We’ve once again been enjoying the latest Fashion Week collections, and especially seeing which digital trends have emerged. So how has technology influenced this year’s collections, and are designers responding to their tech-savvy audiences?

For the first time ever, London Fashion Week shows and exclusive show footage were live-streamed on outdoor screens across the UK. Sixty out of home sites in the country’s biggest cities such as Birmingham and Manchester, as well as on four screens in London streamed six of the event’s catwalk shows, thanks to a partnership between digital company Ocean Outdoor and the British Fashion Council. Prior to this at last season’s Fashion Week, Ocean Outdoor teamed up with the BFC to display the UK’s first ever shoppable billboard. The aim this season, the company stated, was to enable the shows and behind the scenes action to be broadcast to a much wider demographic.

While brands are increasingly making their shows more accessible to a larger audience, they are also trying to close the gap between view time and purchase, embracing the online public’s need for speed. The pioneer of this trend, New York designer Rebecca Minkoff, has now made her current collection available for immediate purchase online, and spreading the evolution with her hashtag, #SeeBuyWear. Similarly, Burberry also announced plans to cut the time between creation and purchase, with clothes in future shows to be made immediately available consumers both online and in store.

As far as tech innovation goes, we’ve seen some revolutionary designs once again. This year, Intel collaborated with contemporary designer Chromat, resulting in some futuristic creations. The fashion house showcased their new Lumina collection at New York fashion week, which was inspired my colour theory and bioluminescence. With Intel’s partnership, the brand had each model walk the runway holding light sabre-esque hand wraps, containing Intel’s chips. These caused the dresses to glow and change colour in accordance with the model’s hand gestures. In addition, algorithms controlled how much each dress glowed and at which precise time. Not to be outdone, Dell and Microsoft launched an exclusive new model of their XPS 13 notebook in partnership with New York-based brand Opening Ceremony. This saw the company unveil a gold version of its notebook, matching the gold theme of Opening Ceremony’s new collection. The laptop not only looks gorgeous, but also boasts impressive specifications such as 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage space- and for a hefty $1700, it’s certainly set to be a fashion or tech collector’s piece.

At New York fashion week, Tommy Hilfiger ensured he showed preferential treatment to his Apple iWatch wearing fans. The designer offered iWatch owners VIP and faster access to his show, essentially letting them jump the queue. In collaboration with the Fashion GPS Radar app, those using the watch were presented with a QR code which they could use to gain entry to the show. On a larger scale, the app has also been available to other iWatch wearers, who have been able to use the code to check in and reserve their spaces during London and Milan Fashion weeks, and at the upcoming Paris shows too.

Did you catch the shows during Fashion month this year? And which tech trends have you noticed so far? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.