I got the inspiration to systematically browse through 52 luxury brand websites after reading a book about the art of selling high-end shoes in NYC, 5th Avenue. The book is written by a Finnish lady, Mirja Tervo. If you’re into shoes, just read it (available only in Finnish, though). The brands below are the ones sold in the salon Mrs Tervo worked in, prices varying from 500 to 2500 a pair. Very, very high-end. Below find my short brand review (brands listed masculine-feminine-neutral, as in the book).

Five (5) out of 52 brands have a website that I find interesting, entertaining and good, even fun. I know I will visit those sites again. In my opinion, two (2) out of 52 brands have been able to create a campaign that’s not just a print ad in Vogue (don’t get me wrong, I adore Vogue and good print advertising!). To be honest, this post was almost as amusing to compile as reading the book.

Derek Lam

Basic product website with print images.

Giorgio Armani

Nice fullscreen films throughout the site, but all the links take you out.

Oscar De La Renta

Cool compact site with smooth functionality and gorgeous images.

Moschino

They do have personality, it’s a shame that the site is so messy.. . What the duck?

Marc Jacobs

A good try but a bit restless experiment, a full screen film as a background for all the site content doesn’t work very well: marcjacobs.com

Valentino

A compact, stylish, thought through site. Nice details, well designed.

Christian Dior

I’m totally tired of country specific sites. This is one of the worst: why is it so important to choose a country/area/language to see what you have? If you just want to have a look? Anyways, “The New Lock” series of short films is beautiful, as most of the site content truly is. Generally, loads of good content but it’s quite hard to get a general view of the entity. Hard to remember where you’ve been, as funny as it sounds.

Stuart Weitzman

It is a website built from boxes. Grey and boring. Since the products are quite high-end, why isn’t the online presence?

Jonathan Kelsey

Weird black site with products packed in a tiny, tiny area.

Givenchy

Content stuffed into quite small boxes, otherwise grey toned – boring…

Salvatore Ferragamo

They’ve chosen one image to use on the background as fullscreen and they stick to it – brilliant. Super-simple with quality.

Dolce & Gabbana

Too much! Literally, loads of content. The biggest problem is that there’s no way of knowing where to start. Re-naming, re-arranging, re-shaping up the concent, I guess that would do the trick.

Bruno Frisoni

After a while the shoes appear and that’s it. The site includes just the obligatory information, which in most cases is all you need. Just to mention that you need that little extra to make the person come back.

Brian Atwood

In my opinion there’s basically all the needed content but the concept is missing. A big plus on using Donna Summer’s I Feel Love!

Azzedine Alaïa

It seems, there isn’t a dedicated brand site for the art of the iconic Mr Alaïa. Or I just wasn’t able to find it. Oh, what a pity.

Giuseppe Zanotti

Zanotti’s latest print campaign with a guy’s head and a high-heeled shoe stands out – unfortunately not online. The site is compact and very basic.

Alejandro Ingelmo

The site hasn’t been updated: latest collection being Spring/Summer 09. Simple, stylish but slow-ish.

Réne Caovilla

They have managed to create a relaxed but still luxurious atmosphere, excellent choice with music. Good experience.

Rupert Sanderson

Compact, stylish site. Includes shop.

Burberry

Burberry.com is a comprehensive webstore. Burberry’s latest campaign concentrated on their iconic trench coats: Art of the Trench is just brilliant, a simple concept with lovely music. It’s a huge image collection, consisting of professional quality images with user generated ones. The fun side is that you really can’t tell the difference. Each of the images is amazing: together they create quite an impressing piece of art. It’s a pity that just the campaign stands out…

Sergio Rossi

Basic site. The navigation is a bit tricky.

Gianvito Rossi

Basic content, but the site is a bit slow. The site is built so that every action you take first provides you with the loader… I know I’m impatient.

Michael Kors

Very American, heaps of content. Very basic.

Ralph Lauren

Very American, heaps of content. Very basic.

Roger Vivier

Goddamn, Roger! The site is totally surprising, top-quality, fun, entertaining, crazy. I love it. A good start to get into Vivier’s world is to get started with: Collections/Spring-Summer 2010/Film. Another must see is the Haute Couture section. It’s almost embarrassing how proud they are of being a French brand! Just go throught the whole site, everything, I did too. Viva Vivier!

