Future Fashion Now (FFN) to Launch at Audi Fashion Festival 2012

Future Fashion Now (FFN) a one-of-a-kind digital platform, where consumers can purchase the latest designer collections straight off the runway, will be launching at this year’s Audi Fashion Festival 2012. From 17 – 19 May 2012, consumers can log into www.futurefashionnow.com to watch the live streams of Pre-Spring (Cruise) 2013 shows of the 13 Future Fashion Now designers, and at the same time pre-order and secure their favorite pieces from those collections –months before they hit stores. The pre-order window is one month while delivery will typically take between 6 weeks to 4 months. This is still well ahead of the time these collections typically hit stores in November 2012.

How awesome is that? But is this new? The Future Fashion Now digital platform is definitely new but the concept of buying pieces immediately off the runway is not. Burberry has been doing it consecutively for a few seasons now, while Halston did it in 2008 with a collaboration with Net-A-Porter. Roland Mouret did it too when he first launched the RM by Roland Mouret line during the Fall/Winter 2007/2008 season as well as Rad Hourani during the Spring/Summer 2011 season.

This concept essentially eliminates the buyer as consumers can buy what they want immediately before the buyers actually decide what they want to bring in to their stores next season. Well the question now is do the buyers want to know what is selling out now before they make a purchase? Will this statistic be available to the buyers? I suppose it will be somewhat useful.

That aside, here are the 13 Future Fashion Now designers. They are: Timo Weiland (New York), Jonathan Simkhai (New York), Juma (New York), Maria Francesca Pepe (London), Yeojin Bae (Melbourne), Esther Perbandt (Berlin), Saena (Berlin), Suecomma Bonnie (Seoul), Venna (Hong Kong), Alldressedup (Singapore), Dzojchen (Singapore), Mae Pang (Singapore) and Max Tan (Singapore). These designer labels will be showcasing both at Audi Fashion Festival 2012 and Blueprint 2012. The full schedule of Future Fashion Now shows on offer at Audi Fashion Festival 2012 are listed below. Tickets are priced at S$60 which includes a S$50 FFN voucher and are available at www.gatecrash.com.sg. You can also watch the live streams at www.futurefashionnow.com.

17 May, Thursday, 6pm (GMT +8)
Future Fashion Now featuring Timo Weiland (New York) | Yeojin Bae (Melbourne) | Esther Perbandt (Berlin) Pre-Spring 2013, Presented by Canon

18 May, Friday, 8pm (GMT +8)
Future Fashion Now featuring Jonathan Simkhai (New York) | Saena (Berlin) | Juma (New York) Pre-Spring 2013

19 May, Saturday, 6pm (GMT +8)
Alldressedup (Singapore) Autumn/Winter 2012, Presented by MasterCard

19 May, Saturday, 10pm (GMT +8)
Future Fashion Now featuring Max Tan (Singapore) | Mae Pang (Singapore) | Dzojchen (Singapore) Pre-Spring 2013, Presented by Canon

Now let’s check out what these 13 Future Fashion Now designers have to offer at this year’s Audi Fashion Festival 2012.

Alldressedup (Singapore)

Max Tan (Singapore)

Yeojin Bae (Melbourne)

Venna (Hong Kong)

Timo Weiland (New York)

Suecomma Bonnie (Korea)

Saena (Berlin)

Maria Francesca Pepe (London)

Mae Pang (Singapore)

Jonathan Simkhai (New York)

Esther Perbandt (Berlin)

Dzojchen (Sngapore)

Juma (New York)

Images Courtesy of Future Fashion Now

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Fashion, New Media and the Queer

For those who have not seen this tribute to Lee Alexander McQueen by Nick Knight. Music by Bjork.

