Fendi Launches Drones

Italian fashion house Fendi launched drones at Milan Fashion Week Thursday. No, the luxury brand wasn’t waging war on knock-off handbags. Instead, Fendi used cameras attached to the unmanned aerial vehicles to live-stream their Autumn/Winter fashion show.

The drones hovered and glided over the catwalk, giving viewers at home a dynamic, yet shaky, view of the clothes. While many brands live-stream their runway shows, Fendi is the first in the industry to do so using drones.

Fendi’s use of drones seems like an inevitable next step, as the competition to incorporate cutting-edge technology into catwalk shows gets more and more intense. In 2012, for example, Dianne von Furstenberg models wore Google Glass as they walked down the catwalk. Last week, during Top Shops’ show at London fashion week, cameras on poles scanned models as they walked past, feeding the video in the windows of the company’s landmark store in London’s Oxford Circus.

The use of drones was an innovative marketing act that helped Fendi stand out amid dozens of other live streams available during fashion week. In an industry in which everyone is looking for the next big trend, Fendi may have already found it. The use of drones, in particular, offers viewers a perspective that’s almost as good as being there themselves.