The technological revolution

Dolly Jones makes no secret of the fact that when she launched Vogue.com ten years ago, the fashion industry looked down their noses at all things digital. Oh, how that's changed - never more so than this season where it seems like the common denominator between designers isn't a 1980's reference but an obsession with all things technological.

Burberry did it best in London, streaming their show live from fash-cams in the venue and allowing users to post comments direct onto the footage. (It probably helped that their fans are the type to write things like, 'So beautiful I want to cry'). At the after-show party, too, they tried to encourage people to monopolise cyber space with Burberry messages by having a blogging room set up with Apple laptops and twitter screens around Horseferry House that people could tweet into.

The trend continued in Milan, where Dolce & Gabbana not only instantly upped Bryan Boy's kudos by seating him three seats down from Anna Wintour but opened up their show to 16 million users watching from home via YouTube. Alexander McQueen did the same in Paris - and his live stream was so popular ShowStudio's website crashed because of the demand. Add to that the competitive tweeting that's been going on from the front rows - 'First season with full on Twitter - it's like Gossip Girl on crack' as Henry Holland so eloquently put it - and it's clear this is a trend that ain't going anyway.

Given the fashion industry's endless layers of dictatorial behaviour and political machinations at Fashion Week - you're allowed to move a row forward if your superior's stuck in the office and take her seat unless it's on the front row, let's say - I'm all for this new sense of fashion democracy. And it totally makes sense commercially, in my opinion. If luxury brands want consumers to spend four-figure sums on a new season coat, they're going to have to let those people in - make them feel a sense of heritage, of personality behind that piece of fabric.

But at the same time it opens up a conundrum for fashion houses - and the authority of fashion reporting. As International Herald Tribune legend Suzy Menkes noted, within an hour of their respective shows Balenciaga had been tweeted about 41 times and Balmain 75, despite the fact the former was a much more 'original and inventive' show. Part of me is tempted to say it shouldn't matter - that Balmain's managed to infiltrate into the mainstream better so deserve their techno success - but the other side of me sees challenges ahead if a fashion house is going to have to focus on conquering cyberspace as well as producing cutting edge designs going forward.