New York Fashion Week springs forward with drones and other haute tech. The drones at New York Fashion Week weren't exhausted fashion editors or undernourished models. Hovering overhead, the miniature aircraft carried cameras to film the shows of designers such as Cynthia Rowley and Rebecca Minkoff. They're not the only way cutting-edge technology is interfacing with fashion. Here are five brands that are celebrating its capabilities on the spring-summer 2016 runways. Rebecca Minkoff: With Marianne Faithfull as a muse and Intel drones as her witness, Rebecca Minkoff's show in New York crossed the miniskirts and mod jewelry of London in the 1960s with tech-cessories meant for millennials. Minkoff collaborated with Case-Mate on small leather goods that included a wristlet folio with built-in charging capability and a collection of Apple Watch bands — available now, ahead of French brand Hermes' options that debut in October. The embrace of Periscope coincides with Ralph Lauren's debut of a PoloTech wearable-technology smartshirt.
Fashion and technology merge to improve consumer experience | euronews, hi-tech With the Internet revolutionising the way we shop, customers are increasingly avoiding dressing rooms, opting instead for the comfort of online shopping that usually offers liberal return policies. In a bid to entice customers back, some shops have been testing various amenities including so-called intelligent dressing rooms that allow users to “try on” different items without having to actually change clothes. Going one step further, the recent Fashion Tech in Tel Aviv aimed at bringing together the worlds of fashion and technology to see how the two can work together. Yael Kochman is the organiser of the event: “With technology you can change the way that people consume fashion, whether it’s online or in store, in real life, you can also do an omni-channel experience and combine the online and the offline together, and those startups really take it to the next level,” she said. But the true answer to customers’ desires could lie with with 3D printers.
Beyonce could be wearing "Intel-ligent" fashion on her next tour Beyoncé, Madonna, and Nicki Minaj are just a few of entertainment's power players that have been rocking the edgy, architectural clothing line, Chromat, on stage. When your biggest fans are music royalty, you'd think a designer would be content to sit back and retire with a smile on her face. Not Becca McCharen. While her brand has already reached next level popularity among celebs and fashion editors alike, Becca is determined to keep all eyes on her line. This season Chromat collaborated with Intel to create two smart garments that work hard for their owners. Powered by the Intel® CurieTM Module, Chromat's adrenaline dress is designed with 3-D printed panels that respond to the body's chemistry. The adrenaline dress was the finale look at Chromat's Spring 2016 fashion show. Becca has always dreamed of infusing technology into her line. Joining forces with Intel's engineers, Becca designed a sports bra that does just that. Have something to add to this story?
Fed up with eBay? Sell on Etsy, Depop and Folksy instead Etsy, founded in 2005, is hot on the heels of eBay with more than 1.4m sellers and 19.8m active buyers. The website mainly focuses on handmade and vintage items, with the majority of sellers offering quirky artwork, one of-a-kind jewellery pieces and vintage clothing and furniture. Fees: It costs $0.20 USD (13p) to list an item and Etsy will take 3.5pc of the total selling price, not including shipping costs or PayPal fees (typically 3.4pc plus 20p if the buyer is in Britain). How does this compare to eBay? EBay fees: Private eBay sellers get up to 20 free listings per month, after that it costs 35p for each listing. Business sellers can choose from three types of subscription, based on how many monthly listings they create. For those who sell between 65 and 600 items a month, the "basic shop" subscription is the most suitable of the three, and this costs £17.38 a month. READ: My eBay 'buyer protection' nightmare READ: 'Ebay allowed buyer to defraud me' Source: A wooden tree; Folksy.com
British social shopping app Depop raises $8m for US expansion UK-based social shopping app Depop has secured an investment of $8m (£5m) from Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe) and Holtzbrinck Ventures, and hired Erik Martin, former general manager of Reddit, to lead its US operation. Founded in Italy in 2011, Depop can be described as 'Pinterest meets eBay'. The app allows users to upload pictures of items they want to sell to their profile page, and build up a personal feed of profiles featuring products they want to buy. Items can them be purchased directly through the app and Depop manages the transaction. Depop has grown quickly in Europe, striking a chord with Millennials, and in particular fashion bloggers. Its app reached 1.8 million downloads in 2014, and the company currently sees well over a million new products added for sale each month. Depop already has a 'satellite' office in the US, but the company said it will use the new funding to set up a permanent New York office. "There's something special about Depop.
Gucci, Louis Vuitton craft best digital customer experience: report - Luxury Daily - Research Gucci fall/winter 2015 campaign In the first half of 2015 luxury brands achieved a 4 percent rise in digital performance, but there is still room to grow, according to a new report from ContactLab and Exane BNP Paribas. Brands are boosting their ecommerce efforts, creating a better shopping experience for consumers or expanding their consumer base online through initiatives that court an international customer base. While in general the luxury industry is making improvements online, the growth is uneven, with some players moving ahead while others remain “immature” as a result of where they focus their resources. “Up to now digital competence has been a scarce resource in luxury goods companies, often organizationally segregated, and top management rarely is digitally native,” said Marco Pozzi, senior advisor of ContactLab, Milan. “But things now are starting to move, I am positive, in an acceleration. One example is its concession in T mall for Chinese consumers. Valentino store in Rome