Snooty assistants and changing-room angst will soon enter fashion history as more and more shoppers go online. Fashion 'etail' is one of the big growth areas, according to a survey which found that 97 per cent of British web users shop online, 36 per cent buying clothes - an increase of 40 per cent in the past two years.
This enthusiasm for internet fashion is partly cultural. The UK has one of the highest take-up figures for broadband - access rose to 57 per cent in 2007 - making the internet quick and easy to use. Britons also have a strong tradition of mail-order shopping and have simply swapped flicking through a catalogue for browsing online. 'The largest clothing retail online market share in the UK is Next,' says Lorna Hall, executive editor of retail industry magazine Drapers. 'That's directory business which has migrated to the internet.'
The survey by Nielsen Media Research found that eBay is the top internet destination both in general and for fashion - a fact Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is acutely aware of this week. His newly ex-girlfriend, Rachel Marsden, is eBaying his clothes. Bidding stands at $3,226 for his T-shirt, with one day left.
One key trend is that online fashion etail is heading upmarket as websites forge exclusive deals with luxury names. Last week the Yoox Group added to its portfolio of fashion sites with a new high-end designer menswear online department store for the US and Europe. Thecorner.com stocks Marc Jacobs and Viktor & Rolf among its brands and will open for Japanese customers this autumn. British designer Hussein Chalayan chose to make his spring/summer 2008 menswear collection exclusive to the group's main site Yoox.com, a virtual boutique site which had 3m visitors per month in 2007.
In February the top fashion site Net-a-Porter, which was founded by entrepreneur Natalie Massenet in 2000, linked with the relaunched designer label Halston to sell two autumn/winter 2008 designs just 24 hours after the catwalk show in February. One Halston shirt dress costing £775 sold out within 45 minutes. It was the fastest-moving product since the site's launch. Halston shoppers received their clothes the next day, five months before they would be stocked in bricks and mortar stores. Many other sites selling luxury designer clothes are now major success stories. The British-based website My-Wardrobe announced 143 per cent rise in sales in only its second year of trading.
'Take up has been faster than luxury retailers expected,' says Hall. 'They thought the online demographic would be young, but it's actually the time-poor - and wealthy people are time-poor. Famously Martha Lane-Fox, founder of lastminute.com, said that, when she worked 18-hour days, she'd log on to Net-a-Porter to treat herself. 'It's also about not being seen to consume. Culturally now, people don't want to be seen spending money. You can buy understated, expensive fashion online.'
Sarah Curran, founder of My-Wardrobe, used to run a successful London designer boutique before moving into fashion etail in 2006. She says brand availability also feeds online high-end business. 'It's convenience. There are brands that aren't easy to get hold of unless you live near a major city such as London or Leeds. They're not stocked in market-town boutiques. We have huge orders out of the South West and middle England.' Curran says that the once wary fashion houses have changed their attitude to the internet. 'Labels we've approached recently all say they're opening online.'
High fashion's changing attitude to the internet extends beyond retail. Catwalk shows are now available as clips on YouTube or the fashion houses' own websites. The British design duo behind Eley Kishimoto - who also work for French label Cacharel - are bloggers, and Dior previewed a jewellery range in the SecondLife virtual world.
Penny Martin, editor-in-chief of fashion website ShowStudio.com, says: 'It has taken years for the internet to become anything other than a dirty word to fashion houses, but they are having to concede that online is important to them.
'The proof is in the budgets that are being transferred from TV advertising into online. In the past two years, it has come to a tipping point when luxury companies realise that they can no longer afford to stay out of such a profound shift."
