In memory of our friend and long-time collaborator Lee Alexander McQueen CBE, we present the highlights from over 13 years of creative projects that he worked on with Dazed & Confused. Taking on the roles of art director, guest editor, interviewer and interviewee, he left us with a collection of astoundingly innovative stories – and two striking covers – that span fashion, art and politics, and remain as thought-provoking today as they were when they were first published.

Issue 26, November 1996

British Designer of the Year

ALEXANDER McQUEEN

in conversation with

DAVID BOWIE.

David Bowie: "This conversation took place on the phone, as is always the case with my conversations with Alex. We have worked together for over a year on various projects and never once met. It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon and he is in the verdant green hills of Gloucestershire visiting at the house of his friend, Isabella Blow. Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring."

David Bowie: Are you gay and do you take drugs? (laughter)

Alexander McQueen: Yes, to both of them. (more laughter)

DB: So what are your drugs of choice?

AM: A man called Charlie!

DB: Do you find that it affects the way you approach your designing?

AM: Yeah, it makes it more erratic. That's why you get my head blow up shot. (In reference to a Nick Knight photograph at the Florence Biennale.)

DB: Well I once asked you to make me a specific jacket in a certain colour and you sent me something entirely different in a tapestry fabric, quite beautiful I might add, but how would you cope in the more corporate world?

AM: I wouldn't be in a corporate world.

DB: Even if you're going to be working for a rather large fashion house like Givenchy?

AM: Yeah.

DB: So how are you going to work in these circumstances? Do you feel as though you're going to have rules and parameters placed on you, or what?

AM: Well, yeah, but you know I can only do it the way I do it. That's why they chose me and if they can't accept that, they'll have to get someone else. They're going to have no choice at the end of the day because I work to my own laws and requirements, not anyone's else's. I sound a bit like yourself!

DB: Unlike most designers, your sense of wear seems to derive from forms other than fashion history. You take or steal quite arbitrarily from, say the neo Catholic macabre photographs of Joel Peter Witkin, to rave culture. Do you think fashion is art?

AM: No I don't. But, I like to break down barriers. It's not a specific way of thinking, it's just what's in my mind at the time. It could be anything - it could be a man walking down the street or a nuclear bomb going off - it could be anything that triggers some sort of emotion in my mind. I mean, I see everything in a world of art in one way or another. How people do things. The way people kiss.

DB: Who or what are your present influences?

AM: Let me think. I don't know. I think that's a really hard question because in one way, one side of me is kind of really sombre and the other side of my brain is very erratic and it's always this fight against the other and I chose so many different things. This is why my shows always throw people completely: one minute I see a lovely chiffon dress and the next minute I see a girl in this cage that makes her walk like a puppet and, you know, they can't understand where it's coming from because there are so many sides of me in conflict. But influences are really from my own imagination and not many come from direct sources. They usually come from a lone force of say, the way I want to perform sex or the way I want people to perform sex or the way I want to see people act, or what would happen if a person was like that. You know what I mean? It's not from direct sources. It's just sort of from a big subconscious or the perverse. I don't think like the average person on the street. I think quite perversely sometimes in my own mind.

DB: Yeah, I would say, from just looking at the way you work, that sexuality plays a very important part in the way that you design.

AM: Well, because I think it's the worst mental attitude. Sexuality in a person confines you to such a small space and, anyway, it's such a scary process trying to define one's sexuality. Finding which way you sway or what shocks you in other people and who accepts you at the end of the day when you're looking for love. You have to go through these corridors and it can be kind of mind-blowing sometimes.

DB: There's something a lot more pagan about your work compared, say, to Gaultier. Your things work at a more organic level.

AM: Possibly. I gather some influence from the Marquis de Sade because I actually think of him as a great philosopher and a man of his time, where people found him just a pervert. (laughs) I find him sort of influential in the way he provokes people's thoughts. It kind of scares me. That's the way I think but, at the end of the day, that's the way my entity has grown and, all in all, in my life, it's the way I am.

DB: Do you think of clothes themselves as being a way of torturing society?

