review

About two months ago, I purchased an iPod Touch from my friend at school (he had recently upgraded to an iPhone), but with thesis, final exams and graduation, I hadn’t had much chance to really play with it. Now that I’m done with school, I’ve had a chance to start looking at some of the thousands of available applications, included a number of different fashion apps.

You probably figured it out by the post title (or an accurately written link); today I’m going to review the Ralph Lauren application (which is updated, it seems, each season).

Name: Ralph Lauren
Size: 45.3 MB
Price: Free
App Store Rating: 3 stars (based on 2244 votes)
iTouch Compatible: Yes
iTunes Download Link

Home Screen

As you can see from the photo above, the application focuses on the two latest Ralph Lauren womenswear collections (sadly, no menswear content exists on the app as of yet), and a special featurette on the Ricky Bag. Below the fold is a video library, and a store finder (more on these shortly).

Runway Shows

Runway Snapshot

The Fall 2009 and Spring 2009 “sections” of the app are very similar; each includes a short highlight video from the runway show, a photo set of the outfits/looks for the show, some video content, and some backstage footage.

The Fall 2009 backstage footage is pretty cool; a panoramic photo with real audio from behind the runway. I wouldn’t say you’re immersed, but at least it’s something unique and different.

One of the biggest problems with the app is that bringing up the “back” or “information” bars on photos is a bit difficult. You have to touch in the center of the top or bottom (even though it’s a bit more intuitive to go for the corners, in my opinion). This is especially important when looking at photos of the outfits/accessories themselves. Bringing up the bottom work bar shows an information icon. When clicked, you get the specifics; name of the model, pieces, and sometime prices:

Fall 2009 Info

I’m not sure why there’s so much inconsistency in the presentation here. Fall has a trying really hard to be cool all lower case, no punctuation style, with no pricing. On the other hand Spring is well laid out, in normal writing style, and includes pricing:

Spring 2009 Info

Unfortunately, there seems to be a bug at the Spring (programming) picnic; as you can see in the photo, the text gets cut off on a number of the pieces (many shoes are thus left a mystery, which I imagine must be devastating). Finally, in the accessories section, you’re even offered the chance to call a personal shopper (I’m assuming this is iPhone only):

Accessory Info

It would be great (and likely easy) to standardize the presentation of this information throughout the app. Right now it looks like lazy design and programming (not wanting to update the previous content to new standards). Get on it Ralph.

Below the Fold

Beyond the main page on the application is a video library section, containing about twenty minutes of non-runway content. It ranges from the RL process to casting to the extravagant parties associated with collection releases. All pretty interesting stuff that doesn’t need the iPod engine to work (this could all very easily be Youtube or website content)

Finally, the application includes a store location function. It was able to successfully identify the store in Charleston, SC, and provide accurate directions (even though I’m currently residing in Maryland). It seems like it would be trivial to include a “find nearest store” button using my current GPS information, but at least the manual system works as intended (including international stores).

Perhaps I'll go soon.

Review

In all, the Ralph Lauren iPhone application is a quality piece of software, especially given that it is free. While the content doesn’t take particular advantage of the iPhone system (it feels like a very solid Flash website), it’s presented nicely, and is mostly easy to use (except for accessing the back button). There are a few bugs, but none of them are particularly egregious.

Menswear content (there is none) is the only immediate problem. A few things could be improved to make the app stellar (consistent information, GPS store finder), but as it stands, it’s a solid (if highly non-essential) application.

I give the Ralph Lauren iPhone App four stars, and will keep it on my iTouch.

Have any of you used the app? Again, download it here if you like (it’s an iTunes link) and let’s talk about it!

-Barry

So I (the one declaring success in the picture above) have managed to run this blog for 6 months now without burning down the internet (though I’ve come close to burning up my lethargic, dying, but lovable computer). Having just returned from a “media fast” (no computers, etc.), which coincided with a glorious trip to Nashville and Franklin, TN (more on that in the days to come), I felt a “media frenzy” would be appropriate.

