Fashion 2.0: Digital Dress-up

     Following a decade of e-commerce threatened to destroy almost traditional brick and mortar, you could be forgiven for believing that the purchases on his own was a thing of the past. In addition, one of the worst economic crises in history - a time that has participation drops walking down the street - and it seems that the digital future.

That's true, but not in the way one might suspect. A number of recent breakthroughs in the capital, is the proof of how fashion brands fit with the rise of online convenience by competing their premises with gadgets that promise to make shopping experience there worth the effort.

"Many luxury brands have been reluctant to adopt new technologies than their values ​​on the rest of the craft and the tradition," says Olivia Solon, deputy editor of Wired magazine. "But a new generation of engineers and designers to show interaction that the PCB and pixels can be beautiful and functional as well as ambitious and ubiquitous," It depends who you subscribe to theory. that, in a shop makes you spend more, or the simple one-click shopping is likely that you rake.

In any case, companies must find more and more complex - not to mention entertaining - ways to separate us from our money. The new Burberry store on Regent Street in London is a monument to 156 years of the history of the brand as a provider of traditional outerwear heritage. But apart from the pomp and is part of the high-spec technology that the brand has become known for recently. The 44,000 m² living space 500 houses. Loudspeakers and 100 screens, which have the brand image and video of the parade, but in their own in-store concerts and fashion shows come live streaming

"Regent Street is one of the most architecturally and culturally significant that we have done," says Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative Officer of the label, "is how our physical and digital worlds to amazing experiences that include all create, fashion, heritage, music."

The goal is to help customers feel like they are physically within the brand site. If this seems a bit depressing to think of it this way: shopping in this store looks like in the future, as you imagined as a child.

The luxury is the old school (but of course) with added extras. Mirror screens as you. Certain times of the day, they rain screen in the store approach within a year of immersion exciting and who hopes Burberry, subliminally suggest you buy one of the famous Graben

Bring an object near one of the mirrors and the screen you will automatically receive a 360-degree view of her. Of course, you can simply place your hands - but who wants that when you can projected 15 meters high? Sensory take a jacket in one of the rooms and a self-label in the mirror to show you running it can enlarge information, or how it performed in the parade. You see, as it could mean a big 7ft-19-year-old looked into it, but what about the self-esteem compared to feel a bit like Tom Cruise in Minority Report?

"It may seem a little gadget and sticky," says Olivia Solon, "but luxury brands seem to be very aware of -. Much depends on the execution" Mayfair, in a Georgian town house has three floors of the newly renovated flagship store McQ, the sister label Alexander McQueen. In the window carefully embroidered tulle skirt and applique dresses stand as evidence of the commitment of the home workshop production level, while the interior of a series of whizzy electronic devices equally reveals his progressive thinking.

Introduction of magnetic frames on a table touchscreen lets you label lookbooks and Imaging Gateway with a slide film, you can "throw" pictures on a screen from floor to ceiling on the opposite wall, the show or look at the magnificent technicolor instead of observing. If there is something you really like, you can do it yourself or. Your friends via email or share it on Facebook or Twitter with other smear years And during this time, you can pretend you are crew of the Starship Enterprise.

We wanted a story and create a home for McQ, "says McQueen creative director Sarah Burton." The store offers special pieces next to women in a rich immersive environment ready-to-wear. "

Mens-and womenswear floors boast interactive mirrors that switch Slideshow huge cameras, when you get in front of them. Try on some of this season Blackwatch tartan, grab and send it by email to your friends, their opinion on whether they buy or not to get. It relies on the fact that most people take these kind of pictures on their phones behind the curtains anyway - but this time you are workshop. But if you post the picture on Facebook, chances are you're not a wimp.

Although these facilities undeniably fun, it remains to be seen how effective they might be in us by our spending slump. But it may be interesting in a business and to a certain extent, to feel valued customers simply as visitors as cash cows. Numerical aspects of these new stores are all part of a branding exercise, as they lure data on social media, the extension of the appeal or you in.

This is the logic behind the screen interactive shop DKNY Bond Street is newly renovated. Consistent with the spirit of the young diffusion line of Donna Karan, the brand has already made an online presence and focus. His Twitter account, DKNY PR Girl, was the first of many, the use of a personal, spiritual and initiated that you really care a lot more than the trailers make the aggressive sales ever could.

In the store you can use a wall touchscreen, access to the PR girl blog and Twitter and learn more about what she was doing, and you can again look at the pictures of the route shows semiannual label in Manhattan. A brand that is so deeply rooted in the culture of the Big Apple to see the dresses in their original habitat has around a new context for the suspended versions of you.

These top brands are at the forefront of shopping in a digital world, but it will not be long before the technology makes its way to a high street near you. Many stores already offer iPads so you can easily check their stocks in 2010, Topshop, in collaboration with Nick Knight SHOWstudio visionary place, has a number of sessions in which customers looked in the mirror and got webcam live chat comments about her look with a selection of fashion experts.

Everything that comes next (dressing a hologram of yourself in the comfort of coffee, maybe?) Our love shopping and passion for gadgets is obliged to enter into a shopping experience more customized to suit even the pickiest palette mode.