Balenciaga

Latest print campaign images on the main page. There’s a (messy) webstore for US and UK. The nicest part of the site is: House of Balenciaga/Video.

Manolo Blahnik

Unfortunately could be a site of what-not. Very basic.

Yves Saint Laurent

The navigation is somewhat confusing – quite disorganized all in all. YSL’s Manifesto marketing concept is brilliant. Remember to check out the site archive, the films are divine. YSL actually prints a high-quality look book of the latest YSL look every year, it’s given out  in a campaign goodie bag in the fashion capitals worldwide (one day event). The package is really sought after, it’s become a collectible. This is a well-known way to promote the new collection: always for professionals, never for the actual buyer/consumer. No need to mention, that I’d desperately want to have my Manifesto bag some day. YSL has managed to create something really successful and unique. Well done.

Gucci

Personally I can’t stand these dirty shades of brown and gold that dominate the whole site… And unfortunately the chaotic navigation makes a mess out of this one, too.

Prada

Wow, those magnificent high quality images are awesome. The quality that the brand represents just stands out. Awesome. And works so, so smoothly and fast. The Fantasy Lookbook, The Fashion Show’s, they just start in a second you press the button. Great experience.

Jimmy Choo

The products stand out really well. Choo 24:7 collection has been promoted widely – they do it online, too. Beautiful site.

Studio Pollini

Makes me wonder they could do so much better. Very basic, not a single surprise, not to mention no “wow-effect”.

Courtney Crawford

No website. Amazing.

Christian Louboutin

He has a style of his own, totally. On the main page, there is a paragraph of text with the title “Warning”. Is he serious? Well, that’s it for me, even though I adore the shoes.

Taryn Rose

The site looks cheap. Even thought the shoes really are not.

Camilla Skovgaard

The site is really simple, the only content being the products. You can recognize Skovgaard’s shoes, they stand out – unfortunately her website doesn’t.

Chanel

The only thing to criticize is the totally disordered structure. There’s loads of interesting, high-quality content, unfortunately very well hidden. Since the content is so great, I will still rank Chanel quite high. If they would just organize it all…

Ann Demeulemeester

Dark, simple and very Demeulemeester’ish. I wish there would be something unique in her online presence – as there is in her fashion.

Nicole Brundage

Simple and stylish. Very plain.

Alexandra Neel

I’m not a big fan of this kind of box – in a box – in a box visuals. Why is all the content stuffed in the tiny area? The overall quality sucks big time. In the other hand it seems there’s nothing wrong with the products. Such a pity.

Donna Karan

It’s a total mess with a non-existant navigation and poor usability. And why do the views change via a black screen? Sloppy stylesheet coding?

Jill Sander

Simple, sleek and stylish. A bit boring?

Marni

They at least try to play and make the visitors play too, nice solution with the site structure.

Miu Miu

Brilliant – one of my favorites. Big, sharp, high-quality images with clear structure on good content. You’re able to see the products you want. There’s surprises. It’s branded entertainment and truly what I would call “eye candy”. Reminds me of Prada, of course.

Chloé

Good quality site – every view is a bit differently built. Nice but maybe not so nice that it would tempt me to come back.

6267

a) It doesn’t exist. b) I’m not able to find it.

Fendi

One of the ugliest, to be honest. The flash effect in the content page is just annoying.

Dsquared2

Well. They’ve succeeded perfectly in making their brand look like s**t. Pure torture.

Gunmetal

What would this be? It’s mentioned as a shoe brand in the book but the stuff I get from google just can’t be it.

Costume National

This site has character and individuality. At least I wanted to check it all out. I like the music a lot – goes really well with the overall design + naturally the brand (which I’m quite familiar with). Content: lot’s of material and info, but the structure is so interesting and well designed that it doesn’t feel too packed. Really interesting, rich brand experience.

Hogan

Well, this might have been a hit 10 years ago.

Tod’s

I’m not quite sure what the purpose of the film opening automatically on the main page is?  There’s also a “select your country” view, and one of the options is “world”. Oh, my. I chose the world, of course. Lounge music, lounge music, lounge music.

The conclusion:

Five (5) out of 52 brands have a website that I find interesting, entertaining and good, even fun. The brands are Roger Vivier, Prada, Chanel, Miu Miu and Costume National. Two (2) out of 52 brands have been able to create a really successful, worldwide known, iconic campaign concept: Burberry with Art of The Trench and Yves Saint Laurent with Manifesto. The reasons why can be found in the text above.

