Lanvin Spoof Video | Source:

NEW YORK, United States — At BoF, we’ve been ranking the top fashion films of the season since 2009, when the genre was still just coming into existence. But even back then, set against the staggering rise of online video consumption and the growing importance of engaging young digital consumers, the medium’s tremendous potential was clear.

Fast-forward to the Autumn of 2011 and YouTube-friendly short videos are practically de rigueur for fashion brands, large and small. But interestingly, it’s not digital “Geniuses” like Burberry who have been creating the most compelling fashion films. Despite being labeled “Challenged” by a Digital IQ report recently released by LuxuryLab, we think the Prada Group is making some of the best digital films in the industry, working with top fashion image-maker Steven Meisel.

But this season, it was Lanvin’s viral sensation (also shot by Meisel), featuring Karen Elson and Raquel Zimmermann dancing awkwardly to “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)” by Pitbull, that proved to be the game-changer that propelled fashion film decisively into the mainstream. The film struck a chord with a broad internet audience, earning over 100,000 YouTube views in the first three days online, providing the spark for a real-life dance competition at a buzzed about and well-attended Fashion’s Night Out event at the brand’s Madison Avenue boutique, and even spawning spoofs, the surest sign of of viral success.

Notably, it was stills from the Lanvin video that appeared in print advertising, flipping a well-established paradigm and highlighting fashion film’s trajectory towards the very centre of seasonal marketing initiatives.

And while we continued to see some absolutely stunning examples of films that look and feel like print campaigns or magazine editorial beautifully brought to life, it’s ‘digital first’ fashion videos, conceived from first principles with the online medium in mind, that broke the mold with humour, quirky charm or unconventional visual techniques which seemed to resonate most with online audiences.

What follows is BoF’s selection of the most powerful and interesting fashion films of the 2012 Spring-Summer season. As you sit back and enjoy the videos, let us know which ones you like best.

1. Lanvin Fall/Winter 2011 Ad Campaign

Dubbed “Park Avenue YouTube,” Lanvin’s tongue-in-cheek, fall campaign video — featuring top models Raquel Zimmermann and Karen Elson dancing uncomfortably in a chic apartment to Pitbull’s 2009 smash hit “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)” and a hilarious cameo by creative director Alber Elbaz — had just the right elements to drive explosive word of mouth amongst fashion fans across the internet, while perfectly communicating the distinctive personality of the Lanvin brand. Shattering the seriousness that has often prevented fashion film from resonating with a broader audience, the Steven Meisel-shot video has already earned almost a million cumulative views on YouTube, been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook, and inspired a spoof remix “starring the attendees of Fashion Week in New York” as well as a popular fan made imitation video.

2. Prada Fall/Winter 2011 Ad Campaign

Following on their first place ranking last season, Prada’s fall womenswear video, shot by Steven Meisel and featuring Antonia Wesseloh, Ondria Hardin, Kelly Mittendorf, Julia Zimmer and Frida Gustavsson, perfectly captures and communicates the delicate co-mingling of sensuality and innocence at the heart of Mrs. Prada’s collection. Set to a hypnotic soundtrack with a breathy voiceover, the slow motion film is also a seductive and transfixing digital merchandising dream, full of sequins, fur and snakeskin. We only wish it was directly shopable.

3. Mourir Aupres De Toi by Spike Jonze & Olympia Le-Tan

Set after-hours on the shelves of famous Left Bank bookstore Shakespeare & Company, Spike Jonze’s quirky stop-motion animation “Mourir Aupres De Toi” brings to life the embroidered ‘covers’ of Olympia Le-Tan’s book-clutch bags to tell the touching story of a clumsy skeleton and his lover. Using over three thousand pieces of hand-cut felt, the film beautifully communicates the handmade aesthetic and human charm of Le-Tan’s work. “I love getting performances from, telling stories about and humanizing things that aren’t human,” Jonze told Nowness, where the film first appeared.

