Technology Rising... All Copy-cats

Fashion gets democratic with live streaming of catwalk shows

Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton join the trend set by Burberry and Emporio Armani in streaming their catwalk shows live on the internet.

By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director at Paris Fashion Week
Published: 1:38PM BST 02 Oct 2009

Millions of people out in cyberspace are hungry for fashion – and, this season, designers are only to happy to feed them.

No queuing for hours, scrambling for seats and straining to see what kind of shoes the girls are wearing or who’s in the front row; just sit back and view from the comfort of your nearest computerised device.

Dolce & Gabbana, the Italian brand, reported today that its You Tube Channel project, ‘The Pre-Show Diaries’, generated 16 million contacts.

http://firuzefrench2.blogspot.com/2009/09/dolce-gabbana-you-tube-channel.html

The live stream, a first for the popular label, was a mix of backstage footage and the spring/summer 2010 catwalk collection. “We are very happy, considering that prior to this the fashion show was viewable only by about 1,000 selected guests,” the designers said. “Moreover, the contacts on the Dolce & Gabbana branded Google page, made it the most viewed branded channel in the world.”

Like salmon swarming to spawn, more and more designers are joining the live stream craze. Emporio Armani also joined the rush at Milan Fashion Week, while at London Fashion Week both Burberry and Twenty8Twelve, the label owned by the actress Sienna Miller and her sister Savannah, showed their catwalk shows live on their websites.

Earlier, in New York, the Michael Kors show was available live on the web, while Kimora Lee Simmons beamed her BabyPhat catwalk extravaganza to hundreds of thousands via a giant screen in Times Square.

Meanwhile, In Paris, both Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton, have joined the cyber-showstreamers.

Alexander McQueen is collaborating with Nick Knight and SHOWstudio, supported by IMG, to create a unique online event which will showcase his spring/summer collection, ‘Plato’s Atlantis’, on http://alexandermcqueenlive.showstudio.com, alongside an exclusive pre-show interview with McQueen himself. The stream is set to go at 8.15pm, Paris time, on October 6th.

The following day, on October 7th, Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 2010 ready-to-wear show, designed by Marc Jacobs, will appear live on Facebook. The broadcast will kick-off at 2.30pm Paris time at www.facebook.com/LouisVuitton and viewers will also be invited to comment, from their Facebook status. The video of the show will be available on demand, exclusively, for 24 hours, online.

In May this year, Louis Vuitton launched an official ‘Twitter’ account and, in less than 24 hours, gathered more than 5,000 followers. The number of members to date is 80,000.

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The evolution of Marketing

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However, LVMH on Facebook? I don't think they placed that right... Do their customers really have Facebook? And if they don't, they're just going to get an account to watch it, then delete it... aren't they?

Surely it'll be mostly fashion students watching the show.