 

First impression: Ssense.com is a breathtakingly beautiful webstore. It looks like a high-end fashion or design magazine, the only difference being the lack of ads. Perfect, sleek, stylish. Well, I really enjoy aesthetics, in case I didn’t make myself clear already..
The News-section is surprisingly interesting, providing articles on Architecture & Design, Art & Culture, Collections (fashion collections available in Ssense.com)  and Film. There’s also a Lookbook, of course. Photographers is about incredible fashion photography – I enjoyed this the most. Publications leads you to awesome magazines, previews, books… I need to get that Industrie -magazine, at least.

Take the news -section as a warm-up, the real content is better. A webstore that is so simple that you can actually concentrate fully on shopping and checking out stuff, without wasting a second on trying to figure out how to find something, waiting something to load or thinking how this and that works. This is a rare experience, I tell you, and I surf the web (= fashion) a lot.

Highly recommended. BTW, don’t, in any circumstances, skip the sales-section. 

I’m not a big fan of sneakers myself (for me, it’s the heels), but the Ransom by Adidas Spring/Summer 2010 Video Lookbook just has that perfect summer feeling in it: wondering around, sunshine, lack of hurry. Perfect summer day.

I found a really nice film about Inspiration and wanted to share it. Enjoy & have a great weekend!

I’m not going to write about online or any other campaigns. Campaigns come and go. Some of them are remembered, most of them are not. In my blog, I will concentrate on the everyday presence of the brand, what’s available 24/7/365. That is, ladies and gentlemen, online. Some fancy-ass fashion brands launch gorgeous high quality print campaigns to start a season (don’t get me wrong, I adore those), and at the same time their online presence sucks big time. There’s a good article about the subject in NY Times, Fashion and style. I will get back to this later.

I went through a website from a designer called Chris Benz. The site has all the obligatory basic content (Home-Story-Collections-Press-Stockists-Contact) that all the designer & fashion sites are offering. But with Chris Benz, the form and the experience is built with enough twist to keep that particular Chris Benz in mind. Not to mention the beautiful clothing.

The user interface design is surprising. You move downwards when you click, with basic navigation on the lower right. The effect is so well made and smooth, that I found myself spending some time playing with it. Checking out the Spring/Summer 2010 collection (and the previous collections, too) is really easy and fast. Nice indeed.

The design of the first two sections (home and story) is quite traditional with collages of accessories, photos, sketches, articles, notes etc. In my opinion the graphic, more abstract, simplified style used in the other sections of the site is a lot more unique and interesting.

A detail that makes me happy, is that also online stores are mentioned in the stockists list. Also known as good customer service.

From Net-A-Porter: “Rising fashion star Chris Benz first caught the attention of the fashion world when he won the CFDA’s Emerging Talent Award in 2004. The Parsons Graduate interned with Marc Jacobs and worked at J Crew before officially launching his own line at New York Fashion Week in 2007.”

The main reasons for my blog being so much into fashion and design are:

1) I’m a big fan of fashion, and 2) I’m a big fan of aesthetics.

It seems to me that the fashion industry is the forerunner as it comes to designing beautiful sites and services.

A good example of this is NET-A-PORTER.COM, a fashion webstore that offers all the latest high-end brands. It’s good entertainment and a perfect place for daydreaming – if you’re into fashion, that is. It is a simple site with very simple features, but it has a very clear concept. You’re able to start browsing/shopping by “What’s new” or “By Designer” or “By Boutique” (consisting of themes such as loungewear, essentials, wedding, work wear or vacation) or just choosing the product categories (clothing, lingerie, bags, shoes or accessories).

One of the nicest new features is the “My Account” section where you can create your own wishlist – it’s simple but works well, and creates something concrete out of the daydreaming… It also includes a “My Closet” section, where all the products you have ever shopped from NET-A-PORTER.COM can be seen. You are also able to personalize your newsletters by selecting your favorite designers. It’s a very much appreciated feature, but still surprisingly rare.

The magazine section is one huge style book with an “Outlook Reminder” feature, which allows you to pick a certain style or outfit and automatically add it as a reminder to your calendar. The video section is basically about designer runway clips and interviews.

Last but not least, they do have Sales also – highly recommended.