4. “Dynamic Blooms” by Nick Knight & Alister Mackie

Recently released by experimental filmmakers Tell No One in collaboration with SHOWstudio, this succinct, visually stunning film brings to life Nick Knight and Alister Mackie’s breathtaking editorial for last season’s AnOther Magazine. Featuring Benjamin Warbis and Jac Jagaciak, the video collides dance and fashion, transforming pieces by Lanvin, Versace, Chloe, Valentino, Christian Dior Haute Couture, Jil Sander and Haider Ackermann into dynamic contemporary blossoms that explode across the screen.

5. Prabal Gurung Resort 2012 – “New Thing” feat. Rye Rye

For the launch of his first ever foray into resort, inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and the portraits of George Condo, rising designer Prabal Gurung teamed up with booty-shaking Baltimore artist Rye Rye to create a viral music video as bold and energetic as the graphic black and white theme, 60s-inspired florals, polka-dots, and pops of pinks, yellows and greens that run through the collection. Directed by Kenneth Cappello, the video deploys a dynamic high-low mix to explosive effect and underscores the power of integrating fashion, film and music to earn the attention of what Gurung has called “the YouTube generation.”

6. AnOther Magazine Issue 21 featuring Rachel Weisz

Shot by Craig McDean with creative direction by David James and styling by Olivier Rizzo, this off-kilter film features Rachel Weisz, cover star of this season’s AnOther Magazine, in a series of non-narrative micro-performances, inspired by German modern dance legend Pina Bausch. While magazines have long used online videos as supplementary material to support their print content, this film is a compelling example of ‘digital first’ editorial: the images that appear in print are stills taken from this surreal film.

7. Love F/W 2011 What Lies Beneath by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

Accompanying “What Lies Beneath,” an epic 46-page, Jeff Bark-inspired fashion story shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for Katie Grand’s Love magazine, this disturbing but compelling film collides romantic elements with a hard-edged and dangerous undercurrent. Complete with white swans, bondage gear and submerged cars, this sexually-charged and transfixing film unfolds like a classical myth reimagined for a disjointed, nightworld where Lara Stone, Mariacarla Boscono, Saskia De Brauw, Kristen McMenamy, Paul Boche, Anais Pouliot, Jed Texas, Guinevere Van Seenus, Xiao Wen Ju and Angus Whitehead play dark contemporary demigods and water nymphs.

8. Gareth Pugh S/S 2012 by Ruth Hogben

This season, East London’s enfant terrible Gareth Pugh teamed up with Ruth Hogben to create a dark and punchy film that was screened at the designer’s Paris catwalk show, as well as on Nick Knight’s fashion website SHOWstudio. Integrated into the runway event, the film both set the tone at the beginning of the show and provided a digital backdrop to the models on the catwalk, turning the presentation of Pugh’s collection into a multimedia viewing experience for the assembled press, buyers and industry insiders.

9. Twin Parallel by Justin Anderson

Directed by Justin Anderson for London-based designer Jayne Pierson and inspired by the twin paradox in physics, this beautiful film won this season’s ‘Best Styling’ prize at Diane Pernet’s A Shaded View on Fashion Film festival, which took place during Paris Fashion Week at the Centre Pompidou. The film’s immaculately styled, still life tableaux, featuring fruit, candles, a cuckoo clock and a goose that presumably lays gold, sharpen the eye and draw attention to the royal details of Pierson’s collection.

10. Kenzonique by Kenzo

This snappy and upbeat trailer for the relaunch of Kenzo, directed by Jo Ratcliffe with music by Rob Coudert, perfectly teased the energy of the brand’s first presentation under new creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim of Opening Ceremony. Dubbed “hyperdelic” on YouTube, the video’s vibrant colour palette and fun feel were totally in tune with the new collection and clearly communicated the brand’s repositioning as a playful creative force at the top end of the contemporary market.

What were your favourite fashion films this season?

