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NY Fashion Week: How Alexander Wang Streams Live From the Runway

by Leila Brillson on February 18, 2010 at 02:55 PM

Fashion, an industry known for its insider-filled snobbery, resistance to change and frankly undemocratic practices, has finally joined the 21st century. Last year, when the average person thought Twitter was the sound of a small bird, the only people to get a glimpse of New York's fashion shows were the freezing (or roasting, depending on the season) editors camped outside of them. The rest of the not-so-in-the-know crowd had to wait for pictures to be posted and reviews to be written, and, even then, details of the actual events were scarce.

Since then, aside from tech aficionados at CES, no industry has seemed to embrace micro-blogging more willingly than fashion -- possibly because no industry likes to brag as much. But reading quips and tweets from those at the show is one thing; seeing the whole event, moments after the last model exits the runway, is an entirely new world. Recently deceased visionary Alexander McQueen live-streamed his show last season, letting viewers worldwide see his collection instantly. Dutch duo Viktor and Rolf presented their Spring '09 collection purely digitally to an invite-only crowd. Yet, these forward-thinking fashion-makers were alone -- until recently.

For the first time ever, New York fashion shows opened their (virtual) doors at this year's Fashion Week. Sure, previous shows have been streamed, but not on this scale, and not with the participation of the world's highest caliber designers. British company SHOWstudio worked with both Alexander Wang and Rodarte to host their shows, while other designers, like Proenza Schouler, featured presentations on their own sites. Switched caught wind of Alexander Wang's live-stream being shown in Times Square (the ultimate in taking high fashion to the masses), and touched base with the maestro behind the magic, digital media firm Zeitbyte.

Taping, editing and streaming a show seems just as nerve-wracking as actually staging one, but these technological developments may represent a turning point in what has traditionally been a virtua-phobic industry. Suddenly, viewers everywhere can witness what insiders have for so long clamored to see. A fashion show doesn't have to occur in Milan, New York or Paris anymore, but rather in any place that can host a couple models and a video camera. What this means, of course, is that haute couture may become communitarian. Just don't tell that to Anna Wintour.

Tags: alexander wang, AlexanderWang, fashion week, FashionWeek, features, streaming, switched video, SwitchedVideo, top

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