"Irreverent" by Carine Roitfeld | Source: NY Times

A Super-Stylish Vampire (IHT)
“If the definition of a vampire is a pallid, blood-sucking monster with frightening fangs, Carine Roitfeld, former editor of French Vogue and a pivotal figure in the fashion world, does not seem to fit the bill… ‘Why a book — especially for someone like me who hates looking back?’ Ms. Roitfeld asked herself… ‘It marks 30 years. The end of a chapter is a good moment — and they have been ‘belles années,’ beautiful years, when I have succeeded in work and with my family.’”

Ted Baker’s figures look smart as high street rivals falter (Independent)
“The fashion retailer’s US retail sales grew by 74 per cent to $16.7m (£10.8m) in the 28 weeks to 13 August, boosted by new concessions and strong demand for its clothes. But UK and European sales rose by a more modest 7.8 per cent over the period, to £69.2m, while gross margins were dented by a higher level of promotional activity.”

Fashion’s brave new world (Telegraph)
“Beginning with the invention of nylon pantyhose by Allan Gant Sr in 1 959, fashion and technology have gradually been brought together as new materials and techniques opened up countless possibilities for designers… One step further along the technological scale comes catalytic clothing, which… Claims could help combat the harmful emissions released by vehicle exhausts in cities.”

US Vogue is magazine of the year (Telegraph)
“There’s no denying Anna Wintour still reigns supreme as queen of the glossies. US Vogue , which she has edited – with an iron fist some might say – since 1988, was just named Magazine of the Year at the prestigious Ad Age Awards… There is hope for print, it seems, as advertising revenues have plummeted along with every other measure of economic growth across the globe; if anyone can squeeze revenues from cautious (or broke) advertisers it is ‘Brand Anna’.”

Diane Pernet On A Shaded View Of Fashion Film Festival (Huffington Post)
“Drenched in black with her ever-present lace mantilla and catseye sunglasses, Diane Pernet is one of the most recognisable figures on the fashion landscape. But it’s not just her iconic and unvarying look that has gained her recognition; she is one of fashion’s true digital pioneers.”

Graham Tabor and Migel Villalobos | Photo: Miguel Villalobos

NEW YORK, United States — I first met Graham Tabor and Miguel Villalobos over sushi in New York with our mutual friend Diane Pernet. Then again, it felt like we already knew each other since their smiling faces were often featured on Diane’s blog and she had already told me so much about them.

Since then, Graham and Miguel have kept me captivated with their creativity and ideas. A talented photographer and illustrator working in film, fashion and art, Miguel is always casually snapping photos away when we’re together. He has worked on creative projects with various collaborators including another friend of BoF, Zaldy Goco. For his part, Graham has long collaborated behind-the-scenes with other talented creatives — including  super-stylist Melanie Ward, Helmut Lang and Karl Lagerfeld.

Most recently, Graham and Miguel put on their first solo sculpture exhibit in Paris, featuring animal skeletons constructed out of found cardboard and masking tape, covered in layers of resin, which made for some arresting imagery.

I’ve often wondered in the back of my mind how this dynamic duo would take their complementary creativity and commercialise it some day. The answer finally came during Paris Fashion Week just past when they showed me their beautiful new line of fine jewelry, 1-100.

The word ‘fine‘ jewelry isn’t intended to be a descriptor of the aesthetic mind you, as everything in their collection has a rough hewn, organic feel, with unfinished raw edges and shapes. Made in numbered editions in their New York atelier, the collection combines traditional and innovative materials with age-old artisanship. For Spring/Summer 2011, Miguel and Graham created a series of necklaces, bracelets, and cuffs in sterling silver and leather, captured by Miguel in captivating photography.

1-100 for BoF

It seems like we’re not the only ones who were impressed. Sarah Lerfel from Colette snapped the collection up for a Paris exclusive, along with cutting edge boutiques like Reborn in Montreal and Hostem in East London. Not bad for their first try at jewelry.