The BoF community looks on at Fashion Pioneers with Natalie Massenet | Photo: Lawrence Randall

LONDON, United Kingdom — It’s been quite the year for the BoF team. In January, we will celebrate our 4th birthday, having seen BoF grow from a passion project created from the sofa in my living room to a growing global community of like-minded fashion professionals that is BoF today.

We are grateful for all of the support our community has shown us over the past 12 months, from the success of our sold-out Fashion Pioneers series to the rapidly growing numbers of you who come to us every day for opinionated fashion business analysis and a highly-curated point of view on the day’s news. We now have over 150,000 followers on Twitter, 2,000 fans on Facebook and growing follower base on our new Tumblr page. We are honoured and grateful that so many of you take the time to engage and interact with us on a daily basis, in so many ways.

The international media has also been paying attention to the power and reach of our community, from the International Herald Tribune to Vogue Italia to The Evening Standard. Canada’s Macleans Magazine called BoF “The Economist of Fashion,” the Daily Telegraph included BoF in their round-up of “Britain’s Best Fashion Bloggers” and just this month British GQ gave us a little surprise for 2011 (check out number 92). What an honour and a great way to start the new year!

None of this would be possible without you, the global community of executives, designers, editors, students, academics, investors and supporters who have made BoF their daily must-read on the fashion business. We’re going to take a break over the holidays, but in the meantime here’s a look back to the articles and stories which fired up your interest and passions this past year. Thank you again for your continued support.

Happy holidays, happy new year, and see you in 2011!

1. In Tokyo, Abercrombie Misses Its Mark

Abercrombie & Fitch, Ginza | Source: Fashionsnap.com

When BoF’s W. David Marx filed his report on the new Abercrombie & Fitch store in Tokyo’s Ginza district earlier this year, calling the American fashion brand out for its culturally insensitive approach to international expansion, the fashion blogosphere lit up with conversation about the new store. Commenters on BoF joined in large numbers, describing their own experiences — positive and negative — at the brand’s Tokyo emporium and providing insider scoops on the brand’s bungled retail strategy in Japan.

2. BoF Exclusive | The New Creative Establishment 2010

The New Creative Establishment | Source: INDUSTRIE Magazine

Possibly the most controversial article of 2010 was our exclusive preview of The New Creative Establishment created by our friends at INDUSTRIE magazine. The preview rocketed to the top of our Most Read Articles list right away and has firmly held its position for more than a month. Lists like these always spark some kind of controversy, but the uproar about this one was heard in fashion quarters around the world, and indeed on all of the major fashion websites from Grazia Daily to Style.com. Who deserved to be on the list? Who didn’t? Who was missed? Are these kinds of lists constructive contributions to the fashion dialogue or just a way for a new magazine to get attention and flatter would-be collaborators? You decide.

3. Fashion 2.0 | What The Independent Article Didn’t Tell Us

Tavi Gevinson's Bow at Dior Couture | Source: Twitpic by SteffiSchuetze

Back in February when The Independent newspaper contacted several respected bloggers for comment on an article about the growing influence and questionable ethics of some fashion bloggers, BoF was more than happy to provide some thoughts. However, when the article was published quoting only editors from major magazines, we published our own article, to give the other side of the story.

4. Fashion 2.0 | Top 10 Fashion Films of the Season

Our twice-a-year rundowns of the top fashion films of the season continue to be very popular. Fred Butler’s Sunshowers film topped our ranking of fashion films in the Spring while Gareth Pugh’s tour de force film shown in Paris’ Bercy stadium grabbed the top spot in the Autumn ranking. If you have some time over the holiday break, sit back and enjoy these curated selections of fashion’s finest films.

5. BoF Exclusive | Zaldy Goco talks about designing for Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga

Michael Jackson by Zaldy | Source: Zaldy Goco

Michael Jackson’s untimely death right before he was about to kick off a 50 concert series in London shocked the world.  Not only did BoF get the global exclusive scoop from designer Zaldy Goco on the costumes he had designed for the King of Pop, but we also got his take on working with Lady Gaga, whose impact on fashion in 2010 was absolutely huge.

