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Fashion's future: www.shoponline.com
and forge boldly into a new millennium, fashion is constantly searching for what is "modern." Modernity, however, can apply to fashion and style in many ways. It is not only what is hot or trendy. Fashion for the future can be thought of in myriad ways: what will the fabric, cut, styling, or sizing be like? But the consumption of style and clothing is just as important. How will the haughty fashion editor get her grubby Chanel mitts on the latest ideas in fashion? Or, more importantly, how and where will the suburban mall rat find the latest gear to blow his or her allowance on? The answer to these burning questions, as of late, has been one word: the Internet. Okay, that was two words if you count "the," but the point is that the Internet has permeated yet another aspect of our already technology-clogged lives. It all began last season, when '90s fashion icon Helmut Lang (master of minimalist, utilitarian chic) eschewed the typical runway extravaganza and instead chose to present his fall/winter '98 collection online. Editors, reporters, and shoppers logged onto www.helmutlangny.com and were treated to a runway show and slide presentation of each ensemble on their computer screens. Despite lacking the normally charming aspects of a live fashion event-- drunken, belligerent models, lack of seating, catty commentary, and crushing, sweaty throngs of people--it was a huge success. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, fashion magazines proclaimed this act of techno-chic as representative of something larger: just how modern fashion could get. Kevlar vests and memory fabric aside, this act crossed new boundaries in "high fashion." The latest look, previously a possession of only the upper ring of society, has now been placed on that most public of forums, the World Wide Web. Hoi polloi, however, has had an increasingly cozy relationship with fashion thanks to the Internet. This has simply marked the natural transition from print to byte and paper to screen. Tried-and-true mass-market companies such as Gap and J. Crew have created online versions of their already immensely popular selling techniques. The latest J. Crew catalog, along with past catalogs and new product lines, are all available at www.jcrew.com. This eliminates not only trips to the mall, an arduous process for some, but also those pesky catalog paper cuts. There are even advantages to this form of online shopping. JCrew.com, for example, not only has the current season's merchandise, but also past catalogs (from last year--not that you would want that) and past clearance catalogs. Now you can finally find that nutmeg colored, extra small, wool dickie you've been searching for! All can be viewed and sized with a simple click. A double click allows for an even closer inspection of each and every garment. Simply add it to your list of purchases and charge it to the credit card and you are, as Martin "paragon of wisdom" Lawrence would say, re' to go! Even upper-crust designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier have opened up digital boutiques for your shopping pleasure. At www.jpgaultier.fr, sedentary label whores can peruse the Gaultier boutique in France with their mouse in one hand and their credit card in the other. Regardless of which designer you're checking out, online catalog shopping has advantages whether you are a lazy slug or a busy bee. Convenience is obviously at the top of the list. You can also see an entire range of clothing as opposed to, like, a sweater (this means you, J. Crew) and even find a better sale on the Internet than in the store. At the sites www.bluefly.com and www.designeroutletmall.com (a place where Donna Karan and Calvin Klein are sold with the likes of FUBU, mysteriously enough), you can even find some real now-I-don't-have-to-sell-my-liver-to-get-this-sweater deals! Disadvantages include missing the shopping experience (pure zen for yours truly) and the possibility of credit card fraud. But if you want to shop in the nude and not get arrested, then I guess those are truly small prices to pay.
Fashion's partnership with the Internet does not end there. You can even be
subjected to the lifestyle vision of a brand on the web. At sites such as
www.abercrombie.com, you can experience life, Aberzombie style, through the
store's computer screens. E-mail your friends an Aberzombie postcard adorned
with sweaty, muscular, semi-nude pretty boys: "Hey Biff--Great kegger last
night, man! Chip." See a live camera shot of Nantucket, the Aberzombie place to
be (which turned out to be a video of an empty, god-forsaken beach with a sand
storm whirling in the background). One can never have enough pictures of
half-naked, built boys grappling--so download an overtly homoerotic screensaver
(not that there's anything wrong with that...). Oh yeah, and in case you
forgot, the plaid flannel barely covering | ||||||||||||||||||||
