Tilda Swinton in Zero Maria Cornejo | Source: Style Frizz

Styles and Strategy That Defy Convention (WSJ)
“Investors have their own expectations, and their cash often puts them in the driver’s seat. It’s a common theme in fashion—designers [who part] with the investment partners whose visions didn’t end up coinciding with the designers.”

Macy’s Gets Fast Fashion (NY Times)
“Any retailer on earth would just about die to create the kind of consumer craze that takes place when H & M introduces a discount designer collaboration… the latest store to delve into fast fashion is a bit unexpected in that it is the classically mainstream Macy’s.”

Limited Brands: Overseas can rival U.S. market (Market Watch)
“A 1,000-square-foot Victoria’s Secret travel store in a Brazilian airport, which just sells accessories and beauty products, opened a little more than a year ago. Since then, it’s done about $10 million in sales, or $10,000 per square foot.”

Luxury brands not using online video effectively (Luxury Daily)
“Luxury marketers are missing valuable opportunities by failing to promote their brands vigorously through the rich-media canvas of online video, according to Forrester Research.”

The Fashion Conservatives (NY Times)
“‘The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously is frankly dismaying,’ Ms. Wintour chided. ‘I do think Americans have moved on from the power suit mentality. Political campaigns that do not recognize this are making a serious misjudgment.’”

PARIS, France — Yesterday, Chanel launched its long awaited Chanel No.5 short film Train de Nuit, featuring Audrey Tautou, who is no stranger to the storied French couture brand. Often compared to Mademoiselle Chanel herself, Tautou has now twice taken on the role of the famous coutourière, most recently in Coco Avant Chanel, a film exploring her early life and times.

Within seconds of seeing the opening shot of the 2 minute short film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who previously worked with Tautou on the award-winning film Amélie, the viewer is struck by Tautou’s alluring presence, as she rushes to catch the Orient Express which takes her from 1955 Paris to modern-day Istanbul in mere seconds. This is the Internet after all, so things have to happen quickly before patience wears thin and viewers click away.

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LONDON, United Kingdom — Blanket media coverage over the weekend reported that a British woman named Susan Doyle has become one of the biggest Youtube sensations ever, registering more than 47 million views across the world, in less than one week. That’s more than the George Bush shoe-throwing incident, more than Tina Fey’s satire of Sarah Palin, and even surpasses views of Barack Obama’s victory speech. More than 150,000 comments have been registered on the YouTube page where the video appears. The numbers place the Susan Boyle video amongst the fastest spreading internet memes ever.

Boyle’s overnight international stardom holds a few interesting lessons for the fashion industry.

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PARIS, France — My favourite part of the recently released documentary on Carine Roitfeld is when the French Vogue editrix describes the level and degree of preparation for  a shoot with photographer Patrick Demarchelier. The shoot takes place in an agricultural show, contrasting haute couture with farm animals. As she explains, every shot had been imagined in her mind beforehand and everything had been meticulously planned to keep up with the photographer’s quick pace. And yet, they executed with a small team to achieve what Roitfeld calls a very French photograph.

In another segment, Marc Jacobs explains the thinking behind the low key approach to showing his signature collection this year, when he went without the elaborate sets and 2000 person mega event of New York Fashion Week. He says that it just didn’t feel right this time and so they put the money (and focus) into the clothes.

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NEW YORK, United States – Quoting Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, saying the format of showing the Fall 2009 collections this February is the “number one item on everyone’s agenda right now,” The Wall Street Journal‘s Heard on the Runway blog recently asked the question: “Will fashion shows survive the economy?”

To answer this question, it’s important to consider how fashion shows function in today’s media landscape. Increasingly, images and video from runway shows, captured by the established media, as well as a new generation of fashion bloggers wielding video-enabled camera phones, reach a global audience of fashion consumers, in close to realtime, on Style.com, YouTube and fashion blogs around the world.

As a result, today’s shows are not simply aimed at editors, buyers and other industry insiders. They have become remarkable vehicles for conjuring and transmitting the energy of a brand to end consumers.

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