British Vogue iPad App | Source: British Vogue

LONDON, United Kingdom — Later this week, when British Vogue launches its first ever iPad application, everyone across the fashion media landscape is bound to be paying attention. After all, Vogue is the most prestigious fashion media brand in the world, lying at the heart of Condé Nast, the world’s most powerful luxury lifestyle media conglomerate, amidst a market landscape in which age-old media brands like Vogue and others are struggling with the transition to an increasingly digital business model.

Last week, the big news Stateside was that Condé Nast Digital — the digital arm of the media behemoth’s American business — not only lost ownership of Style.com to fellow Condé Nast stablemate Fairchild Fashion Group, but it also lost control of the websites of all the major Condé Nast titles, giving full ownership of these titles to the publishers of the magazines. Positioned as a restructuring “driven by the marketplace,” it’s a dramatic about-face for a company that is beginning to recognise that fully integrated teams of editors and publishers need to oversee all of the digital and offline content and operations in order to offer the seamless experience that consumers and advertisers increasingly expect.

But in the UK, pioneering fashion website Vogue.co.uk — established in 1995, well ahead of its American counterpart which was only set up this past year — remains a separate organisational entity from that of British Vogue the magazine. The new iPad application, on the other hand, was overseen by British Vogue Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Shulman and spearheaded by Art Director Robin Derrick, working with external partners Spring Studios and Six Creative.

In another BoF Exclusive, we got to see the new British Vogue iPad application first, before anybody else. I met with Ms. Shulman at the historic Vogue House in London’s Hanover Square last week to understand how the application — featuring December 2010 cover star Emma Watson — was developed, its underlying business and content strategy, and how this experiment could spark future digital innovation.

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Because Magazine Screenshot | Source: Because

LONDON, United Kingdom — Fashion editorial has long been a powerful generator of purchasing intent for brands. But ‘intent generators’ like magazines often lose their fair share of sales revenue to ‘intent harvesters’ like retailers further down the purchasing path. Squeezed by shrinking ad sales, major publishers like Condé Nast have become increasingly aware of this missed opportunity — and more and more magazines have learnt to think like retailers, embracing e-commerce to open new revenue streams and monetise their content.

Now, digital start-ups like Because Magazine, created by the team at Tank, are building commerce directly into their business models from day one. Soft-launched back in September of 2009 and currently in public beta prior to a “full scale” launch at London Fashion Week in September, Because is a curated, daily selection of fashion, accessories, jewellery and beauty products that’s a digital storefront as much as an online magazine.

BoF spoke with Caroline Issa, editor-in-chief of Because, to find out more.

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Womanity Mosaic screenshot | Source: Clarins Fragrance Group

PARIS, France — Last week, Thierry Mugler and Clarins Fragrance Group launched a major campaign under the banner “Womanity.” They have also registered the “Womanity” trademark in a number of product categories. There’s just one thing missing: there’s no product. At least, not yet.

At the center of the initiative is womanity.com, a content site “powered by Thierry Mugler” and deployed in collaboration with Microsoft’s MSN, who is handling online media and editorial strategy. The site features an interactive “mosaic” of tiles, each containing an article, video or other piece of content designed to inspire women, respond to their current mood — and importantly, invite them to share their thoughts on femininity and what it means to be a woman today. Indeed, throughout the site, users are prompted to add their own text, images or videos to the mosaic, in response to the omnipresent question: “What does womanity mean to you?”

Clarins describes the site as a “creative commons for expression and exchange.” But it’s also a massively multi-player focus group for gathering insights and ideas that will no doubt help drive the development of the Womanity brand and Womanity products yet to come. In luxury fragrance, a category that traditionally elevates the status of the “creator” and employs top-down, command and control style marketing, this represents a remarkable shift in thinking. BoF recently had a sneak preview of the site in the brand’s Paris offices, and afterwards, caught up by e-mail with Joel Palix, President of Clarins Fragrance Group, to find out more.

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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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