For the first time, fashion has finally caught up to the demands of its digitally savvy consumers. Aside from innovative tech displays and experimental digital campaigns, this season has given way to immediate shopping, straight from the runway.

Tom Ford is one designer who has adopted the notion of “shoppable” live-streams. The legendary creative got New York Fashion Week off to a very different start, by presenting an Autumn/Winter collection instead of a Spring/Summer collection, which was available to purchase the day after. The show was also live-streamed on his site and E! TV. Likewise, digital leader Rebecca Minkoff presented her shoppable collection under the hashtag, #runwaytoretail. Interestingly, this saw the designer merging digital with offline, by staging the show at her Greene Street store. Immediately after, the store was reopened with all pieces from the collection available to buy. This was the second time for the designer to adopt this type of process, with her first introducing the concept back at Fashion Week in February. During this time, Minkoff presented her shoppable show under a similar theme, #seebuywear, which allowed customers to purchase pieces straight away, or over the subsequent 30 days.

Tommy Hilfiger was another designer to jump on the “buy in now” trend, with his first in-season shopppable catwalk show. His theme and hashtag, #TOMMYNOW was exactly that, offering viewers the chance to buy pieces directly from the show using digital touch screens. And for those not in attendance, the collection was available to buy immediately online via the show’s live-stream, and through the shoppable commerce buttons on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest.

We particularly loved Misha Nonoo’s approach to shoppable fashion- to present her New York Fashion Week collection, the designer created and shared a “Live Lookbook” on Snapchat. Nonoo partnered with digital powerhouse, Refinery 29, to  present this on their account, and eschewed the traditional runway show altogether. A mix of still and video shots depicted each look, complete with fun drawings by illustrator Ana Strumpf, portraying the playful nature of the collection. On her own Snapchat account, Nonoo simultaneously shared “behind-the-scenes” footage from the shoot. Each item was then available to purchase immediately via the designer’s specially created consumer site. In the past, Nonoo shared her shoppable lookbook on Instagram, but we like the fact that Snapchat has helped her to present moving video content too, as opposed to just static images.

Not to miss out, Google has launched an exclusive new search feature, enabling those searching for Fashion week=related terms to view show schedules, collection images, an behind the scenes content. In addition, the tech giant has partnered up with designers too to aid the “buy it now” process. Brands such as Burberry, Tom Ford, Prada, Marc Jacobs and Hermes will be using the company’s search engine throughout the show season to share shoppable image and video content, which will appear in search results. Searchers will also be able to discover and shop street style looks and trends too, adding another element to the digital purchasing trend.

Do you think digital shows and direct purchasing will be a huge surge for the fashion industry in terms of boosting sales? Or do you think it has detracted from the “elite” nature of high fashion and the creative process? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.