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Norma Kamali is known for wearable, timeless clothes—especially her retro-inspired bathing suits—but her interactive Fashion Week presentation is decidedly up-to-date. She's opened up the "Style on Demand" presentation at her 56th St. flagship to the public as well as to fashion buyers and media, with an interactive program where visitors learn about and enter to win the collection with the aid of a mobile-phone App. While the democratic, technological approach is cool, possibly the most forward-thinking thing about the collection is that you could buy and wear it right now, instead of waiting seven months for the Fall collections to hit stores in September.
The installation occupies all five floors of the boutique, and displays are accompanied by ScanLife bar codes. Visitors who download the free app are able to scan the codes with their phones to launch videos, press materials, and even enter to win stuff. There's no delay with the prizes, either. The phone tells you right away if you've won something or not.
Some of the videos include information about how the clothes are made, as part of this collection's focus on artisanal, hand-crafted garments. Several pieces, including swimsuits, are accented with mother-of-pearl buttons, studs or safety pins, and since each of those embellishments must be applied by hand, every piece is unique. Beyonce wore an extremely sexy silver-studded, cut-out monokini from the collection in her video for Video Phone with Lady Gaga.
· All Fashion Week Fall 2010 Coverage [Racked NY]
· Norma Kamali Collection [Official Site]
· Get ScanLife [Official Site]