In praise of retail’s robots
Fashion’s digital store detectives will only improve online shopping
Have you ever been to a fashion show? They’re quite boring. You sit around for ages waiting for it to start, a little bit squashed on the tiny benches (there’s more overweight fashion editors than you’d imagine), look around in awe at some of the uncomfortably contrived outfits the world’s tastemakers tend to parade around in (hot-pants seem very popular at the moment), and then watch, with your best “serious face” on show, as gangly, sleepy-looking teenage models walk, often very, very slowly, up and down the catwalk. Ten minutes later, the show’s over, the designer takes a bow as the audience claps, and there’s a bundle for the exit as everyone makes their way to the next one.
As tasks go, it’s not so bad. But it does all seem very outmoded: travelling from city to city to watch models you or your readers can’t relate to, wearing the clothes in a way in which you wouldn’t choose to wear them. This is why many designers are no longer opting to put on fashion shows and now do showroom appointments instead: here you can see the clothes up close, on rails or static models; touch and feel the fabrics, and then you often find everything makes so much more sense.
So why should you care about whether designers have fashion shows or not? Well, obviously you shouldn’t. But I’m telling you this because it illustrates once again that you, the consumer, have more pulling power than you think. Many of the designers have realised that you don’t care so much about their artistic vision for their collection, you care more about your artistic vision for yourself (ie, how it will look on you); they’ve also worked out you don’t want T-shirts in January or tweed coats in August, and, of course, even the most reticent of retailers has worked out that you don’t always want to traipse to the shops every time you need or desire something. Online shopping offers almost the digital equivalent of the showroom or store experience with its magnify imaging, multi-images, video views and virtual changing rooms.
And when we do venture into fashion boutiques, they now tend to offer us cappuccinos or martinis, or the chance to try something at home, too. It’s called “an experience” rather than a shop today and, when they get it right, it’s a very nice experience indeed.
Another innovation that makes life easier is that fashion houses and high
‘Every time we click “like”, someone takes notice’
street stores are now able to work out quite quickly what we like, what we don’t, and instead of arrogantly discarding that information, they kindly offer us more of what we liked next year too. When Alexander McQueen’s skull print T-shirts and scarves were all the rage, they continued to manufacture them season after season, the same with Givenchy’s rottweiler prints and studs; what changes on the catwalk each season doesn’t entirely represent what changes in stores any longer. If a fashion house knows you like something, the chances are you’ll probably be able to buy it again and again. It’s all so much easier.
We’re voting with our fingers and helping decide what’s on offer for us to wear rather than, as before, being dictated to by a stranger. The fastidious couturier in his ivory tower, as depicted so vividly by Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread (no, it’s not a Star Wars prequel), is long gone. Every time we hover over an image, dwell on a product, click “like”, add to a wishlist, or remove something from a rail, someone somewhere takes notice. Amazon is even working on technology that will eventually be able to quickly manufacture and deliver what you’re looking for if it doesn’t already exist.
It’s all quite Big Brother, I know… even if there are attempts to make it sound less clinical and intrusive by labelling something as alien as a data-holding text file, for example, with a cosy-wosy moniker like
“Cookie”. But unless you’re up to no good, does it matter too much if the web begins to get to know you quite well? As long as you treat Alexa (Amazon not Chung) with caution
— I wouldn’t have one in your bedroom — and switch off the microphoneenabling button on most of your apps (they don’t all need to ear-wig), you should be OK. You may have lost your right to privacy, but at least you’ll be able to find that scarf you wanted.