We are delighted to welcome Graham and Miguel, and their Spring/Summer 2011 collection, to the BoF Spotlight!

The Spotlight is BoF’s showcase for emerging talent employing creativity and business acumen to make their mark in the fashion business.

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.

J.Crew Takes a Leading Role in Men’s Fashion (Bloomberg)
“The men’s fashion landscape has long been dominated on one side by luxury brands… [or alternatives] that no longer seem au courant.  J.Crew has emerged in this void as the merchant of a new style that bridges work and leisure, youth and age, vintage and contemporary, gay and straight.”

Will Chinese Shoppers Embrace Luxury Goods–Sans Logo? (Forbes)
“Although luxury shoppers in established, recession-stung markets may gradually be lured back into stores by understated items…will this trend appeal to potential buyers in emerging — and lucrative — markets like China, where garish still equals good?”

Hermès launches street style website (MyFashionLife)
“Dedicated solely to its signature square scarves, the new website, called J’aime Mon Carre (I Love My Scarf), takes a street style turn as it shows hip young things working the scarves in ways Hermès would never have dreamed of.”

Nordstrom profit matches view, outlook unchanged (Reuters)
“Nordstrom Inc reported a higher quarterly net profit that met Wall Street expectations, but the company did not raise its previously announced 2010 profit outlook and its shares fell 2.5 percent.”

Diane Pernet on Tavi, Fashion Film, and the Future of Catwalks (Fashionista)
“Diane Pernet’s enlightened view on fashion, combined with her support of budding talents, has made her one of today’s great ladies of La Mode… Fashionista had coffee and grapes with the lady… we talked Tavi, tomorrow’s talents, and her trendy tribes and tribulations.”

VICENZA, Italy — Whereas Italy may have initially been slow on its uptake of Fashion 2.0, momentum appears to be building there to embrace digital media in all its forms, but especially fashion film. Indeed, two high profile events focused on moving image in fashion will take place in the month of May alone, bringing a much needed digital awareness to the country’s conservative fashion mainstream.

Tomorrow, in Vicenza, is the launch of OPPURE II, La moda in movimento verso i nuovi media, an exhibition curated by Federico Sarica, director of the Italian edition of VICE magazine and professor of fashion and new media at the European Institute of Design ModaLab in Milan. OPPURE II will showcase moving image in fashion and discuss its impact on the future of the industry. And, later this month, Diane Pernet will bring ASVOFF, her pioneering peripatetic fashion film festival, to Milan in collaboration with Vogue Italia.

Earlier this year, we featured the stunning short film for Fred Butler by Elisha Smith-Leverock which debuts at Pernet’s event in Milan, and today we bring you one of the featured films for OPPURE by Luca Merli. More OPPURE films can be viewed on the BoF YouTube page.

The Business of Fashion is an official media partner for OPPURE II which runs from 14 May 2010 – 27 June 2010 at Spazio Monotono run by Cristiano Seganfreddo in Vicenza, Italy

LONDON, United Kingdom —Today, the BoF team is busy preparing for our first FASHION PIONEERS interview with Jefferson Hack, Editorial Director of Dazed Group, to be held this Thursday at London’s Sanderson Hotel. Tickets for the event are completely sold out and a mix of BoF readers and friends from London’s fashion community will be joining us.

But, we want as many people as possible to participate in the interview. So, we are delighted to announce that in addition to a livestream on BoF, our friends from across the fashion and luxury blogosphere have graciously agreed to help us bring FASHION PIONEERS to the world. The event will be live streamed on the following sites:

United States: Refinery29 | Tavi Gevinson | Fashionista.com | JC Report

United Kingdom: Style Bubble | Fashion156

France: A Shaded View on Fashion | Luxury Society

Philippines: Bryanboy

Germany: Les Mads

We invite you all to tune in. And while you are watching, please send questions for Jefferson Hack to our Twitter account @_BoF_ using the hashtag #pioneers.

The livestream begins at 2pm New York | 7pm London | 8pm Paris and Berlin | 2am Manila (that’s for you, Bryanboy!)

