Louis Vuitton's glitch in the Matrix

There is no spoon, OK? As consolation, in approximately half an hour (ETA 14.30 CEST, 23.30 AEST), the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2011 womenswear show will take place in Paris. Head to Louis Vuitton's Facebook page to watch the live stream and Now Fashion for still photos in (almost) real-time. And as if runway models didn't have enough backstage photographers to contend with the nanosecond they exit the runway, they are due to be assaulted by 52 cameras in-the-round backstage, via which every outfit will be clocked in 360. Check back in back at LV Facebook central at 20.00 CEST (05.00 AEST) to see the fruits of those Matrix-style photo sessions (in the interim, you can practice rotating Jacobs with your cursor via LV's handy little player, above). After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and Marc Jacobs shows you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Two Australians on schedule at New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011

julie tran

Who knew an Australian was at the helm of iconic New York fashion label Bill Blass? Not frockwriter, that’s for sure, until we read today's Herald Sun story. Perhaps Melbourne fashion scribes are more familiar with Jeffrey Monteiro's (above) name, given that he apparently launched his eponymous collection there in 1996. Another reason for Monteiro’s lack of a profile downunder could be that he doesn’t appear to have spent that much time here. Monteiro was born in Qatar in the Middle East, raised in Australia and schooled in India, with tertiary fashion studies done in Melbourne, where he worked as a design assistant at the Ellin Ambe label before launching his own line. He moved to New York in 2000, designing for the Mayle label and from 2005, for Derek Lam, where he was design director (also working for Tod's). Monteiro relaunched his signature collection in New York for Fall 2008 and in November last year was appointed design director of Bill Blass – which had closed in 2008, following several attempts at resuscitation. Blass died of throat cancer in 2002, after selling the label several years beforehand. Monteiro is one of just two Australians showing in New York this season, alongside another Melbourne expat, Michael Angel. Angel will show on Friday 10th with the Bill Blass show taking place on Wednesday 15th September - and Kiwi Karen Walker showing on Tuesday 14th.


The season kicked off overnight with 1500 attending the Fashion’s Night Out runway show organised by Vogue, ahead of the September 10 Fashion’s Night Out events all over NYC. Sydney’s version of FNO is happening tomorrow night, check Vogue Australia's website for more details. 

Catherine McNeil, Julia Nobis and Ajak Deng were among the 150 models who walked in the FNO show, which has been billed as the biggest fashion show in New York’s history. Here is a repeat of the live webcast:

McNeil and co are among a contingent of Australian models in New York for the shows, which commence tomorrow at New York Fashion Week’s new home The Lincoln Center, in addition to numerous other venues around town.
 
Here is IMG’s official schedule of the core Mercedes Benz Fashion Week event at The Lincoln Centre. 

And here is the complete schedule, as compiled by New York Magazine. As per usual, New York Fashion Week embraces several hundred shows, most of which are not on IMG's schedule. 
 
Fourteen designers on IMG’s schedule are streaming their shows live. Check the digital schedule on the above link for that information. There may well be others streaming live as well, but given that there is no one central New York Fashion Week organising body, there is no central log of details (update 10/09: but New York Mag has has a good crack at one here). Check the individual designers' websites and Twitter/Facebook pages for more details.

Carmen Marc Valvo will broadcast his show live in Times Square at 5pm on Sunday 12th - simultaneously live to the net via his website. Marc Jacobs will stream his main line show and the Marc by Marc Jacobs show on Monday 13th at 8pm and Tuesday 14th at 4pm respectively from his website.

For anyone wanting more background information about the leviathan event that is New York Fashion Week, head to frockwriter’s NYFW primers Parts I, II and III.
 

Burberry Prorsum Spring/Summer 2011 menswear show streaming live

The Spring/Summer 2011 menswear season kicks off today in Milan. Several companies are live streaming shows, Burberry among them. As with last season, select merchandise will be available for preorder straight off the runway from the website from June 19-26th. In the case of this collection, 27 pieces of apparel (sizes 44-56) and nine styles of bag, with delivery promised within 4-6 weeks. The show is due to commence at 3.00pm Milan time (11.00pm AEST). Enjoy.

