e-commerce

I remember when the concept of e-commerce first launched, at least in my world. 1999, Boo.com. And wow, it was a disaster. The site crashed immediately, etc, etc. BUT, it was exciting, it was new and at the time it was still a BIG question mark, would e-commerce become the way of the future? It has, by the way. But nobody was really sure back then.

At the time I was representing Tracey Ullman’s online e-tailer, Purpleskirt.com. It had a niche because it was one of the first specialty fashion platforms online. Her partner owned Fred Segal Flair, one of the most well-connected resources for unusual, hard to find and terminally hip women’s apparel. PLUS, it had Tracey! She was hilarious, able to garner loads of great awareness and press just by showing up. AND, perhaps a lesser known fact, she was and is INCREDIBLY stylish. The woman totally gets it. Remember her performance in Robert Altman’s fashion flick Prêt-à-Porter?

So, what has this got to do with DailyCandy.com? Of all the forerunners of this online “stylized” world DailyCandy.com continues to be a leader. You have got to give them TONS of credit for that. They made it! As they prepare to enter the world of commerce you have to assume they are going to do something worthwhile here too. I know I do. Go, Dany!
 

Source: dailycandy.com

For a long time, the attitude of the world of luxury (whatever that word means anymore) towards the World Wide Web was much like its attitude towards Middle America: dismissive, slightly sneering and marked by deliberate avoidance.

Chanel was the leader of the metaphorical "mean girls" pack at the time. They staunchly refused to participate in this "e-commerce" nonsense‹going after sellers unloading last season¹s spoils on eBay and giving a resolute "no" to the advances of growing online luxury retailers such as Net-A-Porter and eLuxury . Go ahead, try to find authentic Chanel clothing online.
 
Luckily for fashion¹s faithful, this old school attitude (from, oh say, two years ago) is slowly changing. To continue looking at Chanel, I think they ingeniously created a way to reach consumers (both real and aspirational) online while keeping brick-and-mortar stores as their distribution channel. I personally mark my calendar whenever they announce the debut of a new film starring one of their new "It" girls Keira, Nicole, Audrey (Love her!). Dior has co-opted this strategy recently launching a similar atmospheric film with their latest girl Marion Cotillard (Girl crush!).
 
Both design houses intelligently leverage the fashion obsession perpetuated by blogs such as Fashionista to create excitement in an insider, cool-kids-only kind of way by offering sneak peaks and breaking news on these little projects. I really think it¹s brilliant because it keeps the goods themselves exclusive but still captures the imagination of consumers who want to buy into the mystique of the brand. Hey, you may not be able to buy one of those frothy Karl Lagerfeld-esque LBDs from the Fall 2009 RTW collection, but you can sure bask in the glow of Chanel¹s amber-lit Chanel No. 5 en filmanytime you want on the Web. 

Source: www.style.com, www.angelglam.com