Anyone interested in fashion is looking forward to the kickoff of the Fall/Winter 2011 collections at the upcoming Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week next month in New York. As editors, bloggers and photographers prepare for the 4 weeks of fashion, retailers and designers are trying to figure out how to translate the buzz of near real time coverage to sales.

Don’t have a seat? We know the internet has served as a great tool to view the collections piece-by-piece but there is nothing quite like seeing the real thing. If you’re not a magazine editor, famous socialite or influential blogger your chances are slim. In an effort to bring the runway excitement in line with in-store availability, Neiman Marcus has you covered.

Running through January 13th, Neiman Marcus is creating their own virtual fashion week where shoppers can watch streaming video of Spring 2011 shows, and shop accompanying looks.

Italian retailer Luisa via Roma has offered the ability to place pre-orders immediately after runway shows are first publicized, startup Moda Operandi is basing an entire site around it, and Burberry has been giving customers the opportunity to place orders at the same time as retail buyers for a few seasons now. In other words it’s not totally new, and probably won’t “fix” the fashion calendar that has spring clothes being shown in September, and winter clothes shown in February/March. It does extend the shelf life of the runway buzz though, and is a good attempt at bringing it more in line with when people are actually shopping for certain clothes.

“Runway videos capture all the exuberance and excitement of the catwalk,“ said Ken Downing, Neiman Marcus’ Fashion Director. “From her own virtual front row seat, our customer will be able to shop the hottest trends of the season, in the season.” {Second City Style}

More and more brands are livestreaming their shows and moving further away from the trade show roots of runway shows to on demand style entertainment. While someone like Tom Ford can buck the trend and time the press cycle to keep pace with in store availability, we think this is a clear sign of things to come from retailers who will have to find a way to benefit from the new fashion cycle.

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s line, Elizabeth and James is rising to the occasion with a new 70’s inspired collection of denim under the name Textile. The jeans will retail between $235 and $245 at Intermix, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. {The Cut}

Like many other celebs (think Nicole Richie), The Olsen twins are finding success in their personal retail ventures and are now working to expand their multi-million dollar empire to incorporate the new collection.

In the fall, the Olsens will offer a full lifestyle collection for Textile. “Weâ€re talking about the favorite things you want to wear with your jeans, like the ultimate flannel shirt. Elizabeth and James is a name the customers really relate to, to give them this other piece of their wardrobe, with the same brand, is an easy connect.” {Denimology}

We applaud the tenacity, but with denim lead brands like Rock & Republic filing for bankruptcy, and others like Chip & Pepper moving to licensing for survival, we’re not so sure if people are ready to move back to spending on denim with premium prices just yet.

“I doubt you’re going to see a lot of new stores opening on the full-line side,” said Stephen Sadove, Saks’ Chief Executive. “It’s going to be making the current stores more productive.”

Sadove was speaking about stores that would be closed, which include those that have a lease expiring and those that are losing money. {Wall Street Journal} There’s no specification of which category the Portland Saks stores, announced for closure this year, fall into. But considering both the stand alone men’s store and women’s store are getting the axe, it’s likely they’re in the latter.

Scaling back on extravagant spending is something all too common these days, with some even considering it chic. Online isn’t immune, as wealthy shoppers there turn to mid-market retailers like Macy’s and discounters like Gilt and Bluefly for designer purchases. Other luxury retailers like Neiman Marcus and Tiffany & Co. all saw declines this year in holiday sales, and struggle with clientele affected by the market.

A reflection of this subdued shopping mood is seen on the runways of some of the top designers who are using more basic colors and prints, {All Business} simpler silhouettes and the use of layering and interchangeable pieces to emphasize making the most of what you buy.

Advertising costs may also have something to do with company sales loss. Advertising pages are scarce among the most influential fashion magazines like Vogue, whose ad pages were down 36 percent last year, even though the magazine had a 6.3% increase in circulation during the first half of the year. With luxury fashion houses still so heavily reliant on magazine advertisements as their primary communication method, the decreased exposure there coupled with consumers severely tightening their purse strings make it clear that companies looking to regain momentum still have a long road ahead.

Want to know where the wealthy shop online in the UK? Visit Signature9 UK for a look at the UK shopping sites popular with high earners.

It’s impossible to break out apparel shoppers for department store sites (many of which also sell home and garden items), so it should be noted than not every visitor browsing macys.com is there for clothing, beauty or jewelry items. But even if half of the visitors are there for dresses instead of dishes, Macy’s is attracting one of the largest (and richest) online shopping audiences.

Our data is from Google’s Ad Planner, which only offers visitor and demographic information going back one year. We can’t say if the economy has played a role in shifting online shopping preferences, but presently, wealthy online shoppers aren’t visiting luxury destinations in the same volume as they visit e-commerce sites with mid-level pricing. A possible silver lining for sites specializing in luxury sales: while they may not get the same volume of traffic, it’s quite possible that high end e-commerce sites earn more per sale and visitor.

Of the top 20 apparel e-commerce sites attracting the largest number of wealthy online shoppers, 6 (30%) are sites specializing in discount sales. Gilt and Rue La La are neck and neck for the title of the invitation sale site with the wealthiest visitors. Allowing for a small sampling error, the two sites could even reach the same number of wealthy visitors. The advantage, however, goes to Gilt Groupe, who attracts a combined 1.2 million visitors across the main Gilt site, and recently launched sister (and brother) sites Gilt Fuse and Gilt Man. Combined, Gilt Groupe attracts more visitors earning $100,000 or more than any other online only e-commerce apparel site besides Zappos. Pretty impressive for a company that’s not even 3 years old.

When it comes to visitors earning $100k or more per year, invitation sale sites may not have as many visitors as department stores, but as a percentage of visitors, a sizable portion are in this desirable online shopper demographic.

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