LONDON — The British Fashion Council will be putting the spotlight on data — and the social reach of London Fashion Week — via a joint partnership with tech companies including Google and Holition during a five-day showcase that starts on Friday.
The new project, dubbed Blossoming Fashion Conversation, will showcase the number of posts and the reach of a series of LFW-related topics on social media and other digital outlets. Topics will include sustainability, model health, luxury and streetwear climates, designer and production heritage, emerging talent, diversity in the industry and overall innovation.
The data will be collected from keywords and hashtags on social platforms, as well as the British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar web sites. It will be showcased in the form of a tree with different roots and branches. Each root will represent the reach of LFW-related articles, while the branches will indicate the total number of social media mentions each topic gains during the event. The graphics will be showcased on screens at 180 Strand, the main BFC runway venue.
The aim of the project is to explore new immersive ways of showing fashion. The BFC is also looking to educate the LFW audience, which includes industry members and the public, in terms of the event’s global reach.
The idea began as part of Holition’s summer internship program. It was developed in part by six university students who participated in that program and by Holition’s creative technologist, Miguel Ceballos, and product owner and producer, Sixtine de Cidrac.
Other partners linked to the data visualization project include social listening platform Pulsar and Condé Nast.