Fashion Pioneers is presented in collaboration with Morgans Hotel Group and will be filmed by Pundersons Gardens

But there were no signs that the medium was condensing around fixed codes. Quite the opposite. What we saw was the kind of restless innovation and constant evolution that characterises the fluid nature of digital media itself, with an explosion of new films that energised, but also transcended, the seasonal presentation schedule, speaking directly to consumers across the internet as part of in-season digital campaigns.

During the Paris menswear collections, Stefano Pilati opened the Yves Saint Laurent show with “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” a 7-minute film by legendary photographer Bruce Weber, while on the first night of New York Fashion week, a mesmerising film by Nick Knight, featuring Ranya Mordanova in a fractured, postmodern ritual, beautifully complemented Korean designer Jung Kuho’s deconstructed Hexa collection. A week later in London, the British Fashion Council inaugurated a special screening zone at Somerset House for a series of film presentations by young designers like Craig Lawrence, Louise Gray and Katie Eary.

But much of the action took place outside the official fashion week schedule. We saw fashion films inhabiting online advertising units on sites like The New York Times, as well as the emergence of new editorial channels like TEST and NOWNESS, which joined SHOWstudio, Dazed Digital, brand websites, video sharing sites, and Diane Pernet’s international festival, A Shaded View on Fashion Film, as platforms for striking films by avant garde designers and established brands alike.

Last October, we brought you our first seasonal ranking of the Top 10 Fashion Films. This season, the competition was stronger than ever. So sit back, turn up the volume, and enjoy the Top 10 Fashion Films of the Season — and since most of the films are in HD, we recommend you expand the videos to fill your screens with the latest in digital fashion creativity.

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

1. FRED BUTLER “SUNSHOWERS” by Elisha Smith-Leverock
There is a hypnotic, sharply focused beauty about Fred Butler and Elisha Smith-Leverock’s film “Sunshowers” that makes it dance through your head long after you’ve seen it. Created for A Shaded View on Fashion Film in response to a one-word brief (“Light”) from Diane Pernet, the film uses ritualistic movements, flashes of golden sunlight, and rhythmic soundtrack to perfectly heighten the experience of stunning accessories and headpieces by Fred Butler and Rosy Nicholas for Fred Butler. We think the film feels primal and utterly elegant, timeless and contemporary — all in the same breath. BoF offers you an exclusive look at this film, developed in association with Vogue Italia.

“Sunshowers” premieres at ASVOFF on May 25 in Milan.

2. HEXA by KUHO by Nick Knight
To complement Jung Kuho’s deconstructed and reconstructed A/W 2010 collection, inspired by ecdysis, “shedding our outer skins to re-emerge spiritually as more perfect or purer beings,” Nick Knight stripped away all excess to create an almost religious, masterfully controlled, magnetic film, featuring Ranya Mordanova undergoing a postmodern metamorphosis. The editing work was nothing short of sublime, playing with repetition and ceremonial body movements perfectly synced to a spellbinding soundtrack.

3. AANTENI for RODARTE by Todd Cole
Shot by photographer and video artist Todd Cole in the deserted grounds of the California jet lab that houses PayPal founder Elon Musk’s Space X initiative, this hallucinatory techno thriller stars Guinevere van Seenus wearing pieces from Rodarte’s S/S 2010 collection. Appearing in-season on new, LVMH-owned content site NOWNESS, the film invites consumers into the enigmatic, textured world of the Rodarte brand, blending art, fashion, mystery and science with visual impact and conceptual daring.

4. CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN for FASHIONAIR
Entitled “Dancer in a Daydream” and presented on FASHIONAIR, this film features the world’s most famous shoe designer, Christian Louboutin himself. The film begins with Mr. Louboutin at work in his Paris atelier, but he quickly slips into a daydram that transports him to New York’s Broadway, where he tap dances like Fred Astaire alongside two showgirls wearing his signature red-soled shoes. It’s a fun film. But what’s most compelling from a business point of view is the way FASHIONAIR displays the video alongside shopable and sharable products featured in the film — an elegant and highly effective way to integrate content and commerce and turn engagement into sales.