There’s always the official face of the company. Built based on brand guidelines, checked and commented by god knows how many people. I think the most interesting part of the Chanel brand is Fashion news and trends by Chanel. It gives you the idea what they really do in real life. Fashion news and trends seems spontaneous and not too official – never mind the truth. Not too many brands communicate like this – or even consider it marketing or advertising… I really enjoy the way they open up different aspects of the brand.

I found out that Karl Lagerfeld has dressed and photographed Barbie and Ken. I found out that Chanel has just provided gorgeous décor out of plain white paper for Cambon-Capucines pavilion: 7000 handmade paper flowers. I got to know Lily Allen performed in their Spring/Summer 2010 show (there’s a video in the blog). And they provide an Iphone application. Nice.

Too bad that such a basic thing as browsing this simple blog is really tricky. The content just “slips” from your fingers way too fast or way too slow. Another issue is that the page takes ages to load. Please fix these, merci beaucoup.

Sanna Annukka probably is one of the shiniest stars of Finnish design at the moment. This despite the fact that she’s living in the UK and is “only” half a Finn. Her somehow familiar but still modern style has raised quite a lot of attention.

Her website www.sanna-annukka.com gives a good, compact idea of what she’s all about. My favorites of her work are the designs for Zune Originals and the Soulbirds. Check out this one, recommended.

Anthropologie’s website not only looks pretty, it works like you would wish every webstore to work. After visiting their stores in NYC several times, I know they’ve managed to present the spirit of the brand really well online.

Anthropologie has been expanding it’s operations: they have over hundred stores in ca. 30 states in the US and presence in Canada also. The online store has been available for Europeans couple of years. The first European Anthropologie store opened in UK London in October 2009.

They provide a comprehensive catalog for inspiration at the physical stores on monthly basis, a catalog so nice that I would call it a coffee table book. It’s not something you throw away, as it’s way too well made. First of all, it doesn’t feel like a product catalog: printed on a quality paper, high quality images, beautifully designed, every detail in place. Simply speaking, it’s not catalog-ish. From the online version of the catalog, you can directly select items and add them to your shopping bag, and you can directly post every item to Facebook or Twitter. Nice and easy. And this is just a bonus.

The actual webstore is divided into four sections: clothes, shoes & bags, jewelry & accessories and at home.

For example, when choosing “clothes”, “50′s inspired dresses”, “circle” and “Around The World Dress”; you end up into a view with impressive selection of functionalities to choose from. First of all; you’re able to zoom the dress right away when mouseovering. Nice, easy and fast. Of course basic stuff like “open larger image” appears also, but you’re also offered to be able to download the dress image.

After checking out the basic info on the “Details” layer (material, size, availability, colour, prize, add to shopping bag, send to friend, share at Facebook/Twitter), you can move on to “Reviews” page. On that particular page, you’re able to read reviews and check out ratings for the dress. Cool! And this info is also made easy to share on Facebook, Digg, del.icio.us and MySpace.

To make sure to be totally up-to-date all the time, order the newsletter and download the Anthropologie widget (available also directly from the product page). What more can you ask for? Thicker wallet probably. 

 

Paul Smith sent an email, offering me exclusively a book about Russian Criminal Tattoos. Encyclopaedia Volume III. There was 15 signed copies available. I got the email on 23rd October 2008 and saved it because I thought it was cool.

At the time, I had just watched the movie Eastern Promises. Fashion is kind of an interest (obsession I guess) for me, now also the russian criminal tattoos were – as kinky as it sounds. Tattoos have a significant role in the movie. If you haven’t seen Eastern Promises, watch it. It’s a violent, sad and totally miserable movie. But it’s a good one.

By using this particular book in marketing, Paul Smith added so much attitude into its brand that I can’t think of a better way to do it. With or without the movie. When searching “paul smith russian criminal tattoos” from Google, there’s loads of results.

The product range and the overall service of www.paulsmith.com is quite exceptional, for a global fashion brand. Paul Smith himself started the company and still works there as a designer and a chairman.

First of all it isn’t just clothing. Online it’s also a bookstore, a hilarious giftstore eg. Gorilla Eraser, Lladro Sky Blue Cactus, Skis for Edelwiser, art store with Tara Darby prints, and last but not least even Paul Smith fine china. The only thing not up to date is the the Music co-op that has ended ca. 1 year ago in January 2008.