6. Fashion 2.0 | Suzy Menkes on the Growing Influence of Fashion Blogs

In early in 2010 Suzy Menkes issued a warning to bloggers about the risk of becoming mouthpieces for fashion brands, many of whom seem to be looking to manipulate bloggers into publishing what some consider to be nothing more than brand propaganda. Ever the pragmatist, Ms Menkes also realises that the growing impact and relevance of blogs and other social media is here to stay. She told Mary Scherpe of Stil in Berlin, “the world changed when fashion instead of being a monologue, became a conversation. And that’s never going to stop.”

7. Fashion 2.0 | The Fashionable Rise of Tumblr

Tumblr Screenshots | Source: Google Images

Tumblr is the latest social media platform to take the fashion industry by storm. Vikram Alexei Kansara’s round-up on the rise of fashion tumbling elicited a huge response amongst the Tumblr community and resulted in BoF being invited to become an editor on the official Tumblr fashion channel. BoF has also launched it’s own Tumblr to participate in this passionate community.

8. Fashion Pioneers | Jefferson Hack, Natalie Massenet and Nick Knight

Our series of in-depth, one-on-one interviews with fashion’s most inspiring pioneers have been extremely popular on BoF and have spread around the internet like wildfire. If you missed our interviews during the year, take the chance to listen to these pioneering fashion forces speak about the future of fashion:

Jefferson Hack on Fashion Media in The Era of Digital Beauty

Natalie Massenet Says to Create the Future, Follow the Consumer

Nick Knight Says Heart and Mind are the Key to Fashion Imagemaking

9. How Influential are the New Fashion Youth?

Much has been said about the increasing influence of young fashion bloggers, empowered with digital media and their own creativity. Indeed, today’s internet-empowered youth have the tools, access and information to create and promote their own fashion culture. Our exploration of the ‘new fashion youth’ demonstrated how this kind of online showcase may create opportunities for long-term careers in the fashion industry.

10. It’s Time Fashion Schools Got Down to Business

Thomas Tait’s Sketchbook | Source: Thomas Tait

Rounding out the top ten articles of the year on BoF was an opinion piece highlighting the lack of business training and preparation given to young fashion designers at fashion schools the world over. The article does not advocate upseting “the unique and delicate creative climates that have been carefully constructed at the world’s leading fashion colleges,” but “building some basic business training into the core fashion curriculum would be a very good thing indeed.”

Imran Amed is founder and editor of The Business of Fashion

Last Friday, only hours before the 10th anniversary of SHOWstudio’s launch, BoF editor-in-chief Imran Amed sat down with Mr. Knight for the third installment of FASHION PIONEERS, a series of intimate live-streamed conversations between Mr. Amed and the industry’s most interesting operators.

As the conversation unfolded in front of a live studio audience of 200 people at London’s Hospital Club, thousands of others were participating in the conversation online, which at one point made “Nick Knight” a trending topic on Twitter. The Twitter conversation was in turn broadcast back to the studio audience on twin screens on either side of the stage, creating a integrated link between the physical and virtual audiences participating in the live event.

The interview explored Mr. Knight’s start in fashion, the genesis of SHOWstudio.com, the watershed moment of Alexander McQueen’s Plato Atlantis and the rise of fashion entertainment. (RSS and Email subscribers click here to view the interview).

The evening began with a look back at Mr. Knight’s early days and the source of the tireless, forward-looking energy that has defined his career. “Ever since I started in photography I wanted to change it,” he said, recalling his days at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art. “Every waking hour I would take photographs. It quickly became an addiction.”

As the talk continued, it became abundantly clear that, unlike many people in the fashion industry, Mr. Knight is not fearful of change. Quite the opposite. He seems to thrive on it. “I think photography is dead,” he said, reflecting on the medium’s inability to evolve. “Film died some years ago. I don’t miss it,” he added without any trace of nostalgia. “None of my children read magazines. Fashion will be shaped by the internet.”