AM: I don't put such an importance on clothes, anyway. I mean at the end of the day they are, after all, just clothes and I can't cure the world of illness with clothes. I just try to make the person that's wearing them feel more confident in themselves because I am so unconfident. I'm really insecure in a lot of ways and I suppose my confidence comes out in the clothes I design anyway. I'm very insecure as a person.

DB: Aren't we all? Could you design a car? AM: Could I? It would be as flat as an envelope if I designed a car.

DB: Could you design a house?

AM: Yes, very easily, very easily.

DB: Do you paint or sculpt? AM: No. I buy sculptures. I don't do it, I buy it. I buy lots of sculptures.

DB: Do you ever work in the visual arts?

AM: No, but I just did a show the other day. I don't know if you heard, but we did this show, it was on water and we did this kind of cocoon for this girl made of steel rods and it was in the form of a three dimensional star and it was covered in this glass fabric so you could see through it and this girl was inside it, but we had all these butterflies flying around her inside it. So she was picking them out of the air and they were landing on her hand. It was just about the girl's own environment. So I was thinking about the new millennium in the future thinking you would carry around with you your home like a snail would. She was walking along in the water with a massive star covered in glass and the butterflies and death-faced moths were flying around her and landing on her hand and she was looking at them. It was really beautiful. It threw a lot of people completely sideways.

DB: It's interesting how what you're talking about, is somewhere between theatre and installation.

AM: Well, I hate the theatre, I hate it. I used to work in the theatre. I used to make costumes for them and films, and it's one thing I've always detested - the theatre. I hate going to the theatre, it bores me shitless.

DB: Well, I'm not talking about a play.

AM: I know, but I just wanted to tell you that anyway! (laughs)

DB: All right, change the word to ritual.

AM: Yeah, that's better. I like ritual... (laughs)

DB: Armani says, 'Fashion is dead'.

AM: Oh, so is he... I mean, God...

DB: Now you sound like Versace...

AM: He's close to dead. I mean, no one wants to wear a floppy suit in a nice wool - the man was a bloody window dresser. What does he know?

DB: Do you think that what he's really saying is that maybe...

AM: He's lost it...

DB: He might still be making an observation in as much as the boundaries are coming down...

AM: Yeah.

DB: The way fashion is presented these days is a quantum leap from how it was presented say, five years to ten years ago. It's become almost a new form, hasn't it?

AM: Yeah, but you know you can't depend on fashion designers to predict the future of society, you know, at the end of the day they're only clothes and that never strays from my mind for one minute.

DB: Is the British renaissance a reality or a hype do you think? The world is being told that it's so. Through all strata of British life and from fashion to visual arts, music, obviously, architecture, I mean there's not one aspect of culture where Brits haven't got some pretty fair leaders, English designers in French houses, you know what I mean? It's like were pervading the whole zeitgeist at the moment.

AM: Being British yourself, I think you understand that Britain always led the way in every field possible in the world from art to pop music. Even from the days of Henry VIII. It's a nation where people come and gloat at what we have as a valuable heritage, be it some good, some bad, but there's no place like it on earth.

DB: But why is it we can't follow through once we've initially created something? We're far better innovators than we are manufacturers.

AM: Yeah, exactly. But I think that's a good thing. I don't think that's a bad thing. It makes you holy, it makes you quite respectable about what you do and the actual moneymaking part of it is for the greedy.

DB: So you're not greedy, Alex?

AM: I'm afraid I'm not. Money's never been a big object. Well, I mean I like to live comfortably, but I've been asked by this French fashion house how would I put on a show and I said, well, the sort of money these people buy these clothes for in this day and age, you don't want to flaunt your wealth in front of the average Joe Public because it's bad taste and with all the troubles in the world today, it's not a good thing to do anyway. I'm sure these people that have this sort of money don't feel like showing their face on camera, so I said it would be more of a personal show and people with this sort of money who do appreciate good art and good quality clothes and have these one-off pieces made just respect the ideal, not the actual chucking money around. They can do that anywhere.

DB: So when you are affluent, which I'm afraid is probably on the cards for you, how are you going to deal with that?

AM: I'd like to buy Le Corbusier's house in France... (sniggers)

DB: Here's a nice thing. What was the first thing you designed ever? Like when you were little or a kid or something?