5. PRADA S/S 2010 by Steven Meisel
This spring, along with a YouTube channel, Prada launched not one, but two digital fashion films. The 9-minute First Spring was beautifully shot by Chinese artist Yang Fudong. Indeed, high-resolution screengrabs from the film were also used by Prada as print advertising, underscoring the flexibility of capturing content in high-definiton digital video. But we were more intrigued by the 1-minute S/S 2010 womenswear film shot by Steven Meisel. Featuring Rasa Zukauskaite as a sexy accessory-holic, twirling to a hip-hop soundtrack with bright red lips and ponytails, the film’s visual device is simple, and the focus is squarely on product. But what’s most interesting about this film is the way it appeared in online advertising units that seemed to target a younger audience.

6. Y-3 S/S 2010 by Lloyd & Co
This season, Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto also leveraged high-definition digital video to power a cross-media campaign for their sportswear collaboration Y-3, photographed by Alasdair McLellan, styled by Nicola Formichetti, filmed by Theo Stanley and art directed by Doug Lloyd. Capturing the simplicity and grace of a classic team portrait and timed to coincide with the run up to this summer’s World Cup, the campaign features football legend Zinedine Zidane and lives cohesively and seamlessly across multiple media formats, from online video to print advertising.

7. KATIE EARY A/W 2010 by Kathryn Ferguson
Shot by Kathryn Ferguson for London-based menswear designer and rising star Katie Eary, this film screened on both Jaime Perlman’s TEST magazine and Dazed Digital to coincide with London Fashion Week. The kaleidoscopic effects and use of lighting complement Ms. Eary’s A/W 2010 collection perfectly, while the film’s underground, sci-fi gothic aesthetic is charged with just the kind of raw energy and intrigue a young designer needs to catapault into the spotlight. We only wish TEST and Dazed Digital had let fans easily embed the video in their own blogs.

8. DOLCE & GABBANA by Pierre Debusschere
Created for NOWNESS in collaboration with AnOther Man’s “Outlaw” issue, this surreal film by Belgian filmmaker and fashion photographer Pierre Debusschere celebrates Dolce & Gabbanna’s tailored S/S 2010 menswear collection. Featuring young British actor Robert Sheehan, the film has an otherworldy feel, punctuated by a visual arsenal of fireworks, strobe lights and green lasers and set against a sunrise in the middle of the woods. We like that AnOther Magazine and AnOther Man are extending their print editorials online with movement and sound and giving viewers a digital asset they can share with each other in between issues.

9. YSL “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” by Bruce Weber
At the Paris menswear, the Yves Saint Laurent show kicked off with a black and white film by legendary photographer Bruce Weber, featuring music by Marvin Gaye and a special appearance by Bunny Yeager, one of Weber’s favorite photographers. As the fashion show began, a trailer for the film was circulated on Facebook and YouTube, with video from the show and Weber’s complete film appearing online a few hours later at Vogue.co.uk, YSL.com and elsewhere. By choosing to work with a photographer like Bruce Weber — perhaps best known for his semi-nude campaigns and catalogues for Abercrombie & Fitch — YSL creative director Stefano Pilati no doubt sought and succeeded in building online buzz around his menswear collection.

10. THE LOVE THING by James Lima

Independent pioneers like Dazed Digital have often presented fashion films that accompany stills shoots. But Condé Nast’s LOVE, edited by superstylist Katie Grand, is the first magazine to create a high-octane fashion film as a commercial for a “multi-media extravaganza” coming soon on their own website, thelovemagazine.co.uk. Featuring an all-star cast of internet favorites like Dree Hemingway and Pixie Geldof playing in traffic while wearing leopard coats, sheer trenches, black garters, or nothing at all, the film was shot on the revolutionary RED Mysterium-X and released on Valentine’s Day for maximum impact. “I’m very excited by the idea of moving image; clothes and bodies look better in motion. The new technology surrounding the iPad is very interesting to me, and it’s thrilling to try and find a new way of working with fashion that isn’t two dimensional,” said Katie Grand. At BoF, we couldn’t agree more.