When Mr. Amed focused the conversation around the birth of SHOWstudio, Mr. Knight identified two important objectives that guided the launch of the site. The first was the desire to show clothes in motion. “Clothes are designed to be seen in movement. One could argue that a still photograph of a piece of clothing is to some degree a compromise of the designer’s original vision,” he said, outlining a thought process that informed his first experiments in online fashion film. The second objective was to communicate the process of making fashion imagery. “The life that I was seeing unfolding in front of me, as a fashion photographer, working with a whole range of people from Robert de Niro to Naomi Campbell was absolutely fascinating,” he said. But at the time, consumers only saw the finished product. “It’s allowing people in,” Mr. Knight said of SHOWstudio. “One of the biggest luxuries we have left is access.”

Nine years after SHOWstudio’s launch, Mr. Knight’s partnership with Alexander McQueen on Plato’s Atlantis — a technology-infused fashion extravaganza that brought together fashion, film and music — completely redefined fashion film and internet-enabled access. It was a watershed moment when the entire fashion industry suddenly saw that digital media could turn a runway show for a few hundred people into global fashion entertainment in which millions of people could participate in realtime. Underscoring the point, SHOWstudio’s live stream of the event came crashing down under the weight of interested generated by just one tweet from Lady Gaga, who debuted her new single “Bad Romance” at the end of the show. International Herald Tribune fashion editor Suzy Menkes called it a techno-revolution, while Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet said: “It is the biggest game change we are going to experience and embrace. It’s going to touch every aspect of our business.”

For Mr. Knight, it was Mr. McQueen’s decision to team up with Lady Gaga that was the masterstroke: “Yes it brought the whole bloody thing down, but yes it made it into an event where everyone saw the power of it… He turned that fashion show into entertainment and that’s where the difference is. That’s why there’s three and a half million hits on YouTube. Making fashion into entertainment across the internet is the key to it.”

Implying that consumer-facing fashion entertainment was the future of the industry, Mr. Knight observed: “There is a big sea change ahead. It’s a fundamental revolution in fashion really,” he continued. “Fashion shows are giving over to fashion film, the shows are completely changing, the scheduling of the shows is completely changing. We are in a moment of total flux.”

So what new technologies is Nick Knight most excited about? “Our mobile phones are [becoming] our screens for understanding fashion, as much as our computers were,” he said, insisting that what matters most is not the size of the screen or the quality of the visual, but the emotional connection that a communication creates. “Mobile gives you access,” he said. “For that, you don’t need high definition.”

Mr. Knight also referenced his continuing experiments in 3D scanning. “What I end up with is data and from that data I can make an object,” he explained. “It’s really exciting where that will go… I can use the data to make a living, talking, walking avatar — all things are possible, the digital modeling agency is there,” he said. Challenging the fashion industry to experiment with these new technologies, he commented: “We’re not waiting for technology, technology is waiting for us.”

But when asked what new tools young fashion imagemakers need to have in their arsenal, Mr. Knight replied simply: “Their heart and their mind is all,” emphasising that it’s the emotion and the idea behind a communication that matters most, not the tool. “If you’ve got something to say, you’ll find a way of saying it, you’ll find the most appropriate tool, whether it’s a photo booth in King’s Cross Station or whether it’s the 3D globe that I walked into in California a couple of months ago,” he continued. Indeed, while technology is radically changing fashion, according to Mr. Knight “it’s the human part of what you do that is way more important that anything else.”

As the evening drew to a close, a Twitter question from British Vogue’s creative director Robin Derrick triggered a very honest, personal and emotionally charged statement from Mr. Knight on the fraught relationship between fashion and society at large. “There are moments when you do question the validity… when you do question your own ethics and morals,” admitted Mr. Knight. “Fashion tends to be one very, very narrow parameter on what is acceptable beauty,” he noted.

