12 February, 2011

Attention, attention

My, isn’t Tumblr so very popular right now? The nobrainer way to blog, it’s all about the quick photo, newsy snippets and reblogged posts which are so user-friendly for our ever-decreasing attention spans. I’m fascinated because since I first started working for online publications I have watched the patterns of content change over time.

In 1999 I started working for a women’s website where I would contribute 400-word fashion articles broken into paragraphs and illustrated with a picture. These were read by women in offices who would browse the site in their lunch hour. As more magazine-style sites emerged and there was more competition, articles became shorter. “People don’t want to read long articles at a desk, they want Top Ten slide-shows with images and a tip,” I was told. These were the days before everyone had a laptop and reading on screens became the norm. The years passed, the iPhone was created, WiFi appeared and we all became quite comfortable reading content online. Blogs flourished and people became interested in personal opinion. Word count increased. Blog count multiplied. Twitter arrived and information addicts rejoiced. Then despaired. (Guilty!)

With all this ready information, the brain can’t cope. We worry about our children and how they will learn to focus with so many distractions. Tumblr emerges and is a runaway success. Why? Because it’s bite-sized blogging, a way to keep up without going into detail. It’s blogging-lite for the time-poor. (Pity the brands and old school bloggers tearing their hair out – “aaargh, another social media platform to manage!”) At the same time, the rise of the two-minute video threatens to take over from the written blog post – young people especially would rather watch a moving image than read. So in effect we’re at the top-ten-slide-show stage again where people want short form over long. Interestingly, when I read about the latest issue of the New York Post’s new(ish) Alexa paper it seemed very appealing – a thin, well-edited fashion newspaper that has just-indepth-enough information to digest in one go (there’s an online version too). When you read on paper, you take in more. Having noticed how much time I spend looking at screens (and how little information I retain long term), digesting paper journalism from the comfort of a sofa is almost a novelty. So I’m not panicking. We’re in the midst of a micro-information moment and I’m happy to ride it out. It looks like there’s a slower, more considered alternative lurking round the corner which I’ll willingly embrace – if my brain hasn’t exploded by then.

Disneyrollergirl 8 Comments Technology

2 February, 2011

Louis Vuitton launches location app: ‘Amble’

News just in of a new ‘digital travel diary’ iPhone app from Louis Vuitton. Amble is a free app in which users document and share their travel adventures by creating an ‘Amble’ – a memory or journey recorded on the iPhone in photo, video, audio or notes. A GPS function allows the user to discover new places nearby while favourite spots can be shared on Twitter, Facebook and email, or sent to Louis Vuitton for publication on the Amble website thus ‘creating a global community of elegant Amblers’. Oh look, Sofia Coppola has done an Amble here!

Of course, as travel is part of the Vuitton heritage, there is also the opportunity to download the first digital version of the famous Louis Vuitton City Guides from Amble to add to the luxury travel experience. I’m not sure if a similar app exists already but if it does, I’m sure there are plenty of Louis Vuitton afficionados who might prefer to use this branded app.

Disneyrollergirl 1 Comment Technology

5 July, 2010

Haul vloggers: the next target for fashion brands?

Is it me or is anyone else obsessed with haul videos? What’s a haul video? It’s a vlogging phenomenon whereby (mostly) teenagers shop at the mall then go home and video themselves talking through what they bought. And, er…that’s it. But this simple concept is taking America by storm. (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 6 Comments Beauty, Brands, Technology, Trends beauty, bloggers, haul videos, vlogging, Youtube

10 November, 2009

Art of the Trench

Yesterday saw the launch of Burberry’s Artofthetrench.com. It’s a free-standing website dedicated to the Burberry trench and showcases dozens of stylish Burberry-wearers photographed by The Sartorialist. It’s not just a vanity project though. Burberry has made it a social networking site where you can upload pictures of yourself in a Burberry trench or add comments as well as sharing on Facebook and Twitter. It’s kind of fun, lovely to look at and simple to navigate.

In the press release blurb is this quote from Christopher Bailey:
“Artofthetrench.com celebrates our iconic trench coat, capturing the emotional connection behind our distinctive outerwear heritage. Everybody has a different story related to their coat or the first time they came into contact with one – I love the idea that people from all over the world can share those stories and images with each other and all the different attitudes and expressions of the Burberry trench coat and the people who wear it.”

As it happens, I do have a story that relates to buying my first Burberry trench. It was a few years ago and the first properly snowy day of the winter. The inclement weather was a coincidence, I had been toying with the purchase for days and finally bitten the bullet. That February evening was to be the first big awards night for the magazine publishing company I worked for at an impressive London venue. It was also payday and bonus day and I’d left the excited hubbub of the office that lunchtime to trot over to Bond Street and treat myself (well, it’s not every day you buy a Burberry trench and this was before the days of casually dropping £500 on a pair of Loubs). As I did the ten minute walk from my office to the Burberry flagship I could feel the adrenaline rising, just as the first flakes of snow landed on my Alpha MA1-clad shoulders. It was that nice kind of excitement when you know you’re buying something totally worth it, as opposed to that underlying anxiety when deep down you know you’re being crazily frivolous. It was my ‘this coat will change my life’ moment. Finding the trench – classic black, narrow-shouldered and knee-length – trying it on (I knew it would fit, I’d already tried it on umpteen times) and handing over my card took mere moments and once that huge navy blue carrier bag was in my clutches, I couldn’t wait to get it back to the office. I walked out into a veritable blizzard.

The coat stayed in the bag, locked in the fashion cupboard overnight as I wasn’t prepared to cart it to a black tie dinner in the snow. As the blizzard continued to rage, we changed into our finery, me in a black silk 30s-style Stella McCartney for Chloe gown and Miu Miu barely-there heels. Topped off with my army-style padded jacket which I kept on in the freezing heritage building, a cashmere scarf tied round my feet as the awards were handed out.

And then to my utter shock I heard the nominations for one of the main awards and my name being called out. And then my Oscar moment as my name flashed up on a screen and I sat open-mouthed and unable to move. And then when I finally did get up to go on stage and collect my award, I had to swiftly lose the anorak and the woolly scarf. The prize was a luxury holiday which I used for a trip to New York (staying at The Plaza no less…a story in itself). And finally, when the night was all over, the whole of London covered in its own thick coat of snow, not a taxi to be found for love nor money, we staggered home delirious with cold and champagne-fuelled cheer.

The very next day, the Alpha jacket was given its marching orders and the Burberry unwrapped. Since then, the trench has come out for every smart occasion – meetings, interviews, lunches, parties and every type of weather. And each time I’ve worn it, it’s taken me back to that snowy, somewhat magical and most definitely memorable day.