Bringing London Fashion week to Second Life

An examination of the marketing opportunities afforded by Virtual Reality worlds.

 

Overview: There is a huge untapped potential for selling designer fashion online. The majority of online fashion retail lacks innovation and does not actively engage the consumer. Meanwhile, sites such as ASOS are breaking the mould with a massive 90% increase in turnover to (£81m) and an 80% growth in sales. This increase has been driven by innovation in a generally mediocre offering by most fashion retailers. Virtual fashion is big business in SL but real brands have failed to capitalise on this.Some fashion brands already have a presence in Second Life but have failed to understand how to engage with the Second Life residents. Other retailers have tried and failed to integrate their online and in world operations. They did not understand that people do not generally want to dress their avatars in casual everyday clothing. Second life is about fantasy and the clothing designers who are most successful in SL understand that they are selling to the avatar not the person. Desinger fashion and particularly cutting edge designer fashion is likely to be much more successful in this environment as it is aspirational.

ON/OFF is a catwalk and static exhibition of fashion and art that takes place alongside London Fashion Week (LFW). The event takes place at the Royal Academy of Art and showcases new and established desingners. The aim of the project was to develop a virtual version of ON/OFF that would complement the live event and also act as an extension to it. Softnet exhibitons created a virtual island with a booth for each exhibitor, and 3 big video screens, one for the latest catwalk show, and the other for stored shows. Each booth has a website link, a video screen in some cases, stills and a slideshow of designs. During the week students from the London College of Fashion were in the press room at the live event showcasing the island to press and buyers.

Rationale: The aim was to develop a site that would be extremely user friendly to people who have not previously used SL. The videos were loaded as soon as possible after the live event and this gave the audience another chance to see a show they may have missed.The set up created a wider reach for the videos – this can be done by podcasts, but provides a more user-friendly interface, even to Second Life beginners. Starting a video or visiting a website can be done with a single click, and as the island mimics an exhibition, it is simpler to walk around the various booths. Second Life now provides voice chat, and this gives a more naturalistic way of holding meetings.

Marketing Opportunities: The aim is to further develop the space to make it a key fashion venue to enhance the interactivity of the space and to link it with a transactional website. The 3D environment will enable users to engage in a more immersive shopping experience and to engage in social networking with other shoppers in a way that is not facilitated by ordinary 2d shopping and fashion networking sites. The ONOFF space will also hold fashion events such as seminars and interviews with influential fashion figures and upcoming designers.

We intend to develop an innovative platform that promotes young designers and links this to the ability to sell direct to the public online.

Some of the space not used can be rented out to up and coming designers or other fashion related companies.

The current ONOFF events happen twice a year during LFW, this project will extend the selling period and create opportunities for a higher international profile for the participating designers.

It will also present a platform for the promotion of the work of artists and creatives, through a virtual gallery that will enhance the fashion sales area.

Planned events include:

A series of interviews with designers and influential people in the fashion industry hosted by Tony Glenville – fashion journalist and forecaster

Private views of art exhibitions with opportunities to purchase the work.

Live music and performance events

Streamed and virtual fashion shows

Designer sales with discounts for registered members.

It is possible to capture the details of each unique visitor and the list can either be emailed every day, or stored in an external database. One of the items captured is the (indirect) email address of the visitor.  The potential of the space has not yet been fully exploited but we are working on raising funding to extend the work already undertaken.

Techy stuff: The in-world videos can simply be links to video podcasts, in some cases with a tweak to the format, there is no need for a separate streaming server.

Once one exhibitor’s booth has been created, with a program to run the slideshow, blank photo frames, videoscreen and URL opener, it can be duplicated, and then just needs customising with bmps URLs etc.