“I think the fashion industry is so narrow in terms of what it will accept. I’ve fought very, very hard to articulate an alternative,” said Mr. Knight, who, in the spirit of a true fashion revolutionary, driven by heart, mind and the pursuit of change, has relentlessly used his craft to break social boundaries, as well as aesthetic and technological ones. “I hate the idea that fashion photography is exclusive in the way that it excludes people from feeling part of society. I think there’s beauty in every human being and it’s up to the person looking at it to bring it out.”

Fashion Pioneers was filmed by Pundersons Gardens. Many thanks to our friends from the fashion blogosphere who live-streamed the event to a global audience.

A selection of images from the event, held at The Hospital Club in London.

LONDON, United Kingdom — SHOWstudio.com is ten years old tomorrow and that means our third Fashion Pioneers interview is upon us today. This evening, Nick Knight, one of the industry’s most respected photographers will sit down with The Business of Fashion in front of a live studio audience in London’s Hospital Club to discuss his career, ten years of SHOWstudio.com, and the future of fashion communication in the age of digital disruption.

As usual, we will livestream the interview here on BoF and have teamed up with fashion blogs and websites who have generously agreed to stream the interview to their audiences and communities too. We invite you all to tune in.

Please send questions for Nick Knight to our Twitter account @_BoF_ using the hashtag #BoFLive, and participate in our global virtual discussion by tweeting your questions, comments and observations along the way.

Canada: 1:30pm EST | Flare.com | Searching for Style

France 7:30pm CET | A Shaded View on Fashion | Luxury Society

Germany 7:30pm CET | Les Mads

Philippines 2:30am (+1 day) | Bryanboy

Spain 7:30pm EST | Kate Loves Me

United Kingdom 6:30pm GMT | Style Bubble | Fashion156 | Style Salvage | Wallpaper.com | SHOWstudio.com | Liberty London Girl | DisneyRollerGirl

United States 1:30pm EST | Fashionista.com | JC Report

Fashion Pioneers is brought to you exclusively by The Business of Fashion, in association with The Hospital Club, and will be filmed and streamed live to viewers around the world by Pundersons Gardens

Nick Knight - The Business of Fashion - Fashion Pioneers

LONDON, United Kingdom — This Friday, The Business of Fashion will sit down for an in-depth interview with Nick Knight, the third in our series of FASHION PIONEERS speaking to a live studio audience in London and livestreamed to thousands of people around the world.

For those of you in London, we have a few remaining tickets for this very exciting and rare opportunity to hear directly from one of the most influential and important fashion image-makers. Mr Knight will speak to us about fashion image creation in the digital age and reflect on ten years of SHOWstudio.com, the groundbreaking website which was founded exactly ten years ago.

As with our past two events with Jefferson Hack and Natalie Massenet, we will be bringing together the crème de la crème of the diverse BoF community, including leading editors, fashion designers and bloggers.

If you would like to join us at London’s Hospital Club, please click here for tickets. Only a few seats remain!

Fashion Pioneers is brought to you exclusively by The Business of Fashion, in association with The Hospital Club, and will be filmed and streamed live to viewers around the world by Pundersons Gardens

“I’m very pleased to be given the opportunity to discuss the unique and groundbreaking work of SHOWSTUDIO.COM on such a well-respected and influential online platform as The Business of Fashion. The internet is the perfect conduit to communicate fashion globally via the new medium of fashion film, and it is exciting to discuss this on a fellow fashion platform.”

Nick Knight speaking to Vogue.com on his upcoming FASHION PIONEERS interview with The Business of Fashion. A few remaining tickets to attend this special live event in London are available here.

LONDON, United Kingdom — Could FASHION PIONEERS get any better? We started our signature live interview series earlier this year with Jefferson Hack, co-founder and editorial director of Dazed Group in April and moved swiftly onto Natalie Massenet, founder an executive chairman of the groundbreaking e-commerce website Net-a-Porter, securing a global exclusive on the brand new Net-a-Porter iPad application.

