Watching the catwalk, and clicking 'add to cart'

New York: It used to be that designers showed clothes at Fashion Week to court the influential few, mainly the buyers and fashion editors who determined what styles would be hot in retail stores a season away.

But now they are starting to sidestep the middleman. Web technology, and a desire to entice luxury shoppers who are suddenly spending again, are spurring designers to fling open the tent flaps to their runway shows and appeal directly to shoppers.

Call it public-access high fashion.

In this fall's women's runway shows, which started Thursday with New York Fashion Week and continue throughout the next month in London, Paris and Milan, shoppers at their keyboards will have a front-row seat.

Gucci will allow anyone to sign up to watch its show online, and will let viewers share live Webcam videos as though they were playing with YouTube. Alexander Wang is projecting video of its show on a "moving billboard" in Manhattan, and Betsey Johnson is showing live Web versions of the show and the backstage frenzy before it.

And in the most aggressive outreach, Burberry, the British design house, will not only stream its women's runway show live from London, but also will allow anyone with a computer and a credit card to order the merchandise as models strut in it.

"It's giving the consumer even more inside access than the buyer in the front row," said James Gardner, founder and chief executive of Createthe Group, which is working on the runway live streams for Marc Jacobs and Burberry. "They're able to put the product in their shopping bag, pay with their credit card and check out before the buyer is even finished watching the show and goes to the showroom the next day."

Burberry's strategy represents a huge change from the past, when a literal golden ticket was the only way to see its show. The anointed -- buyers from Barneys, editors from Vogue, actresses like Claire Danes -- were sent an engraved antique brass entry card. This time, in addition to the online access, 1,500 people will be invited to Burberry stores worldwide, where they will watch the show on high-definition screens and be able to order merchandise immediately via an iPad app.

"Technology is the enabler," said Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer at Burberry. "This gives them an opportunity to feel that energy and feel the attitude of what you're working on. I find it incredibly liberating."

In the last few years, fashion has gradually opened itself up to ordinary shoppers. Bloggers have sidled into shows alongside fashion editors, the TV show "Project Runway" has made design seem doable, and Fashion's Night Out has brought designers into stores to meet shoppers.

But never before have Fashion Week designers so aggressively appealed directly to consumers with their shows, in large part because technology makes it so easy but also because economic conditions make this round of runway shows so important.

The luxury shoppers that Fashion Week designers go after all but disappeared during the recession, not only because rich consumers' investments plummeted but also because it was unseemly to buy expensive items in a sober time.

Now, though, they appear to be buying again. Hermès International said last month that its profit rose 55.2 percent in the first half compared with a year earlier. Tiffany & Company said its second-quarter profit rose 19 percent, and the luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton said in July that first-half profit rose 53 percent.

"They've been coming back," said Dana L. Telsey, chief executive and chief research officer of the stock-research firm Telsey Advisory Group. But, she said, there are "concerns over what companies will face in the second half of 2010."

With that air of uncertainty, this season's runway shows -- when designers unveil their clothes for the following season, editors pick out trends and buyers place orders -- is under particular scrutiny. If the shows succeed, Ms. Telsey said, they can "help create a halo effect of continuing the upward momentum."

So designers, who had avoided technology to the point of eschewing e-commerce, are using it to ride today's shopping wave. Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta and more than 40 other designers are streaming live video of the New York show on their Web sites and Facebook pages and on fashion roundup sites like Style.com.

Still, there are risks with the tech-forward approaches. Most significantly, the designers could alienate professional buyers -- who still wield huge power with retailers -- especially when clothes are made available for immediate purchase online, as with Burberry.

"The economic challenge has added new focus to this, and technology and digital has almost become the most important strategic priority in these companies," said Mr. Gardner of Createthe Group. "The brands are seeing this really resonates with the consumer, and we see huge spikes in traffic" when the shows are live-streamed.

Even so, he said, professional buyers could take cues from the online shoppers. "If you have lots of people preordering certain product," he said, "it can be a very helpful way to let the buyer and brand know what's popular."

Some designers are trying to sandwich tradition and technology. Diane von Furstenberg will show her spring 2011 collection on Sunday, and the company is live streaming it to a select group of bloggers at her store-turned-lounge, which is open to the public for most of the weekend. But the technology in the lounge -- touch screens mounted on the wall, Web-enabled printers and PCs -- will feature the fall and resort wear already in stores.

"The shows have always been for the trade," said Paula Sutter, president of the company. "It's important to sell what's in the store."

Burberry's approach has required an overhaul of the company's supply chain, from when yarns are dyed to when leather is procured. The company is promising customers who order the runway items -- outerwear, makeup and accessories -- that they will receive them within seven weeks, versus the normal four- to six-month lag between the runway and the rack.

"It's one thing when you're talking to the industry that's used to a six-month turnabout," said Mr. Bailey of Burberry. "It's very different when you're talking to a direct customer."

In catering to customers, though, Burberry and other design houses need to be careful not to lose their appeal by seeming common, said Jean-Noël Kapferer, a luxury-marketing consultant and professor at the business school HEC Paris.

"The Internet helps build the awareness and desire by letting so many people peep into the catwalk," Mr. Kapferer said in an e-mail. But "if too many people can buy it," he said, "the brand loses its exclusivity."