London Collections: Men, kick-starting the
menswear calendar from Friday 15th June 2012, provides a new opportunity for
the British Fashion Council (BFC) to unite fashion and digital innovation,
encouraging engagement with this brand new menswear showcase through social
media, live streaming and fashion film.
All shows at The Hospital Club, the event hub,
will be live streamed online. Anyone can watch these shows at home or on the
move, whether on their home computer, portable device or smart phone www.londoncollections.co.uk/live.
The Topman Design show will also be live streamed from the Topman Venue at the
Sorting Office, WC1.
As well as live-streamed shows, the screening
room at The Hospital Club will have a dedicated film programme, curated by the
BFC Fash/On Film sponsored by River Island panel. London's rich cultural
landscape inspires and contributes to the success of British menswear and this
unique relationship will be showcased by the feature films screened: Test
Presents will host an evening with DJ and fashion luminary Jeffrey Hinton who
will be showing excerpts from his unique 80s film archive, panel member Kathryn
Ferguson will discuss fashion film with female menswear designers and GQ.com's
Jamie Millar will introduce a film that exemplifies men's style for him. The
BFC have teamed up with Dazed & Confused who will present 'RISE Menswear
SS13', their selection of emerging talent - Alex Mullins, Claire Barrow and
Craig Green - who have produced films to showcase their collections with Dazed
directors Alex Sainsbury, Fumi Nagasaka and Zoe Hitchen. These will be screened
on Saturday afternoon.
The Fashion 2012 Menswear Committee will share
their London Collections: Men moments on the BFC’s new Pinterestaccount.
Influential figures within the menswear industry including Jeremy Langmead
(Editor-in-Chief, MR PORTER.COM) will create daily virtual pin boards of their
favourite catwalk looks, street style and inspiring moments from the event.
The public can get involved: followers can
Tweet or Pin their outfits and menswear street style photos, whether taken at
the event or anywhere in the world, using the hashtag #ManAboutTown. These will
all be collated into a dedicated pinboard and Facebook album, aiming to provide
a crowd-sourced visual collection of the best of British men’s style.
The BFC continue to work closely with Twitter
to promote conversation around London Collections: Men using the hashtag
#londoncollections. Q&A sessions will be held over the 3 days from the
official @BFC account. Tweeters can pose questions in real-time to members of
the Fashion 2012 Menswear Committee including designer Alex Bilmes (Editor,
Esquire) and designer Richard James (#AskLCM). The London Collections: Men
Timeline will take to Twitter, keeping track of the shows throughout the week
with live updates of start times (#LCMtimeline). The Show Schedule is sponsored
by Swarovski, the Official Timepiece of London Collections: Men.
To coincide with The Prince of Wales officially
launching London Collections: Men at St James's Palace on Thursday 14th June,
the BFC have worked closely with St James's Palace to create an interactive
image gallery dedicated to his style. From highland tartans to Savile Row
suits, the user can click on the Prince’s outfits to discover the origin of
each item and more about the brand. His preferred London brands are also
plotted on a map with a picture of the related outfit.
The gallery will be a key feature of the London
Collections: Men website. The site, and newly launched mobile site, both
feature maps of menswear show, event and showroom locations, as well as hotels,
bars and restaurants. Users can create their own online personal calendar for
the event, and use the website for directions between the shows; all features
of the site that aim to use digital to simplify and maximize the visits of
press and buyers to London Collections: Men.
Aurasma will bring London Collections: Men to
digital life with the BFC and MR PORTER.COM. The windows of the Hospital Club
will feature a life-sized catwalk illustration: using their mobile device,
passers by simply need to download the MR PORTER Style Help app and hold it
over the illustration, at which point it will spring to life with the latest
catwalk footage from London Collections: Men. Aurasma is a new technology that
is capable of recognising images and objects in the real world and seamlessly
integrating them with rich video content and audio.
The BFC’s digital innovation strategy aims to
harness technology and creativity to promote British designers to global
audiences.
To view the British Fashion Council’s brand new
Pinterest account:
To see full schedule of the guests for Twitter
Q&A, visit:
For press enquiries regarding London
Collections: Men please contact:
Will Rowley, British Fashion Council, +44 (0)
20 7759 1968
