VOGUE ANNOUNCES 'VOGUE STYLIST', AN IPHONE APP FOR MOBILE SHOPPING

Vogue readers with iPhones are getting another toy to play with this month. The magazine is launching an application that looks like a fun shopping and styling tool but is actually a savvy way to connect the magazine and its advertisers directly with readers' wallets.

It's part of the all-out rush in the fashion industry to embrace technology—most notably with blogging and tweeting—and to make it possible to shop and gaze at fashion not only in stores and from home computers but also while commuting on trains and buses. Numerous designers are live-streaming their Fall 2010 runway shows this month from New York and Europe. Norma Kamali is allowing customers to shop and view her designs on iPhones and Blackberries (she even designs on her iPhone), and Dolce & Gabbana is making their shows in Milan this week available on iPhones.

Vogue's entry is called "Vogue Stylist"—and it marks yet another blow to Blackberry users. The application, available only on the iPhone for now, allows users to click on an electronic Vogue ad (or even use the smartphone's camera to snap a photo and then upload a print Vogue ad). The app brings users to a retail Web site, where they can buy all or some of the pieces in the look.

For Vogue devotees, this toy could get even more expensive than their smartphones. It's one thing to ogle fashions in ads, and another to be within a few clicks of buying entire ensembles in a moment of fashion passion.

The app can be used to upload items from one's own wardrobe and sort them by designer brand, color or trend, as identified in the current Vogue issue. Users can search trends and find suggestions–populated by computer algorithms–based on the clothes they own and the ones shown in that month's Vogue.

The uploading and categorizing might be time consuming, but it is the thing Vogue executives are most excited about. The function is intended to draw in younger readers, whom the magazine isn't necessarily reaching yet.

Young people use the Web to upload more than older adults do, Vogue says. "The younger generation that's coming up is all about putting things up," says Susan Plagemann, recently appointed publisher of Vogue. "Uploading is what they want to do, rather than just downloading."

There are goodies salted through the application—discounts, exclusive products—which can be "unlocked" by snapping a photo of an ad—just a little extra inducement to buy the magazine.

COMMENTARY:  Looks like high-fashion is going mobile to target today's upscale and fashion conscience consumers.  The Vogue Stylist mobile app just happens to coincide with a similar announcement by Dolce & Gabana's to stream http://xurl.at/u7  their London and Italian Fashion Week fashion shows.

Courtesy of an article dated February 25, 2010 appearing in The Wall Street Journal Business