London Fashion Week bets on digital

The latest edition of London Fashion Week, presenting spring-summer 2015 collections, will kick off this Friday, September 12 and will feature about fifty catwalk shows and twenty presentations.

Eight designers included as part of the calendar this year: Faustine Steinmetz from France, supported this year by NewGen, the program unwritten by Topshop to support design, Marchesa, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary as part of the week, as well as Schrimps Trager Delaney, H by Hakaan Yildirim, Lulu & Co, Danielle Romeril and Isa Arfen.

The BFC, which organizes London Fashion Week, is continuing to make digital its number one priority: "We want British fashion companies to be at the forefront of digital innovation and, as part of this strategy, we are encouraging companies to go online and to make the most of technology in order to improve the fashion industry’s effectiveness," said the BFC.

Fashion Week has launched several initiatives related to the topic.

Following Prorsum’s fashion show on Monday, September 15, Burberry will offer Twitter users the opportunity to immediately purchase the nail polish worn by the models on the catwalk.

The brand will make most of Twitter’s new “buy” button unveiled this week.

Meanwhile, House of Holland will partner with the fashion technology company Metail in order to allow users to watch the brand’s show, scheduled to air live on September 13 at 18:30, and to virtually try on the clothes in real time. The will then be able to pre-order the items - all this by connecting to the site www.tryonhouseofholland.com during the presentation.

The brand Hunter will collaborate with the real-time video start-up Grabyo in order deliver up to 10 instantaneous highlights of its show to its fans on Twitter (#Beahunteroriginal).

Selected in July as part of BFC Contemporary (ed: a fashion initiative that offers mentorship to designers) Alexis Barrell, Georgia Hardinge, Paper London, Prism and Zoë Jordan will each launch a limited edition piece to be sold on eBay in September.

BFC will also launch a series of toolkits on various topics (Google keywords, how to choose an online media agency etc...) to help designers to develop their own digital strategies.

Shows will continue to be broadcasted live on screens provided by the BFC. Certain shows, such as that for Regina and Edeline Pyo Lee, will only be visible on screens.

A laboratory for trends and creativity, London continues to reinvent itself without losing its unique character: "Once destined only for the happy few, the eccentricity of London fashion is today the very foundation of its commercial success and its democratization," said Nathalie Constanty, a fashion consultant for beauty and design at Bon Marché.

As proof, the BFC has partnered for the second year in a row with New West Company, which has been tasked with developing the famous shopping area on Oxford Street in order to make fashion accessible for everyone.

Besides offering special capsule collections, retailers located on the street will organize fashion seminars led by big names in the industry, tackling topics as diverse as buying and social media. Oxford Street will also be donned with 75 giant fashion flags showing off the best of British design.

"We must look at these initiatives as a whole,” says Robin Schulié, a buyer for Maria Luisa. “Individually, these proposals would not get off the ground without leadership and a spirit of volunteerism, and especially across the board support from the English/British fashion scene. The latter benefits from an innovative local press that is powerful on the international stage, from an industry that is as cooperative as it gets—as evidenced by the extremely creative private sponsorships exemplified by Topshop, and a vigorous governmental efforts,” he concluded.

Stéphanie Salti