Belatedly, Luxury Opens Up on Web 姍姍來遲 精品業走進網路時代

By Cathy Horyn Fashion houses, despite their creative clout on the runway, have been surprisingly slow to bring the same level of authority and artistic vision to their Web sites. Selling luxury goods online isn’t the problem. Rather, it is that designers and fashion chiefs, the very people who are supposed to predict the future and tell the rest of us what we need, can’t seem to grasp the most obvious aspect of the present: the Web. 時尚公司雖然在伸展台上發揮創意影響力，但在把同樣程度的權威和藝術視野帶到自家網站這一點上，動作卻慢得出奇。在網路上銷售奢侈品並非問題所在。問題出在設計師和時尚公司總監，也就是理應預測未來時尚趨勢並且告訴我們需要何在的那批人，似乎無法掌握當今之世最顯著的一個面向：網路。 Go to the sites of the most innovative labels – Prada and Balenciaga, to name two – and you find almost no appreciation for the potential of digital technology. No special films that might illuminate the creative process, no animation, no design gestures that are consistent with the contemporary spirit of these brands. Instead, what you chiefly get is a video of the last collection, some still images from an advertising campaign and, in Prada’s case, an update about its art-world projects. 進入最具創新精神的品牌的網站，且以普拉達和巴黎世家二者為例，你會發現他們對數位科技的潛力幾乎渾然不覺。沒有說明創造過程的特製影片、沒有動畫、沒有符合這些品牌當代精神的設計表現。相反地，你多半會看到一支有關上一季服裝的影片，一些取自該公司某一檔廣告的靜態畫面。此外，以普拉達為例，還有關於該品牌藝術世界計畫的更新版。 Meanwhile, pesky bloggers – to whom fashion houses threw open theirs doors in the unexamined belief that their presence was good for marketing – are downloading every scrap of information as fast as they can.  在此同時，討厭的部落客卻搶在第一時間下載這些資訊，鉅細靡遺，時尚公司對部落客敞開大門，未經查證地相信部落客的存在對行銷有利。 As more and more fashion events and opinion unfold in real time, top houses are in danger of appearing to lag further behind. Lately, though, there have been signs of forward movement. Many houses now use social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and a number of designers, including Alexander McQueen, tweet themselves or contribute to blogs. Burberry, which has 720,000 fans on Facebook, has installed blogging stations at shows, and Christopher Bailey, the brand’s creative director, follows online comments. The company has broadly embraced digital – doing fittings via Skype, creating digital look books for the news media – for significant savings of time and money. 隨著愈來愈多時尚活動和意見在網路上即時發表，頂尖時尚公司很可能顯得更為落後。不過最近這些公司有向前邁進的跡象。許多時尚公司現在利用推特和臉書等社交網站，包括亞歷山大．麥昆在內的一些設計師本身也寫推特或部落格。在臉書上有72萬粉絲的Burberry已在時裝秀場安裝部落站，該品牌的創意總監克里斯多夫．貝雷會密切注意網路上的評論。這家公司為了大幅節省時間和金錢，已廣泛擁抱數位科技，透過Skype試穿，並為新聞媒體製作數位型錄。 “Our thinking has changed completely,” said Sarah Manley, senior vice president for marketing and communications at Burberry, adding that digital media now represents 40 percent of Burberry’s total marketing budget.  Burberry負責行銷及公關的資深副總裁莎拉．曼雷說：「我們的想法徹底改變了。」她接著說，現在Burberry的行銷總預算，四成花在數位媒體上。 Some efforts by luxury houses to engage fans through social media feel awkward, though. 不過精品公司透過社交網站與粉絲交流的部分做法，令人感覺有些笨拙。 “Twitter is fine, but who’s tweeting?” said Nicholas Mir Chaikin, a former writing teacher in the New York City public schools who founded Spill, a digital design and planning agency in Paris in 1995. (Among Spill’s clients is the innovative store Colette.) “You want to have a good writer doing your tweets.”  曾在紐約市公立學校當寫作老師，並於1995年在巴黎創立Spill數位設計和企畫代理公司的尼可拉斯．米爾．蔡金說：「推特的構想不錯，但要看是什麼人在寫推特。你要有好的寫手幫你寫推特。」（時尚創意名店Colette就是Spill的客戶。） One potential medium for designers to exploit on the Web is fashion film. “I don’t see a wave of new fashion photography coming along, but when you look at fashion film, you’re looking at a whole new visual proposal,” said Nick Knight, the photographer behind the influential SHOWstudio, which provides one of the best windows into the design process. 時尚影片是網路上可供設計師利用的一種潛力雄厚的媒介。創設極具影響力的時尚網站SHOWstudio的攝影師尼克．奈特說：「我沒有看到時尚攝影的新潮流出現，但當你轉向時尚影片時，你看到全新的視覺企畫。」SHOWstudio提供一窺設計過程的最佳窗口之一。 In October, Mr. Knight helped produce Mr. McQueen’s groundbreaking runway show, a live Web stream that with its robotic cameras and video-screen backdrop seemed to take the notion of seeing fashion through a camera to a new level. Millions have seen the show on sites like YouTube. 去年10月，奈特協助製作麥昆突破傳統的時裝秀，以機器人攝影機和視頻幕背景達成的線上串流直播，彷佛把透過攝影鏡頭看時裝秀的觀念帶到新的層次。全球透過YouTube等網站觀賞這場秀的觀眾，數以百萬計。 Live broadcasts are likely to become standard. And some designers are experimenting with virtual fashion shows that have interactive components, like allowing the audience to pick the runway lineup and then order outfits they want. Ralph Lauren recently created such a site for its Rugby label.  現場直播很可能變成標準模式。一些設計師正在實驗具有互動元素的視覺時裝秀，像是可以讓觀眾選擇伸展台上的模特兒陣容，並接著訂購他們想要的時裝。Ralph Lauren最近為旗下Rugby品牌創設了這樣的網站。 Many houses are used to operating with “a fortress mentality,” said Lucian James, founder of Agenda Inc., a Paris-based brand consulting firm, and don’t know how to deal with audience participation. As for notions like blogs, or thinking of a site as a community, or as a publishing vehicle, these seem to elude luxury brands. Sometime next year, LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton plans to recast its e-commerce site, eluxury, into nowness.com, a Web magazine. 巴黎的品牌顧問公司Agenda創辦人露西亞．詹姆斯說，許多時尚公司習慣以「堡壘心態」經營，不知道如何處理觀眾的參與。至於像善用部落格，把網站設想成社群或當作發表工具這樣的觀念，似乎令精品品牌難以理解。酩悅軒尼詩路易威登集團（LVMH）計畫在明年把它的電子商務網站eluxury改造成網路雜誌nowness.com。 “Obviously things are moving,” said Pierre-Yves Roussel, president of the fashion division at LVMH, where his main focus is on brands like Céline and Givenchy. “Are we lagging? I don’t know. Luxury groups want to control their image, and I think they have the sense that something gets out of control” on the Web.  皮耶─伊夫．羅素是LVHM集團時尚部門的總裁，Celine和紀梵希等品牌是他主管業務的重點，他說：「顯然大勢在朝這個方向前進，我們落後了嗎？我不知道，精品集團要掌控他們的形象，我想他們覺得有些東西在網路上會失控。」 But, he added, “When the big guys really start, the whole thing will accelerate.”  不過他接著說，「一旦大咖真正啟動，就會全面加速。」 原文請點： http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/fashion/31NOTEBOOK.html  2010-01-19/聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 田思怡 原文請見1月19日紐時周報七版左