Burberry's designer Christopher Bailey described the live-streaming of his latest runway show as democratising fashion.
"It won't be the end of runways as we know it. What the streaming does is share the atmosphere of the runway with all different parts of the world. And I think that's exciting," he said. Democratisation then? "Exactly."
The atmosphere is certainly one worth sharing; The Sartorialist stalks for a hot shot, Twiggy has her British Bulldog with her, Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld share the front row with Mia "Alice in Wonderland" Wasikowska. An impressive projection on the internal walls mimicked the rain outside. All seats were filled and tickets were coveted.
Burberry is one of the few fashion houses that don't just get that online matters, they are making it work for them. Keen customers can even buy directly from the range which showed at London Fashion Week for autumn/winter 2010/11. Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein also get it, and have just live-streamed from New York Fashion Week.
Cynthia Rowley has taken digital twitpics of her actual designs and printed them onto jersey dresses. These are all methods that help the designers catch up with the ever-increasing speed of bloggers and tweeters.
Emerging designers don't have to miss out on the technological step change that's happening in fashion because they can't afford fancy 3D cameras. Streaming or publishing your new collection directly online then taking orders straight from your own site may be the ideal way to give your customers exactly what they want and save you money and time sucked up by unnecessary middlemen.