Recently I came across a few videos and it led me into thinking about how new media can be integrated into fashion, particularly the video/film aspect in more groundbreaking concepts. New media can be defined as film, images, music, spoken and written word with the interactive power of telecommunications. This is not something new of course. What you want is something unique and different. A concept that hasn’t been done before. A concept that is still developing and in the experimental stages and relatively new. A concept that could start a trend among other designers. A concept that can make the viewer/audience go ‘WOW’ or ‘That’s interesting’. That is where exclusivity comes into place. You will be recognised as the person who started this trend and not one of the few who followed. Even if your idea is not that great (but also not a snoozy), you are still a pioneer and it puts your brand/name out there; generates publicity.

Blow Up by Loewe. Celebrating 35 years of the Amazona bag. Directed by Hollywood special effects expert James Lima, styled by Katie Grand and starring, model Ana Beatriz Barros.

One of the brands that I want to highlight is Burberry. We all know about Christopher Bailey live streaming his runway shows and many other designers too (though I can’t pinpoint who started it first), but he was actually the first to stream it in 3D for the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 season. The live stream was also shown at a string of parties in New York, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo and Los Angeles which were by invite only and people like us can view the runway show live on their website. Besides the actual show itself, backstage and behind-the-scenes footage were also shown to the global audience. Avant-garde? Yes. You get the idea.

Burberry went even further for their Spring/Summer 2011 showcase-offering viewers the chance to order the collection straight off the runway. However, this was not a new idea. When Halston re-launched in 2008 with the Fall/Winter 2008/2009 collection, they collaborated with Net-A-Porter to sell two dresses right after the runway show on the NAP site. Roland Mouret did it too when he first launched the RM by Roland Mouret line in the Fall/Winter 2007/2008 season. But Burberry wasn’t the only brand doing that that season; Rad Hourani did it too. For the first concept, it was taking live streaming a step further but to be honest, how much further? Showing the live stream at parties (Burberry live streamed their Spring/Summer 2011 collection at their stores too) is a nice touch yes, but 3D? We can definitely do without it. I believe it’s only a trend which won’t become a permanent fixture. Dazed & Confused did a 3D cover. Who else has not done something in 3D you tell me!

Burberry Spring/Summer 2011 Campaign. Do you know of any other labels who have done videos to complement their ad campaigns?

For the Burberry Prorsum Menswear Fall/Winter 2011 show, which just happened, there was the live stream as usual plus complementary photos of looks off the runway which you can order now. If this is going to be a trend, I wonder how much will this affect buyers since the ‘middle man’ has been cut off. Buyers’ guesswork of deciding which clothes are going to sell will be rendered useless to a certain extent as the customers are already picking out which clothes they want. On another note, rain literally came down for the finale as the boys of Burberry came out in raincoats. It certainly made me sit up!

The soundtrack was awesome as usual, featuring Dusty Springfield, Cliff Richard, Muse and Roger Daltrey. But little did I know of the Burberry Acoustic project, introduced in the middle of last year. This is a collaboration between emerging British artistes and the designer label. They even produced an album based on it. Talk about a holistic approach and if you visit Burberry’s interactive website, Art of the Trench you will be greeted with songs from the featured artistes of Burberry Acoustic. I think that this is a brilliant idea and a win-win scenario for both parties! If you’re into the local fashion scene, I believe KIN is gonna do something similar too. Exciting stuff indeed!

Gareth Pugh does it again with another video to showcase his Fall/Winter 2011 collection at the recent Pitti Immagine fair-event. Read more about it here!

In other recent news, to kick off the Menswear Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show, the Ermenegildo Zegna Menswear Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show was shown with a giant green screen as a backdrop. Yes much like the one used in making movies. Talk about breaking new grounds; the scene featured the Great Wall of China in celebration of the brand’s 20-year partnership/collaboration with China. View the entire collection here.

Film and fashion, music and fashion, art and fashion, architecture and fashion, dance and fashion. How else can we reinvent the way fashion is presented to the world in this new decade of the 21st century? How much further can we push these accustomed ways and take that extra step to be different? Do we wait with bated breathe or expect the usual? Let’s hope for the former.

x fashionslop

Image Source: style.com

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