking sites have played a big role in allowing users to participate in the magazine’s development,” said Jefferson Hack.

But perhaps more than anything else, fashion magazines are about fresh and provocative imagery. For decades, that largely meant still photography. But in recent seasons, that’s begun to change. “We are in the midst of a revolution in fashion imagery, moving away from illustration and stills photography,” said Nick Knight, director of SHOWstudio.

Read Part One – A Changing Landscape here and Part Three – The move to fashion film here.

Next time, in our third and final installment, we explore the biggest online fashion force of all — the growing dominance of the online fashion film.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is a digital strategist and writer based in New York.

Screen shot of DazedDigital.com

Fashion media has long been a BoF obsession. This week, we bring you an in-depth, three part series revealing the strategies, plans and expertise of some of the most innovative and respected players in the online fashion scene. Today, we start with an overview of the rapidly-evolving fashion media landscape.

NEW YORK, United States—A few weeks ago, independent fashion magazine i-D, founded in 1980 by art director Terry Jones, announced it was cutting back its print run to 6 issues per year, while major commercial titles like American Vogue have been forced to slash payroll and scale back on expenses.

Across the spectrum, times are tough for fashion magazines. With ad sales dramatically down, their main source of revenue is evaporating. And while online readership is growing, the “culture of free” that dominates the web means magazines earn nothing from internet subscriptions, while the sale of online ad space simply doesn’t generate enough income to cover cost. It’s a crisis I first examined a few months ago, amidst dark headlines about powerhouse publishers like Condé Nast.

As marketers continue to slash advertising budgets, there’s no doubt the current economic crisis is contributing to the problem. But it’s not the underlying issue. Even if demand for print advertising rebounds when this recession ends, things will never be as they once were. The fact is, we are in the midst of a digital revolution as powerful as Gutenberg that’s causing sustained, seismic upheaval across the publishing industry.

Readers are migrating online, where information is abundantly available and freely shareable. But that doesn’t mean content can’t be monetized. The demand is there. Indeed, people are consuming more content than ever. And there’s no shortage of people who want to supply it. The problem is, the internet is destroying the business structures of the past faster than the structures of the future are being created.

So what’s a magazine to do?

So far, nobody has cracked the code. But what’s increasingly clear is that there’s no single code to crack. As Clay Shirky, internet writer and professor at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program puts it, “there was one single business model in a world where media was scarce, but there needs to be many when media is abundant.”

In other words, there is no generalized answer to the problems facing publishing. “We are not moving from a world of Business Model A to a world of Business Model B. We are going from Business Model A to Business Models A to Z,” says Mr. Shirky. That means each publication will have to find a model (or models) that suits its particular content, readership and market position.

Although many new business models have been proposed, from “free” content that’s bundled with internet access to micropayments for individual articles, it’s extraordinarily difficult to predict which solutions will work. As with political revolutions, nobody really knows exactly what’s on the other side of this digital upheaval.

What’s more clear is that success is likely to come from lots of little experiments whose importance will be revealed only in retrospect. “Now is the time for experiments, lots and lots of experiments, each of which will seem as minor at launch as Craigslist did, as Wikipedia did,” says Mr. Shirky.

What’s also clear is that the challenge posed by the internet impacts more than business models alone. It’s not just how publishers package and deliver content that’s in play. It’s the content itself.

The internet is transforming the way in which content is both created and consumed, challenging the current emphasis on static words and pictures pasted on a page. Nobody really knows which new formats for telling stories will capture the collective imagination of editors and readers. Again, success is likely to come from lots of little experiments.

But admidst all the uncertainty that revolutions like this create, it’s important to remember writer and futurist William Gibson, who observed: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” Indeed, amongst the fashion media, a handful of online pioneers have been conducting lots of little experiments in digital content that help point the way forward for their more mainstream counterparts who are just beginning to understand the impact of the internet.

Tomorrow, in part two, we investigate how little online experiments enable trailblazers like Jefferson Hack of Dazed Digital and Nick Knight of SHOWstudio to see into the future of fashion media.

Read Part Two – Lots of Little Experiments here and Part Three – The move to fashion film here.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is a digital strategist and writer based in New York.