AM: Oh. I can't think that far back, but for my own professional career, it was the bumsters. The ones that Gail, your bass player, wears.

DB: Was there a point when you were sort of playing around with stuff, and when you used to dress up and go to clubs when you were a kid, and all that, where you would do original things?

AM: Actually, yeah. I would wear my sister's clothes and people wouldn't recognise it because I'd wear them in a male way. I did go round my street once in my sister's bra when I was about 12 years old and the neighbours thought I was a freaky kid, got dirty looks and all that... and you're talking about Stepney here.

DB: My father used to work in Stepney.

AM: Yeah?

DB: What age were you when you left home?

AM: 19.

DB: Did it give you an incredible feeling of freedom? Or did you suddenly feel even more vulnerable?

AM: I felt really vulnerable actually. Because I was the youngest and I was always mollycoddled by my mother, so that's why I turned out to be a fag probably. (laughter)

DB: (laughing) Was it a clear choice?

AM: I fancied boys when I went to Pontins at three years old!

DB: Did you ever go on holiday to Butlins or Bognor Regis or Great Yarmouth?

AM: No, I went to Pontins in Cambersands.

DB: Cambersands?!! I used to go there too!

AM: Oh my God!

DB: They had a trailer park with caravans...

AM: Exactly.

DB: ...and next door to us we had a, at the time, very well known comedian, Arthur Haynes, who was sort of like a bit of a wide boy; that was his bit on stage, you know, and I used to go over and try and get his autograph. I went three mornings running and he told me to fuck off every day. (laughing) That was my first time I met a celebrity and I was so let down. I felt if that's what it's all about... they're just real people.

AM: Two memories on Pontins - one, was coming round the corner and seeing my two sisters getting off with two men. (laughter) I thought they were getting raped and I went screaming back to my Mum and I wound up getting beat up by my two sisters! The other one was turning up in Pontins when we first got there and looking out the cab window 'cos my family was, like, full of cabbies; it was like a gypsy caravan-load to go to these places, and I looked out the window when I got there and there were these two men with these scary masked faces on and I shit myself there and then in the cab! I literally just shit my pants! (laughter)

DB: Which comes to... who is the shittiest designer?

AM: Oh my God...

DB: Who is the worst designer?

AM: In my eyes?

DB: Yeah, in your eyes.

AM: Oh God, I'm open for libel here now, David...

DB: Do you think there's more than one?

AM: I think you've got to blame the public that buy the clothes of these people, not the designers themselves because it turns out they haven't got much idea about, you know, design itself. It's the people that buy the stuff. My favourite designer, though, is Rei Kawakubo. She's the only one I buy, the only clothes I buy ever for myself as a designer are Comme des Garçons. I spent about a thousand pounds last year (I shouldn't say that) on Comme des Garçons menswear...

DB: I've never paid, Alex! (laughs) Until...

AM: Until you met me! (more laughter)

DB: Until I met you! Yes, but I knew that you needed it!

AM: I did at the time! But I tell you what I did do when you paid me, I paid the people that actually made the coat!

DB: No, listen, you were so kind about the couple of things that I didn't need that you actually gave me. I thought that was very sweet of you. You work very well in a collaborative way as well. I thought the stuff...

AM: I still haven't bloody met you yet! (laughs)

DB: I know, I think it's quite extraordinary that we've done so well with the stage things that we put together. Do you enjoy collaboration?

AM: I do, but the one thing you have to do when you collaborate is actually respect the people that you work with: and people have phoned me up and asked me to collaborate with them before and I've usually turned them down.

DB: Do your clients really know what they want and what is right for them, or do you usually have to dress them from the floor up?

AM: It can work either way and I don't resent either because, at the end of the day, I'm the clothes designer and they are the public. If you want a house built you're not expected to build it yourself.

DB: Here's a fan question. Who would you like to dress more than anyone else in the world and why?

AM: There's no-one I'd like to dress more than anyone else in the world, I'm afraid. I can't think of anyone who deserves such a privilege! (laughs)

DB: The sub-headline there! (laughs)

AM: Oh my God no, 'cos I'm an atheist and an anti-royalist, so why would I put anyone on a pedestal?

DB: Well it does draw one's attention back to your clothes and what you do is actually more important than anything else.

