McQueen pure human - digital snippets
Alexander McQueen’s DNA turned into leather in designer Tina Gorjanc’s Pure Human project

If there’s one thing that’s grabbed everyone’s attention this past fortnight, it has of course been Pokémon Go. The augmented reality mobile game has reportedly gained as many users as Uber and Tinder, topped Twitter’s daily users, and started seeing people spend more time with it than in Facebook. It also caused Nintendo’s share price to increase by more than $7bn.

We published a great piece looking at what retailers can learn from it in a broader location-marketing sense.  Also worth reading is this story tracking the retail invasion of Pokémons, via Racked, and another looking at why retailers should care about Pokémon’s forthcoming ads.

Beyond that, the news to know in the fashion, digital comms and technology space this week (and there’s a lot of it!), spans everything from an experiment with DNA in textile design to the plethora of changes at the helm of the industry’s luxury houses, the impact artificial intelligence might have on brands, not to mention how we’re faring with virtual reality so far…

  • Fashion that gets under the skin – designer creates leather prototypes grown from Alexander McQueen DNA (as pictured) [NY Times]
  • Luxury fashion: a year of big moves [The Industry]
  • Amazon Prime Day: Wow… but not yet a fashion must-buy [Trendwalk]
  • What Amazon could learn from Yoox Net-a-Porter, the “world’s biggest luxury fashion store” [Quartz]
  • Fashion apparel retailing in the age of artificial intelligence [WWD]
  • Luxury brands get off to an awkward start with virtual reality [Glossy]
  • Is a holographic fashion show for VR clothing the future? [The Creators Project]
  • The store of the future: physical retailers must stage experiences, embrace omnichannel and harness data [BoF]
  • 5 ways shoppers are using mobile to make purchase decisions, according to Google [Fashionista]
  • Sephora is driving mobile sales with Tinder-like features and digital mad libs [Ad Week]
  • Stores must learn to think like Facebook [BoF]
  • Warby Parker is offering Snapchat-exclusive sunglasses [Techcrunch]
  • Birchbox tests Snapchat for customer service – turns to revamped video and voice calling feature [Digiday]
  • Why advertisers are forking over big bucks for custom Snapchat lenses [Ad Week]
  • Snapchat is looking at a way to recognize objects in your snaps and serve you related ads [Business Insider]
  • New study says people are more likely to buy from brands that use virtual reality [Ad Week]
  • Luxury brands embrace digital, but still wary of programmatic [The Drum]
  • Using an algorithm to figure out what luxury customers really want [HBR]
  • Amazon is developing a 3D modelling system to solve online clothes shopping’s biggest problem [Quartz]
  • How the future of fit could spell the end of retail returns [Retail Dive]
  • Back to bricks and mortar: how e-commerce has embraced the real world [The Guardian]
  • Where machines could replace humans—and where they can’t (yet) [McKinsey]
  • Confessions of a fashion start-up founder: ‘Fashion tech is the Wild West’ [Glossy]
  • 3 need-to-know live streaming apps in China (and how bloggers & brands are using them) [WGSN]
  • Payments firm Klarna adds Lyst to its collection [Reuters]
  • How valuable is trend forecasting in the post-internet age? [NJAL]
  • These acrylic nails double as an Oyster Card [PSFK]