LFW Front Row Seats for Free

British Fashion Week is taking their pursuit of being the top fashion week seriously. Just reported today in WWD, BFW is giving the option to designers at the Somerset House and on-schedule designers to live stream their fashion shows. You can also expect film shorts by Hussein Chalayan, Boudicca, Antoni & Alison, Danielle Scutt and Twenty8Twelve playing in between shows on the website londonfashionweek.co.uk/digitalschedule. They also have created a LFW Blackberry application! Read the press release here.

This is absolutely revolutionary in the democratization of fashion. You no longer have to be an EIC, hold major influence or know someone in the industry to have the best seat and view fashion shows in real time! Bloggers will not have to wait for other people to upload photos or go to company websites to view the shows, it will be all in one website. Without a doubt, this will create a huge buzz for LFW which is slowly taking the lead as the most anticipated fashion week (even if it isn’t just for the designs). It will only be a matter of time before NYFW jumps on this bandwagon, though I can see Paris and Milan taking their time to catch up.

Some fashion houses may not want to participate in this program, as it will take away traffic to their individual websites.  Others may not want to participate because they want to preserve the traditional fashion week protocol. With the allure of free publicity, many of the smaller designers will stream their shows and perhaps with the influence of the British Fashion Council, more prominent designers will agree to the same. On the other hand, this adds a layer of complexity to running fashion week. Not only does PR / production have to plan, organize and successfully pull off fashion shows, but now they have a technological element that may be out of their control. Probably a good idea to have Nick Knight on hand to advise.

Regardless, we all know what this means: a huge lack of productivity Feb 19 to 24.

Fashion Blogs – Hype or Future?

I religiously follow Imran Amed’s Business of Fashion blog and twitter. Imran and his team of writers always have clear foresight into the changing business model of fashion, marketing and branding. BoF also serves as my main resource o all the current events and challenges in the industry, as well as emerging designers and artists.

He and international fashion journalist Suzy Menkes will be at the Premium Fashion Trade Show in Berlin to speak on the topic of fashion blogs. Suzy Menkes has written that “The world changed, when fashion instead of being a monologue, became a conversation. And that’s never going to stop.”

I’d be interested to hear the full discussion, being that it seems that Suzy, the embodiment of traditional media / print, has embraced social media as the new frontier for changing the face of fashion. Imran, on the other hand, has almost led the pack, with his fame as an digital marketing strategist.

The idea of the democratization of fashion and opening up a new channel of feedback to designers, fashion will truly become something for the people, by the people. I’m enjoying this new freedom of creative expression, instead of being stifled by what designers think I should be wearing. It’s thrilling to think that D&G will be actually looking at my input and comments to create their newest line, which will increase my interest and purchasing potential to that brand. People don’t want to be told what to do anymore and the rise of the web has created a new method to create our path. Those who will survive will take advantage of the web. Those who don’t will be left behind. Fashion blogs are a way to bring us back to what fashion should be: FUN. Create, blog, rinse and repeat!

Blogger Panel: http://www.premiumexhibitions.com/news/bloggerpanel/