The retail revolution begins

From Cathy Horyn’s blog, On the Runway:

Burberry plans to offer customers a substantial portion of its Prorsum spring 2011 runway collection — to be shown Sept. 21 in London — for immediate online sale, with delivery in six to eight weeks.

…Burberry has moved quickly to be a digital leader in the fashion industry, and certainly no other luxury-goods player has taken this kind of step with e-commerce — a step that appeals to a generation of consumers interested in novel design as much as accessibility. Burberry declined to reveal sales results from the February online offer (the company also made products available at its June men’s show), but Ms. Manley said the site experienced “huge spikes” in traffic. “We saw it as an opportunity to bring more awareness to the brand,” she said.

This isn’t surprising news. As Cathy mentioned in her blog entry, Burberry offered a selection of its aviator jackets for order during and immediately after the a/w ‘10 runway show. Still, to see such a big house making its collection immediately available for purchase feels like a definitive step towards fashion evolving into a see-now-buy-now industry. Finally, fashion is catching up with technology. People the world over see the collections as soon as they hit the runways through online streaming, Style.com and unending blog coverage. By the time the clothes actually hit the stores, many of those key runway pieces feel tired and overexposed. Fashion has always capitalized on The New, so it would only make sense that companies sell the clothes when they look their freshest. Granted, it will probably take some time before this idea hits its tipping point. Many fashion houses can barely meet their shipping deadlines as it is. But for the brands that can afford to make the changes necessary to sell directly from the runway, this seems like a much-needed step towards the future.