Today, completing a veritable holy trinity of London’s digital fashion forces, we are honoured to announce that our next Fashion Pioneer will be Nick Knight, fashion photographer, founder and director of SHOWstudio.com, the pioneering website which first ushered fashion imagery and editorial into the digital era 10 years ago. Tickets available now!

On the very eve of SHOWstudio.com’s 10th anniversary, Nick Knight will sit down for a rare, in-depth, one-on-one conversation with BoF founder and editor Imran Amed on 26 November, 2010 at London’s Hospital Club to reflect on a remarkable career, the first ten years of SHOWstudio.com, and the future of fashion communication in this era of digital disruption and innovation.

As with previous Fashion Pioneers interviews, the event will be streamed live to thousands of viewers around the world, with live questions from Twitter (please use hashtag #BoFlive), bringing the BoF community together in a virtual conversation about the future of fashion communication.

We are making a limited number of tickets available to BoF readers who would like to attend in person.  Our last event with Natalie Massenet sold out in three days, so please click here to purchase your ticket now.

Fashion Pioneers is brought to you exclusively by The Business of Fashion, in association with The Hospital Club, and will be filmed and streamed live to viewers around the world 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.

Mariella Burani mulls strategic investor (Reuters)
“Debt-laden Mariella Burani Fashion Group is weighing taking on a strategic investor after it failed to close a debt restucturing accord ahead of a Monday deadline, the luxury goods company said.”

H&M: October sales drop but Jimmy Choo range is a success (Drapers)
“Total sales across the group grew 7% in October compared to the same month the previous year. The results came as H&M opened its doors to its latest designer collaboration, this time with Jimmy Choo which drew crowds across the country this weekend.”

Asos enjoys overseas sales boost (BBC)
“A big push into new international markets has boosted sales at online fashion retailer Asos. International sales grew by 112% in the six months to 30 September. Asos added 56 countries to its reach and now trades in 114 places.”

Iman: The model entrepreneur (CNN)
“One of the most recognized models of the 1970s and ’80s, Iman has used her entrepreneurial skills to great effect in the fashion industry, with her own cosmetics business and in her charitable fund-raising work.”

Tramps, Past, Present & Couture - Dior Couture A/W 2001 | Source: SHOWstudio

LONDON, United Kingdom — For many fashion companies, 2009 was the year the internet arrived. In the face of an unprecedented economic crisis and overwhelming evidence that affluent consumers are highly active online, senior executives across the industry are finally starting to embrace digital media with a new strategic seriousness.

There was no better sign of this than the impressive gala held during London Fashion Week to celebrate fashion website SHOWstudio and its groundbreaking exhibition at Somerset House, “Fashion Revolution.”

When it was launched by photographer Nick Knight in November of 2000, SHOWstudio was ahead of its time. Indeed, “Fashion Revolution” celebrates nine years of restless experimentation and digital innovation. But for the majority of brands, retailers and publishers, who are still struggling to understand the radical impact the internet is having on fashion communication, the retrospective also offers urgent lessons for the present. We think it’s a must-see for executives, creatives and editors alike.

The exhibition is organised around three main themes – Process, Performance, and Participation – that are each integral to understanding how digital media is different and what that means for the future of fashion communication.

PROCESS

The openness of the internet has given consumers access to the behind the scenes of fashion like never before. From the beginning, SHOWstudio understood and embraced the transparency inherent in the new medium, inviting their online audience to consume the creative process of fashion, not just the end product. Many of these early experiments are documented in “Fashion Revolution.”

As far back as 2004, a SHOWstudio project called Power of Witches, developed in collaboration with Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, laid bare the entire creative process around a shoot for the Autumn/Winter 2004 issue of AnOther Magazine in a live three-day webcast.

In Phonecarte, another project in the exhibition, SHOWstudio asked models Karen Elson, Lily Cole, Irina Lazareanu and Lily Donaldson to record voicemails as they shuttled between fittings, shows, after-parties and hotel rooms during the hectic fashion week season. Streamed on-demand over the internet, the recordings gave consumers unprecedented personal access to the first hand experiences of the world’s top models at work and play in New York, London, Milan and Paris.

