In a sponsorship deal that was to the manor born, Ralph Lauren announced its first ever TV sponsorship — with PBS for Masterpiece, the U.S. public member-supported TV brand's flagship drama series that has "won six Emmy awards for outstanding costumes" as the Hollywood Reporter notes.

In tandem to updating its Facebook cover photo with a tweedy image evoking the roaring twenties, above, the brand's FB page announced: "Ralph Lauren is proud to announce its national corporate sponsorship of MASTERPIECE | PBS (Masterpiece Theatre), the celebrated PBS drama series known for hit programs such as Downton Abbey and Sherlock."Continue reading...

Call it Projector Runway. Diane von Furstenberg made a splash with her collection that debuted Sunday during the New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2013 shows — and not just for her chic prints and flowing palazzo pants.

The New York-based designer also put Google Glass augmented reality glasses on the catwalk, with her models wearing the high-tech specs and capturing the action on the runway (more on that below).

Also wearing the web-enabled specs at the show: Google co-founder Sergey Brin and von Furstenberg (who addressed Googlers on her vision back in 2006) herself.Continue reading...

Why is Microsoft at New York Fashion Week? It's on a digital date with Bloomingdale's, which has been getting increasingly interactive with its window displays to not only promote brands such as BMW, but even allowing passersby to stop and "try on" sunglasses or customize Havaianas flip-flops.

The intersection of fashion, retail and digital technology was highlighted in a co-branded Fashion's Night Out event Thursday night, where Microsoft and Bloomies invited #FNO-savvy fashionistas on Twitter to tag #MSBloomingdales to see their tags show up on the "Printing Dress" — a wearable computing concept (at left) that replaces pleats with tweets.

It's described as:

"a Microsoft Research project that explores the intersection of fashion and technology. This early prototype is an artistic installation that integrates computer components into a dress made almost entirely of paper. With an integrated projector, the dress showcases tweets in real time transforming the skirt into a real-time twitter display. The dress was presented and honored as “Best in Show” and “Best Concept” at the Design Exhibition at ISWC (International Symposium of Wearable Computers) in San Francisco 2011."

More details in the video below:Continue reading...

H&M's upcoming (Oct. 4th) accessories collaboration with Anna Dello Russo has spawned an oddball music video and a social media contest reaching out to fashionistas on Facebook and Instagram.

Designer Marc Jacobs rolled in his models aboard a Louis Vuitton train in a showstopping runway show today at Paris Fashion Week, in a romantic collection of womenswear for Fall/Winter 2012/13 that was streamed live on the Louis Vuitton Facebook page today with additional play on Twitter via the #LVlive hashtag.

Inspired by brand's roots creating luggage to elevate the art of travel, the collection celebrated the golden age of rail travel and "the romance of another time, the silhouette of another time" as Jacobs told The Telegraph, above.

Jacobs and Vuitton are also the focus of an exhibition that opens to the public on March 9th at Les Arts Décoratifs as part of a bigger celebration in France (and on digital) of the brand this week. More details below.Continue reading...

Fellas who have been bumming out for the past eon about not having any pantyhose made expressly for them can now rest easy. There’s a new trend in town and Women’s Wear Daily is calling it mantyhose.

Racked.com is trying on a few other names for the new product — Brosiery, Guylons, He-tard, Beau-hose — and asking consumers to vote. At this writing, Brosiery was smothering the rest of the competition.

As WWD points out, men having seen this much hose for guys since NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath donned a pair for a Hanes BeautyMist commercial and Burt Reynolds showed off his nylon-clad gams in a Cosmopolitan pictorial.

Italian fashion designer Emilio Cavallini is leading the charge, looking to expand the 4 million pairs of tights that he sells annually to a new audience: men.

Cavallini's website is  offering at least six different designs of the unisex tights including white or gray side bands, skulls, stars, checks, and horizontal stripes. He has also designed camouflage mantyhose, which may appeal to officers and gentlemen.Continue reading...

Vogue.com uploaded this quick look at today's Chanel Fall/Winter 2012/13 women's ready-to-wear show in Paris. Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld's crystal cave of a presentation was attended by a blue-haired Katy Perry and a headpiece-sporting Alicia Keys, among other celebs. As for the clothes, The Guardian commented: "This was a dark, moody Chanel collection that made no attempt to lift the brooding gloom that has engulfed the catwalk shows. Why cheer people up when brooding can be so glamorous?"

Here's the final runway show by Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent: the YSL women's fall/winter 2012-2013 ready to wear line, which debuted last night at Paris Fashion Week to a mostly positive reception. Pilati, who was last week unceremoniously dumped by Yves Saint Laurent, is expected to be replaced by Hedi Slimane.Continue reading...