Internet

Help the FT talk luxury

January 17, 2013 12:38 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The FT’s first New York mini Business of Luxury summit is taking place this afternoon at the Plaza, and I hope all of you will join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #FTLuxury13 or following @FTLuxury360.

I’m moderating a panel on developments in counterfeiting with Katrina Burchell, the first group head of intellectual property for PPR, Shirley Cook, chief executive of Proenza Schouler; and Harley Lewin, the lawyer who recently helped Christian Louboutin, so it should be… lively. What Mickey Drexler likes to call “passionate discussion”. It will include how the internet has changed the situation (we can no longer say, as Potter Stewart did, that we know it when we see it) and the greatest threats (3D printing anyone?) . Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods, Recession |

Trend spotting – IBM picks up on social sentiment

January 16, 2013 1:43 pm by Vanessa Friedman

IBM monitors electronic conversations to pick up on and predict trends. Getty Images

IBM has gotten into the trend-spotting business. You know that thing designers refer to as “zeitgeist”. Well, it can identify it, track it, determine when it turns from vague mumblings into larger movements, and then sell the information to clients. It’s not an art anymore; it’s a science.

Actually, it’s the Social Sentiment Index, a tool for monitoring the global electronic conversations on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, as well as blogs. When people start talking a lot about a certain topic: bingo. Read more

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Posted in Finance, Internet, Marketing |

Burberry’s Christopher Bailey not so tech-obsessed

January 11, 2013 1:17 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Getty Images

I did a Lunch with the FT with Burberry’s chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey, (looking snazzy, left), which is running tomorrow, and in our long – and fun – conversation, the thing that struck me most was the revelation that he limits his technology interaction largely to his professional life. Yup: no Facebook, no Twitter. It’s a work-only thing.

Why is this interesting? Well, because Mr Bailey has been a driving force behind Burberry, which is streaming its men’s show tomorrow on numerous social media platforms from Europe to China, becoming the number one high-end fashion company in the digital space.

And the Burberry flagship on Regent Street was revamped, under Mr Bailey’s direction, with an astonishing number of screens that can do such things as show you how your trench coat would look in the rain. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods |

Hearst magazines is stealth ecommerce player

December 19, 2012 1:09 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Much has been made in the US of Heart magazine’s new “ShopBazaar,” a web site linked to their high-fashion flagship title that allows you to effectively shop most of the pages of the book on-line. While such editorial-commercial links are not exactly new, however, what I hadn’t realised, because they’ve been keeping rather mum about it, is that is only ONE of Hearst’s “experiments” in the space – or so explained Duncan Edwards, President of Hearst International, when we were talking earlier this week. The company had a few different such “trials” going on around the world. Trials? Read more

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Posted in China, Fashion, Internet, Womenswear |

Luxury marketing without product pushing, oh my!

December 11, 2012 4:41 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The other day I discovered The LiP, aka Luxury in Progress, aka Labelux’s on-line luxury site (launched wholly under the radar), and was struck by how much it resembled Nowness, LVMH’s on-line video site, in the way it separated company values from object. Luxury marketing without product pushing! What an idea. It works, theoretically at least, on four levels.

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Posted in Internet, Luxury goods, Marketing |

In fashion, digital is not enough

November 30, 2012 4:23 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Just as e-tailers have come to realise that a virtual store in not enough, and are increasingly adding bricks and mortar storefronts (or, as folks like Warby Parker and Bonobos tend to call them, “showrooms”) to their offering, so, too, are e-sites. Last year Style.com launched style.com the magazine, a twice-yearly collection-focused oversize print book, and now Mark Sebba, CEO of net-a-porter, has announced they are planning a print magazine.So what is this? Nostalgia for ye olden days? I thought the brilliance of digital was that we were free of so many of the nagging costs and limits associated with the physical world and its products. I thought magazines were seen as dying media. What do they have that e-zines don’t? Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Marketing |

Amazon wiggles its way into fashion week…

November 26, 2012 4:57 pm by Vanessa Friedman

What is on-line fashion week? It is the UK-equivalent of Cyber Monday (which is today!): five days of super-special offers and special brand titbits organised by British Vogue to prompt holiday shopping, albeit with a charitable component (a percentage of sakes goes to the Oxfam Girls Education Project, the “official” charity partner) and a branded gloss. In other words, it doesn’t actually have much to do with fashion weeks as we know them at all, though the name is catchy. Even more notably, however, this year, which is its second year, for the first time on-line fashion week will be sponsored by…Amazon! That’s what made little old me sit up and take notice.
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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Marketing |

Handbags at the ready!

November 20, 2012 3:19 pm by Vanessa Friedman

For absolutely riveting reading, let me recommend the first ever World Handbag Report. It’s a collation of 120 million internet searches in 10 markets via four search engines (Google, Bing, Bai du, etc) by the Digital Luxury Group, and is it full of surprising facts – most notably, how incredibly imbalanced the handbag market is. The brands with big market share of search have BIG market share. The rest, well…have piddly squat. Read more

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Posted in Accessories, China, Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods |

VeryFirstTos: the all new recession-busting consumers

October 26, 2012 5:37 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Good golly Miss Molly: there’s a whole new untapped consumer segment out there itching to spend money. Such is the basis, anyway, for a new web site launching next month directed specifically at these “recession-busting” individuals. Check ‘em out! Read more

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Posted in Internet, Luxury goods, Recession |

US fashion brands lagging in emerging markets

October 25, 2012 6:54 pm by Vanessa Friedman

There’s a really interesting study out today from the Digital Luxury Group. Based on data from over 31 million searches on Google, Bing, Yandex and Bai du, as conducted in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and US, it looked at which American luxury brands were the most popular globally (based on search, natch, not sales). The results would probably surprise you, especially when it comes to who’s on top, and emerging markets. Read more

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Posted in Accessories, China, Financial results, India, Internet, Luxury goods, Ready-to-wear |
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