As increasingly influential bloggers armed with laptops and web-enabled cameras follow in the footsteps of SHOWstudio’s experiments, expectations amongst consumers are evolving. No longer content to merely purchase finished products, they want more immediate, insider access to the people and creative process of the fashion industry. We think it’s time for forward-thinking brands to open up their organisations and deliver.

PERFORMANCE

According to Nick Knight, SHOWstudio’s live fashion shoots sometimes became more conscious “performances,” with the photographer, the stylist, the designer, and the model all taking part. As part of their exhibition at Somerset House, SHOWstudio has placed an active photo studio inside a room-sized glass case and invited the public to watch the action unfold, as imagemakers including Jason Evans, Alice Hawkins, Craig McDean and Sølve Sundsbø shoot fashion editorial and portraits.

During the course of the exhibition, Mr. Knight himself will appear in the live studio space to photograph “100 of London’s Beau Monde,” including models, actors, musicians and artists. But what’s perhaps most interesting about these “performances” is the crucial role they played in the development of a new kind of fashion experience: the fashion film.

Between 2005 and February 2009, Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben, then his assistant, documented Mr. Knight’s shoots for magazines like British Vogue and uploaded the results to SHOWstudio. Ms. Hogben was charged with capturing and editing the footage. But with Mr. Knight’s support, she soon started experimenting with her edits and adding music to the visuals.

In 2008, at the side of a landmark shoot for British Vogue’s December issue, they filmed models Lily Donaldson and Jourdan Dunn in some of the most sensational clothing of the decade. Called “Fantasia,” the final edit was simple, but provocative. It appears in the exhibition alongside a selection of captivating short films that use movement and music to communicate fashion in a way that static editorial simply can’t.

What began as simple documentation is, today, on the verge of becoming something much bigger. Pioneered in experiments like “Fantasia” and powered by video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, fashion film has emerged as the most influential new format for fashion communication. Powerful brands like Yves St. Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Chanel have used the format to complement runway shows and accompany advertising campaigns. But that’s just the beginning.

Bringing together fashion, film and music, this new format is going to explode. According to ABI Research, by 2012 the number of broadband video consumers will surpass one billion. As viewership skyrockets and marketers continue to move dollars online, we predict the industry will see a seismic shift away from stills towards short fashion films, with brands competing to create compelling video content of their own. This will be especially true as companies set their sights on millennials, an entire generation of young fashion consumers who expect their world to be instant, dynamic and online.

PARTICIPATION

The internet is also an inherently participatory medium. While magazines were essentially one-way monologues to mute readers, the internet allows dialogue and exchange, with and amongst consumers.

Right from the beginning, SHOWstudio gave their viewers a voice, encouraging them to respond, discuss and contribute. In a project called In Camera, SHOWstudio let a global audience pose live questions to interview subjects like Kate Moss, Björk, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, giving users rare and privileged access to engage with key creative figures at the top of the industry. Another project called “24 HRS” let consumers influence the narrative of a short film for Stefano Pilati’s Edition 24 collection for Yves Saint Laurent, while “Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down” invited viewers to style model Liberty Ross for a live photo shoot.

Today more than ever, people want to be part of the action. And according to a study by market researchers Forrester, luxury fashion consumers are more active than most. Not content to be passive spectators, they are twice as likely to participate online. We think fashion companies should take a more open and collaborative approach with consumers and create interactive content that lets them participate and engage with the brands they love.

“We are in the midst of a revolution,” says Nick Knight. As fashion brands study and seek to capitalise on what Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts calls the “digital tsunami,” we think understanding the three P’s – Process, Performance and Participation – is an essential precursor to effective action.

An afternoon at Somerset House is probably the best place to start.

SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution on view until 20 December 2009 at Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA.

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