As such, now that I’m done reading through 1000+ blog posts on my Google Reader (which I wish I hadn’t missed out on), and pages and pages of email (most of which I’m glad I missed out on), I think it’s necessary to provide you (wondrous readers) with a media frenzy of my own. The following is a collection of links to posts over the first 6 months here at 3stylelife, many of which you may have missed out on (when this blog was less than a speck of dust in the catacombs of the WWW). They are organized in four major “strands”, areas of thought that have been consistently developed in these initial months. Enjoy, and thank you so much for being here.

Also, if you’re enjoying the content here, consider subscribing to the blog (so you can get it even easier!)

Microdesign

• Microdesign
• Microdesign A: Sharpies
• Microdesign B: Megan Nicolay
• Microdesign C: Shoelaces
• Microdesign D: Cutaways
• Microdesign E: Anagram Rings

Conspicuous Consumption

• Fashions and Names
• Conspicuous Consumption
• Da Gustibus Disputandum Non Est
• Flaunting Expense or Thrift

Modern Fashion Industry

• Two Fashion Mechanisms
• Objective Fashion
• Style as Slow Fashion
• Progressive Wine List
• Intelligent Sizing

Marketing

• Price Points
• Sincerity
• Individualism as Value
• Getting Outside (the Box)
• Making the Little Things Rich

Once again, enjoy!

-III

Just finished up another book, The Sociology of Taste by Jukka Gronow.

Up front, I’ll say that unless you’re a philosophy major, the book probably isn’t worth the forty bucks on Amazon. Much of the book is repetitive and difficult to read philosophy and sociology, with a lot of background in philosophical history required.

That said, there was a lot of interesting sociology about taste, especially in the early chapters. Gronow alternates at will talking about art, food, and fashion, but most of the principles apply across the board. The most interesting topics discuss the various approaches to answering the following question:

Is taste an innate thing, and what does that imply with respect to class, taste, and society. I’ll be going into some of the ideas over the next few weeks, so I won’t ruin the content for anyone just yet. Much of the thought is at the epistemological level; what can we know about fashion, and what can we learn about its role in society?

In all, find the book at a library if you can, because you’ll probably find yourself skimming some of the denser parts, or those that don’t deal with your particular area (such as the beautification of a meal?).

I recently had the pleasure of reading the ebook “The Life Uncommon” by Nacie Carson. You can find the book over at her website, also titled The Life Uncommon (has a great blog, by the way).

The book is not a long read (about fifty pages), certainly readable in one session. The book consists of both philosophical and practical advice about ensuring that you live a life that’s most fulfilling to you, even if it doesn’t mesh with the expectations of the “real world.”

I was impressed by the level of practical information given, clearly taken from Nacie’s own experiences in leaving her job to pursue writing. Personally, I had known a lot of the information before, being an avid reader of the blogs of Steve Pavlina and Tim Ferriss, but for newcomers it will be invaluable.

The writing is personal and very readable; its clear Nacie has a passion for writing. The tone throughout is motivating and encouraging, appropriate for the piece.

Related to this, my only criticism of the book is that it sometimes comes off with the tone that this type of transition is easy, if you set your mind to it. This is, of course, not true at all. It’s understandable, because Nacie clearly doesn’t want to scare us from making this scary, but beneficial change.

With that, I’d personally recommend The Life Uncommon to anyone interested in pursuing change in their lives, especially to those new to the areas of personal development, lifestyle design, etc.

I recently finished reading the book Fashion Statements by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.

The book is a collection of interviews with fashion designers originally for the review Virus (later Virus Mutations). It focuses mostly on the idea of mutations, and the interrelation between fashion and art, though the contexts are quite diverse.

While it was not completely in line with my interests (what book truly is?), it was a very interesting read, and I did get a lot out of it (ideas I’ll be blogging about in the coming days).

The interviewees within are certainly decorated, important figures in the fashion and art worlds, and reading their perspectives is interesting enough. Further, a few of the designers and artists touch on interesting philosophies of what fashion is, what it’s purpose and direction should be.

While often quite engaging, sometimes the interviews get bogged down in meaningless banter, but more often they are full of very abstract, lofty philosophical jargon (which seems to mean just as little). A sense of pretentiousness and artistic elitism is certainly felt in some of the pieces.

Another plus is the gorgeous set of photographs. The book does not skimp on examples, and most are extremely high quality images.

Thus, if the text fits your interests, I certainly recommend it. For the most part it is an excellent read and doesn’t hold back.

-Barry