AM: Well, I think it would limit your lifestyle somewhat if you said your music is just for that person down the road.

DB: You just sort of hope there's someone out there that might like what you do.

AM: And there's always someone, I mean the world is such a big place.

DB: Yeah. Prodigy or Oasis?

AM: Prodigy. I think they're brilliant.

DB: Well, you haven't answered this one. I have to drag you out on this one. Armani or Versace? (laughs)

AM: Marks and Spencer. I'm sorry. I don't see the relevance of the two of them put together. Actually, they should have amalgamated and sort of formed one company out of both. If you can imagine the rhinestones on one of them deconstructed suits...

DB: What do you eat?

AM: What do I eat?

DB: Yeah.

AM: Well, I've just had a guinea fowl today... it was quite an occasion to come here... It's such a lovely place and I love to come here. Bryan Ferry comes here a lot. It's an amazing place and it was built in the Arts and Crafts Movement by Isabella's husband's grandfather. It's on a hill in Gloucestershire and it overlooks Wales and everything. And my bedroom is decorated with Burne-Jones' Primavera tapestry - I always come here to get away.

DB: So this is your sanctuary is it?

AM: Yes, it is. Very much so.

DB: Did you ever have an affair with anyone famous?

AM: Not famous, but from a very rich family. Very rich Parisian family.

DB: Did you find it an easy relationship, or was it filled with conflicts?

AM: No, it: he was the most wonderful person I have ever met and I was completely honest with him. Never hushed my background or where I came from, and this was when I was only 19 or 20, I went out with him and I said to him whatever we do, we do it Dutch and he didn't understand what I said. He thought it was a form of sexual technique! Going Dutch!! (laughs) I said it means paying for each of us separately. He thought it that was great, but he gave the best blow job ever! (laughter)

DB: How royal! Was it old money or was it industrial wealth?

AM: Long time industrial aristocractic wealth.

DB: Do you go abroad very much? I mean just for yourself, not for work?

AM: No, not really.

DB: So you really are happy in your home grown environment?

AM: I like London, but I love Scotland! I'd never been to Aberdeen before and I went to see Murray's friends in Aberdeen for the first time and it was unreal because I stepped off the plane and I just felt like I belonged there. It's very rare that I do that because I have been to most places in the world, like most capital cities in Japan and America, and you feel very hostile when you step off the plane in these places. I stepped off the plane in Aberdeen and I felt like I've lived there all my life. And it's a really weird sensation. I like more of the Highlands. My family originated from Skye.

DB: Are you a good friend, a stand up guy, or a flake?

AM: I'm afraid I have very few friends and I think that all of the friends I have, I can depend on and they can depend on me. I don't have hangers-on, and I'm very aggressive to people that if I read through 'em in a second, they've usually found the wrong person to deal with. So if you have got me as a friend, you've got me for life. And I'd do anything for them, but I don't really have associates that use me or abuse me, unless I ask them to! (laughs)

DB: Are you excited about taking over at Givenchy?

AM: I am and I'm not. To me, I'm sort of saving a sinking ship and not because of John Galliano, but because of the house. It doesn't really seem to know where it's going at the moment and, at the end of the day, they've got to depend on great clothes, not the great name.

DB: Have you already formulated a kind of direction you want to take them?

AM: Yeah, I have.

DB: Is it exciting?

AM: Yeah, it is, because the philosophy is mainly based on someone I really respected in fashion. There's a certain way fashion should go for a house of that stature, not McQueen bumsters, I'm afraid.

DB: My last question. Will you have time to be making my clothes for next year's tour? (laughs)

AM: Yeah, I will. We should get together. I mean, I want to see you this time. (laughs)

DB: We could put this on the record right now... are you going to make it over here for the VH-1 Fashion Awards? I can't remember.

AM: When it is?

DB: October 24th or something...

AM: My fashion show is on the 22nd.

DB: So you're probably not going to make it. 'Cos you know I am wearing the Union jacket on that. Because millions of people deserve to see it.

AM: You've got to say, 'This is by McQueen'! (laughs)

DB: Gail will be wearing all her clobber as well.

AM: Oh, she's fab!

DB: Oh, she wears it so well.