Which fashion films made your eyes pop this season? Let the BoF community know which films you thought were special.

Some/Things Issue 001 | Photo: Monika Bielskyte

PARIS, France — With all the talk of layoffs at Condé Nast in the face of a technological revolution that is transforming fashion media as we know it, the days of the good old-fashioned hard copy magazine may seem numbered. But, while traditional media behemoths struggle to translate their content and brands to the online space, niche fashion publications are sprouting up to offer a completely different kind of magazine experience altogether.

At a soirée on Friday hosted by Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy, copies of two such magazines — Sang Bleu and Some/Things — were laid out sparsely on the galvanised steel tables in the brushed concrete headquarters of Owenscorp in Paris’ Place du Palais Bourbon. Art lovers in town for the FIAC art fair, musicians visiting from Los Angeles and international fashion folk leafed through the heavy matte pages with black and white images of rooftops in Cairo’s Bab-el-Louk and sinewy bodies covered with intricate tattoos.

Swan Tattoo | Source: Sang Bleu III/IV

Sang Bleu, or ‘blue blood’, is the labour of love of Maxime Buechi, who was first introduced to me at the Festival d’Hyères earlier this year by Diane Pernet.  In Issue III/IV, tattoos are showcased as a sophisticated form of personal expression at the heart of a growing contemporary tattoo culture.

“I got my first tattoo back in 2002. It was a back piece by Filip Leu,” says Buechi. “At the same time I started to get more personally involved in the tattoo culture. I noticed a void in the panorama of tattoo-related publications. The idea of Sang Bleu therefore came naturally from a desire for a publication that would approach tattoo and other underground cultures from another angle, similar to that of contemporary art or fashion.”

For its part, Some/Things also has a strongly personal bent, striving for a timeless appeal and deep engagement with the reader. “We shun a fast approach and we want to take time to discover and re-discover works that transcend the boundaries of their medium — and engage with reality,” declares a manifesto on the project’s website. “A magazine for us is more than a printed matter. It’s part of our world and part of our own lives. It’s our vision — subjective as it may be.”

That vision can be explored in formats that extend beyond the magazine itself, resulting in a model which is something more like a personal art project than a magazine, strictly speaking. Some/Things refers to itself “a bi-annual book/magazine publication, publishing house producing limited edition artist books/objects, and art/design consulting agency” which aims “to create something that goes beyond a basic product — something more involved, engaging and personal — something with a story.”

In this way, these magazines are something to savour for a long time rather than to browse quickly and then, throw away.

But is there a viable business model here? Up until now, neither Sang Bleu nor Some/Things have focused on advertising revenue. Instead a significant sticker price positions the magazines more as art books, and supplemental income comes from other related collaborations and agency work.

“Sang Bleu is not a magazine, it is a project — a Gesamtkunstwerk,” says Buechi, referencing the German word for a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms, a so-called universal work of art.  For Sang Bleu, the project includes a compilation of texts, and catalogues for Elisabeth Llach and an upcoming exhibition in Lausanne, entitled “inbetweenout“.

“It is like that because it couldn’t be any other way,” he continues. “No one would invest in such a project in the beginning, so I borrowed money and sold it as a book. It has worked, I guess, since I have not been put in jail for not paying my rent. I achieved my goal of creating something that didn’t exist before and that people would enjoy reading and draw inspiration from. My real aspirations always were artistic. But now, if it can go on as a financially viable publication, it’d be even nicer.”

Indeed, Buechi is on the hunt for advertisers for the next issue of Sang Bleu due out in February 2010. And, unlike advertisements in say Vogue or Glamour, these ones will be cherished alongside deeply personal editorial and photography for many years to come.

Now that’s what I call a long-term value proposition.

Imran Amed is Editor and Founder of The Business of Fashion

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.