2015: The Year Fashion Fell For Tech, & Fell Hard

Hermes x Apple was the year’s most talked about fashion and tech collaboration.

Fashion has always been about The Next Big Thing. But, in the past 10 to 15 years, many of the big-name players—glossy print magazines, designer labels—failed to embrace what has undoubtedly been the biggest Next Big Thing in decades: The Internet. While other industries have struggled to adapt to new technology, luxury fashion and traditional media have been notoriously behind the curve—way, way behind. In 2009, for instance, when bloggers had become widely accepted outside the world of fashion, it was headline-making news that Bryanboy had been seated front row at D&G. Or consider the fact that Vogue did not beef up its eponymous site until 2010 and many luxury fashion brands—Chanel, Celine, Dior, to name a few—still do not sell their clothes online.

But, in 2015, a funny thing started happening. Fashion went from learning to embrace the Internet to becoming downright obsessed with it. Here, a look back at the two industry’s budding romance in 2015.

Luxury brands realized selling products online doesn’t cheapen their value.

For years, high fashion conglomerates have relied on the robust economies of emerging markets, particularly China, to fuel growth. This was not a bad plan (see: China becoming the world’s top consumer of luxury goods, beating out the U.S.) But as China’s economy hit a stumbling block this year, it became all the more pressing for luxury labels to find other avenues of growth. They didn’t have to look too far before they found the Internet. “Technology is now top of the agenda for the majority of fashion brands,” says Bernadette Kissane, an apparel analyst at Euromonitor. Why? Because, by the end of 2015, e-commerce sales are expected to grow 25%—and mobile shopping is set to surpass even that pace of growth (a projected 42 percent between 2013 and 2016). Those numbers are a pretty big deal—and thankfully, for e-commerce junkies like myself, luxury labels are finally paying attention. In early September, LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Celine, Christian Dior, and many others, hired its first-ever Chief Digital Officer, Apple’s former senior director of iTunes, Ian Rogers. The hire suggests that LVMH—the world’s largest luxury conglomerate—will be integrating digital strategy to the very core of its business. Indeed, not too long after Rogers’ appointment, Dior finally began dipping its toes on e-commerce, allowing a collection of shoes to be sold exclusively on BergdorfGoodman.com. No doubt other behind-the-times luxury labels (ahem, Celine) will follow suit soon.

Wearable tech got to the next level, thanks to Hermes x Apple.

Last December, WWD crowned 2014 the year that “wearable technology drew a seat at fashion’s table.” But it wasn’t until this year that the new category really hit its stride thanks to its first “It” accessory: The Hermes Apple Watch, which promises to do for smartwatches what Phoebe Philo did for furry Birkenstocks. While the Apple Watch had already gained momentum in the fashion world–earlier in the year, department stores like Colette and Dover Street Market signed on to sell the gadget—the endorsement from Hermes, considered the last word in luxury, went a long way, and served as proof that fashion’s tech romance isn’t a one-way street. “The tech industry also saw an opportunity for growth in fashion with wearable technology which provided access to a previously untapped market,” says Heather Kaminetsky, VP of Global Marketing at Net-a-Porter. With startups like Ringly, a company that makes rings that can sync with your iPhone, continuing to pop up and brands like Opening Ceremony and DvF experimenting with wearable tech, you can expect to see more high profile collars in the future.

Old media woke up and realized digital matters.

The digital world, and its editors (trust me, I was one) were often viewed as second class compared to print staffs. But as newsstand sales continued to slide (11% percent in 2014), big-name magazine titles—like luxury brands—began looking to the Internet for growth opportunities. In September of this year, Conde Nast’s newly-appointed CEO Bob Sauerberg promised to usher the company into a new digitally-savvy era. A few months later, the company shuttered Details but kept the website operating; the content (and much of the team) will eventually be transitioned to GQStyle.com. A few days later, several print staffers were cut from Self’s team, while the magazine focuses on growing its digital property instead. The move isn’t just a bid for eyes; Conde Nast is simply following the migration of ad dollars online: According to a study by ad-sales intelligence firm MediaRadar, 53 percent more brands ran online ads in September 2015 than in the same time period last year.

Supermodel success was measured in followers.

Forget cheekbones and mile-long legs, models who got to add the “super” to their monikers in 2015 did so by relying on a completely different set of assets—namely Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. “The power social media has given models is unquantifiable,” casting director Julia Samersova told me earlier this year. “I mean Vogue did an entire cover and feature on the ‘INSTAGIRLS’ [Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne and Joan Smalls].” Today, a massive social media following is what separates icons-in-the-making like Cara Delevingne and Gigi Hadid from the rest of the bunch. “The smart ones know exactly how to brand themselves to really maximize their exposure and subsequently their net worth,” says Samersova. Unsurprisingly, designers—both emerging and established—are following suit. Speaking to the New Yorker, who crowned him the “Instagram King,” Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing explained social media’s power thusly: “I can speak straight to my Balmain army, instantly, and I am making fashion for them. It is too bad for critics if they cannot understand this, but the truth is now that their critiques do not matter.” Rousteing’s approach seems to be working: Under his reign, Balmain has managed to capture a younger clientele and a coveted H&M collaboration to boot. Meanwhile, up-and-coming labels like Kiini and Vyshyvanka by Vita Kin have seen sales skyrocket thanks to well-placed Instagram endorsements (paid or unpaid). Now that Instagram has (finally) introduced a “Shop” button and other messages that link we can expect the platform’s clout to only increase.

The Met Ball announced its next theme is tech—and they’re not the only museum combining fashion and tech.

Getting into bed with tech after all these years was great—but fashion didn’t stop there. Like that oversharing newlywed on Facebook, fashion wanted to put its new romance on display. Case in point: Pratt’s next exhibition, dubbed ‘Coded Couture,’ will feature customizable clothing and accessories created via coding, as well as video projections and apps “meant to give visitors insight into what the future of fashion may hold.” But the real sign that fashion’s digital obsession has reached new heights, is that the Met Gala—fashion’s biggest red carpet event—will be tech-themed, to coincide with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s latest exhibition, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology. “Traditionally, the distinction between the haute couture and prêt-à-porter was based on the handmade and the machine-made,” Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute, said in a statement at the time of the announcement. “But recently this distinction has become increasingly blurred as both disciplines have embraced the practices and techniques of the other.” To which we say: Fashion and technology, we’re really happy for you two—but can you get a room already?