Who's live streaming at RAFW SS1011

zimbio.com

Three days out from Australia's biggest runway event, some exciting news. Multiple parties will be live streaming the shows. Overnight, Australian online boutique The Grand Social announced it would be live streaming the Ellery show at 9.30pm on Tuesday 4th May. Fairfax's youth-skewed The Vine has also mentioned it will be live-streaming - Romance Was Born and Seventh Wonderland, according to a PR spokesperson for both labels. Fairfax Digital Media will live stream other shows on smh.com.au, for the third year in a row. According to FDM, the experience will be a lot "smoother" this year, with a continuous stream of coverage, into which pre-recorded packages and other recorded RAFW show videos will slot. Ex-Sun Herald and Grazia fashion scribe Glynis Traill-Nash will present a video package a day. Shows to be live streamed by FDM:

Monday: Lisa Ho, Seventh Wonderland, Zambesi
Tuesday: Zimmermann, Little Joe Woman
Wednesday: Kate Sylvester, Manning Cartel
Thursday: Kirrily Johnston, Kooey Australia
Friday: Arnsdorf, Swim Fashion Week

Friday night's closing Ksubi show will also be streamed live, on the Harpers Bazaar Australia website.

Just on the tech issue, here's a headsup from IMG re wifi for all those working on site.

There won't be wifi throughout the entire Overseas Passenger Terminal venue unfortunately, but there will be several wifi access points: the media centre, the Rosemount bar, the Emerge trade show and a Toshiba tech kiosk within Emerge, which will also be equipped with laptops.

The Burberry revolution: streaming live, in 3D AND via the blogosphere's long tail

Well unless you’ve been living under a rock in a galaxy far from Planet Fashion – perhaps Pandora – then you might not be aware that iconic British luxury label Burberry is about to make fashion history in just over six hours' time. In a season in which seemingly very second runway show has been live streamed to the net, Burberry is taking this new fashion concept one step further by not only streaming live for the third consecutive season, but additionally, broadcasting in 3D. Teaming up with SKY Television, Burberry will broadcast a 3D version of the show to guests in five global locations: Skylight Studios in New York, the Beaux-Arts in Paris, The Address in Dubai, La Fabrique in Tokyo and Milk Studios in Los Angeles. In another first, Burberry has moved beyond its own website and provided various websites and blogs with its embeddable video player. So, beyond Burberry's own site, there will be a plethora of net destinations via which you will be able to watch the show live at 16.00pm GMT (3.00am AEST) - with, by all accounts, 15 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage prior to that. These sites include frockwriter. Many thanks to Burberry for including us.



But frockwriter does have to chuckle at the naiveté of some of the other Burberry code recipients.



Underneath its player, Grazia Australia for example has advised readers they can check out “exclusive interviews and red-carpet coverage via Grazia.com.au”.



Click on the email icon to the side of the player and anyone can copy and paste the embed code onto their own blog - a function that has been disabled on the player on Burberry's own site.



According to Burberry, to add to the festivities, the Twitterific ELLE US creative director Joe Zee, along with our buddy Bryanboy, will be “taking over” Burberry’s Twitter feed for the show duration.



Meanwhile, Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey has been busy recording these video meet-and-greets on YouTube and The Daily Beast (which is affiliated with the New York live stream).









Things are moving so quickly in Fashion 2.0, you have to wonder what the Spring/Summer 2011 season holds in store.



Eighteen of the coats and 33 of the bags are available for pre order from Burberry's website for three days following the show.



Burberry was not the only brand to offer its collection to consumers straight off the runway this season, nor was it the first to do so.



In September, Burberry sold two trench coats from its Spring/Summer 2010 show straight from the live stream and website, with consumers receiving their orders in three to four weeks, approximately three months ahead of their arrival in store.



Needless to say, the retail revolution has only just begun