AM: I'd love to do your tour clothes for you again.

DB: Oh, well that's great. I can't wait to be properly fitted up this time!

AM: Yeah, definitely. But I've got to see you. I don't want wrist measurements over the phone, 'cos I'm sure you lie about your waist measurements as well! (laughs)

DB: No, not at all...

AM: 'cos you know some people lie about their length! (laughs)

DB: I just said I'd never lie about the inside leg measurement.

AM: What side do you dress David, left or right? (laughs)

DB: Both!

AM: Yeah, right.

DB: No. Yes. Well, maybe.

London Fashion Week | Digital Fashion Capital

LONDON, United Kingdom — As the fashion industry continues its march into the digital age, London — always known for its raw creativity and emerging talent — can now add digital innovation to that list.

This is no overnight story. To the contrary, it’s taken ten years for fashion players here to plant seeds which are only beginning to bear fruit now, as fashion’s digital tsunami really begins to take hold.

The British capital, after all, is home to revolutionary fashion website SHOWStudio, e-commerce pioneer Net-a-Porter, and online hub of youth culture Dazed Digital — all of which were founded many years ago. These seminal businesses have created a foundational and fertile seedbed for other digital businesses and attracted and developed digital talent that has gone on to shape and inspire other online companies here including mywardrobe.com, Fashionair and farfetch.com. And, while American Vogue is in the midst of setting up its website now, British Vogue has had its own website for fifteen years.

London-based mega-brand Burberry, widely considered to be the most innovative fashion company in the digital space, was one of the first to stream its catwalk show live on the Internet last season. Having decided to show in London again this time around, Burberry is not content with resting on its digital laurels. A few weeks ago, the iconic British brand announced its plans to stream its show in 3D to a host of cities around the world, from Dubai and Tokyo to Paris and New York, creating the world’s first truly global fashion show.

But it’s not just big brands and websites that a digital capital make. The East End of London is a hotbed of fashion creativity and digital innovation. Emerging fashion creatives like Ruth Hogben, digital art directors like Jaime Perlman, and independent film production studios like Pundersons Gardens, have been working with independent designers like Gareth Pugh and Richard Nicoll to show the fashion world what is possible when creativity meets digital technology.

And, the British Fashion Council is the first of the major organising bodies in fashion to fully embrace digital technology, having set up its own digital schedule for fashion films and live-streams of selected on-schedule shows, accompanied by live commentary using curated tweets from fashion insiders and fans alike via Starworks Conversations.

As for the designers themselves, they are going digital too. Following in the footsteps of that giant of fashion whose shadow is looming over this London fashion week, designers like Mary Katrantzou and Erdem Moralioglu are using digital techniques to create out-of-this world prints, which have become defining, technology-based signatures of their work.

As Naomi Attwoods said in her review of Katrantzou’s A/W 2010 collection shown on Saturday, “Katrantzou’s strength is her eye for a print. The digital technology that has revolutionised and regenerated the trend for colourful, printed clothes gives designers so many possibilities but with Miss Katrantzou’s pieces, the source material is clearly visible and this sets her apart.”

And so, as London Fashion Week hits full tilt on Monday and Tuesday, the city seems poised to leapfrog Milan, Paris and New York as the definitive digital fashion capital, furthering the nascent comeback of London Fashion Week after years of struggling in the shadow of its fashion capital brethren.

Imran Amed is Founder and Editor of The Business of Fashion

Alexander McQueen Has Committed Suicide

Alexander McQueen, one of fashion's consummate inconoclasts and showmen, has committed suicide at age 40, a spokeswoman confirmed.

"Mr. McQueen has been found dead at his house this morning," she said, declining further comment.

A statement from PPR, parent of Gucci Group and the McQueen company, is expected shortly. Circumstances of his death were not

revealed and a spokesman declined comment.

McQueen's mother recently died and the designer was known to be extremely close to her, although it could not be learned whether

this contributed to his death.

McQueen burst onto the London fashion scene with a mix of aggression, energy and creativity that reinvigorated the city's reputation

and made his shows the hottest ticket in town.

Fashion designer Alexander McQueen killed himself yesterday, devastated by the death of his beloved mother.

