For an industry with its own calendar, that runs six months to a year or more ahead of the norm, fashion in general has proven idiotically obtuse about technology. After being famously late to the etail and social media party, and then engaging in a headlong rush to the virtual when it was clear where consumer tides were going, now they are once again dragging their feet when it comes to mobile applications, as a new study from digital think tank L2 shows.
Assessing 100 luxury brands from retail to hospitality, beauty, fashion, and watches and jewellery, on their engagement with mobile platforms (iPhones, Android, tablets), the report reveals that retailers are by far the most advanced (Sephora and Nordstrom are numbers one and two, followed by Macy’s and Net a Porter), then hospitality, with fashion and watches and jewellery trailing far behind. The first fashion brand, Ralph Lauren, comes in at 12, while of the bottom 10 m-“feeble” brands, six are fashion.
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Vanessa has been the FT’s fashion editor since 2003, and is based in New York, though she lived in London for 12 years.