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Gucci's flagships are about to get crazy with the upcoming launch of their new in-store, super fancy video screens, that WWD compares (more than once) to the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report. The whole thing is called the Immersive Retail Experience, and the first phase of it is launching today at their newly-renovated flagship on Via Montenapoleone in Milan. Tech-design company OOOii has whipped up giant video walls for the flagships that will display images and videos.
Nothing too wild about that, you say? WWD describes what they'll look like come early 2012: "Standing in front of the video walls, and without touching them, shoppers will be able to pause and rewind fashion shows, flip through catalogue pages and manipulate content, as well as place in-store orders, all through hand gestures, in the same way Tom Cruise manipulated data on video screens in the sci-fi film."
Turns out OOOii is based out of Hollywood, so they've done the special effects for Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and yes, Minority Report, so maybe that's the reason WWD has picked one way of writing about the walls and stuck to it. The videos will be rolled out to other flagship locations next year, which include New York, Beverly Hills and Tokyo, and Hong Kong or Shanghai will follow.
· Gucci Goes High-Tech [WWD]