The fashion industry weighs in on the loss of McQueen

KATIE GRAND
"I remember going to Lee's first show at the Bluebird Garage; It was one of those 90s happenings where no one quite knew what we were going to see, but there was a huge amount of curiosity about it. There was no seating, and it was all incredibly cool. The girls came out covered in terracotta make up and that weird proportion with the bumster, which is now so famous. There were so many beautiful things in that show - it was just relentless.
"I met him afterwards with Issy Blow, and shot him for a very early issue of Dazed & Confused together with new, happening designers. Some of my favorite shows ever have been by Lee, and early on it was always such a bloody drama getting in - that was half of the fun. The one in the church on Shoreditch High Street which was lit by candles, the water one at the Royal Horticultural Halls, the only New York show at the end of a pier during massive floods and thunderstorms. The last time I saw him was at the end of his men's wear shows a couple of weeks ago, I ran backstage to congratulate him but he had already left the building to go skiing, what a shame I'll never see him again."

DAPHNE GUINNESS
"He was an aristocrat in the true sense of the word. He had a natural grace, natural patrician instincts. And he had so much compassion and a big heart ­ he was such a friend. We would go to his studio and do simple things ­ sit and have a cup of tea ­ and just have fun. We'd play around like kids and imagine that we were in a world that wasn't so cynical and money-driven." Guinness said she first met him years ago: "He spotted me across Leicester Square. I was wearing his Givenchy kimono with the dragon on the back. We became good friends. He was the kindest, shyest, funniest person. And when the chips were down he was there. He wasn't a flake. You could count on him. I will miss him."

DOMENICO DE SOLE
"I loved him. He used to come to the house for dinner ­ he knew Eleanor and my girls well. At the last McQueen show I went to, the fall 2004 collection, he came up to me and hugged me, and he was crying. He was very upset that I was leaving. He was shy, but once you got to know him he was very open and he had a great sense of humor ­ he used to make fun of people. He was also a very decent man: He was unbelievably nice to all of the seamstresses in the factory in Novara (Italy) who made his collection. He treated them well and they loved him. He was just a fabulous person."

STELLA MCCARTNEY
"Lee was a fashion genius. I don't say that lightly, and it is a total shock that I am referring to him in the past tense. He was a real friend. I will miss him as a mate, a peer, and as a true British talent, full of life and energy in everything he ever did. He was one of our best designers, and this is a huge loss for the world of fashion. What a man! Such sad, sad news. The world has lost a star. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family, his many friends and all those who worked with him."

SIMON DOONAN, BARNEYS NEW YORK
"He is a uniquely British kind of phenomenon, a working class lad who bootstrapped it. He had enormous innate creative passion that ultimately gave him an incredibly broad frame of reference, from art to obscure movies to history, this spongelike passion and amazing imagination that in the end informed his design. He became within a very short period of time a very cultivated person that's sort of a function of the English class system, which makes people so tenacious and aggressively curious." Comparing him to John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood, Doonan characterized McQueen as "a provocateur, almost like a highwire act, an exercise in daring creativity. He raised the bar so high on what was even possible with clothing."

CHANTAL ROOS
"Like all artists ­ and he really was an artist ­ he needed love, and I loved him deeply. He [had a very strong idea of] what he wanted and especially what he didn't like. He was always easy to work with," said Chantal Roos, who developed fragrances with McQueen when she headed YSL Beauté.

JOAN BURSTEIN, OWNER OF BROWNS IN LONDON
"It is a great loss," said Joan Burstein, founder of London's Browns. "Having been with us from the beginning, I am extremely sad to hear this news. We will mourn the loss of him and his growing talent."

PHILIP TREACY
"In a world where every man and his dog is a designer, Alexander McQueen was the real deal. He was the greatest and most genuinely talented designer I have ever worked with. His talent was supersonic. As with true talent, it comes from nowhere and reaches everywhere. His originality and exceptional talent always impressed me. He was a very kind and loving friend to me."

Beauty Stripped Bare

LOVE magazine is gearing up to launch its third bi-annual edition - and this issue's cover is no less controversial than its predecessors.

