Live virtual attendance and shopping at Asian fashion events

Major fashion shows have traditionally been the exclusive domain of fashion buyers, editors and personally invited guests, but FashForward.com aims to change all that. Simply by signing up, members of the Singapore-based site get virtual front-row seats at fashion events held locally and around Asia. The creative brainchild of EVVO Media Pte Ltd and STORM Creative Events Agency, FashForward.com seeks to bring fashion brands and designers within closer reach of the consumers who admire them. Toward that end, members can use the site’s live streaming service to watch exclusive fashion shows from the comfort of their own homes. Then, with e-commerce capabilities arriving later this year, they’ll even be able to select merchandise they like, buy it off the runway, pay for it and check out, all in real time. Pre and post-event coverage including behind-the-scenes footage, meanwhile, offers deeper insight and an insider’s view of what fashion shows are all about. Indeed, even the designer brands themselves — including Gucci and Burberry — are getting in on this “public access high-fashion” trend, as the New York Times calls it, with e-commerce capabilities increasingly a part of it. FashForward.com’s regional focus is a nice complement to such efforts; one to emulate in your part of the world? (Related: Clothes shopping for men, no store visits required — Click to buy: fashion blog is a street version of shopping mags.)