LAUREN MILLIGAN

Fashion 2.0 | Chanel Learns to Think Like a Media Company

NEW YORK, United States — In recent seasons, while a deep economic downturn has threatened the long-term survival of many magazines, a number of major fashion brands have been creating their own editorial content, and perhaps no brand has done more of this than Chanel. Back in November, Olivier Zahm posted an image of several layouts from 31 Rue Cambon, announcing “the first Chanel magazine which I have art directed and designed for Karl Lagerfeld, to be distributed worldwide in all the Chanel stores.”

But whereas 31 rue Cambon will be a print publication, Chanel’s real content focus has been in the digital space, harnessing Karl Lagerfeld himself to create increasing volumes of original content for digital distribution, especially around the brand’s showcase “Métiers d’Art” collections, which underscore Chanel’s unique commitment to the traditional Parisian ateliers the firm acquired in 2002 — costume jewellers Desrues, embroiderers Lesage, milliners Michel, feather-makers Lemarié, cobblers Massaro, floral designers Guillet, and silversmiths Goosens — a strategic point of differentiation.

Having created runway videos, a silent film and short video teasers to accompany their Paris-Moscou Pre-Fall 2009 and Paris-Venice Resort 2009-2010 “Métiers d’Art” collections, Chanel recently launched a longer-format film and a full runway video for their Paris-Shanghai Pre-Fall 2010 collection. To accompany Paris-Shanghai, Mr. Lagerfeld has also been posting a series of behind the scenes video diaries documenting his design process, as well as fittings with models and the making of advertising campaigns, all released via YouTube and the Chanel News section of the brand’s website.

In fact, Chanel News looks a lot like a blog and publishes “exclusive online features” with enough originality, regularity and volume to qualify as an online magazine. As well as the videos for the “Metiers d’Art” collections, there are fittings with Lily Allen for Spring Summer 2010, a ballet filmed in the haute couture salon at 31 rue Cambon, images of Coco Chanel’s private apartments shot by Olivier Zahm, photos of Edita Vilkeviciute’s favourite places in Shanghai, drawings of the Paris-Moscou collection by Russian model Sasha Pivavorova, personal entries from “Karl’s Diary,” and short films such as “Fitting Room Follies” and “Vol de Jour” featuring Lara Stone. With new features added every few days, it’s a remarkable volume of material.

So why is Chanel investing in creating and publishing all this digital content? The answer is rooted in the changing nature of media, marketing and technology and underscores lessons that all major fashion brands would do well to observe.

In the past, marketing fashion collections mostly meant buying pages in magazines or space on strategically positioned billboards. In both cases, brands paid to interrupt consumers, repeating a visual theme or message in order to create recognition, desire and conversion. By exerting their influence as advertisers, brands also forced magazines to feature their products in their editorial. But today, affluent consumers are migrating online, where the balance of power is dramatically different.

It’s hard for consumers to avoid advertising when they’re flipping through a magazine or walking down the street. And it’s hard for publishers to ignore advertisers’ demands when the costs of printing and distribution are high. But on the web, where the tools of communication are largely free — it costs nothing to publish a blog, share on Facebook, or broadcast on Twitter — brands no longer have the leverage to monopolise media or pressure editors. In fact, the sheer volume of media and commentary generated by consumers themselves increasingly drowns out the monologue of traditional marketing.

These days, it’s not about being louder. It’s about being more interesting. To communicate effectively, brands must inspire and harness conversations amongst consumers by giving people something remarkable to talk about — something of value that they will actively seek out, amplify and share with others. In this new reality, forward-thinking fashion brands like Chanel are learning to think like media companies, creating and publishing original editorial content to earn attention and attract fans who will carry their message across the internet.

This approach makes particular sense for luxury fashion brands who are known for their creativity and ability to convey social status. That’s because, online, content is social currency: influencers increasingly earn friends and followers by circulating interesting digital content via their blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

For Chanel, there are signs that this is just the beginning of a broad strategy to give consumers a continuous stream of inspiring content to talk about and spread across the internet, driving recognition, desire and conversion. In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion, recently announced plans to relaunch the current Chanel News blog, this March, as a full blown destination, chanel-news.com.“The idea is to give all these social networks a location where they can have genuine information about Chanel,” Pavlovsky said.
Watch this space.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is Managing Editor of The Business of Fashion