Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg occupies a rarified air. She is the uncommon designer who, after more than 40 years, is still intimately involved in all aspects of her eponymous brand. She is as closely associated with the brand as the brand is to its iconic, widely-imitated and still wildly popular wrap dress.

DVF owes this longevity in part to its constant evolution, meeting the needs of customers not only with beautiful clothing, but in the ways it connects with them.

The latest example is DVF 360, an immersive 360-degree experience available at DVF.com and its flagship store in New York’s Meatpacking District. The videos take shoppers inside the headquarters, including Diane’s office and library. The best part? The videos are shoppable. Shoppers can browse DVF’s Fall 2018 collection, including dresses, shoes, accessories and outerwear, and click to purchase items with corresponding icons.

The shoppable 360-degree experience was developed in collaboration with the Success Cloud team at Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the engine that powers DVF’s ecommerce site. Dreamforce attendees can learn more about the 360 project, and much more, at the Retail Keynote, Thursday 9/27 at 9:00AM PST.

Bringing the best of the physical store into the digital world

The sequence features a a look inside DVF’s showroom, a stocked fitting room, Diane’s office, her library, and the Swarovski-designed staircase leading from the retail ground floor to its corporate headquarters. The immersive experience, unveiled during New York Fashion Week, enables DVF to connect with its customers in a new way, extending commerce beyond traditional channels and blurring the lines between digital and physical stores.

While the concept of 360 imagery and videos have been explored elsewhere, there are several unique and innovative twists in this project. To showcase the Fall ‘18 collection, DVF commissioned a custom photo shoot to create exclusive, immersive content with models, not mannequins. This gave DVF the opportunity to not only show the new wrap dress and the accompanying shoe in the best possible light – pun unintended – it allowed the brand to showcase the right pairings as well.

For iconic brands like DVF, physical store experiences play a critical role in nurturing customer relationships. They invest significantly in physical spaces (as anyone who’s been to the flagship store can attest) to ensure that their brand is represented appropriately. Immersive storytelling and shopping experiences allow brands like DVF to leverage these investments to generate excitement online. And while the industry has focused on bringing digital into the store (and rightly so), bringing physical experiences online hasn’t received as much attention. Innovators like DVF see opportunity in blurring these channel lines both ways.

“We wanted to provide digital access to our DVF headquarters and invite consumers to experience the brand from the inside,” said Sandra Campos, chief executive officer.

Customers can also experience DVF 360 in the New York store, where associates will use iPads to help customers explore DVF 360 and make a purchase if an item is not available.

“The future of shopping will blur the line between physical and digital, and we believe this innovative 360 experience will add excitement and will connect us even further with our community,” said Campos.

Indeed, connecting with its community is a top priority. DVF leverages technology, including AI-based product recommendations, innovative pop-up shops and in-store multisensory experiences, to grow its direct-to-consumer business. As a result of these efforts, DVF told Digiday in February that its website saw ten times more traffic and 29 times more revenue year-over-year.

Since its inception in 1972, DVF has thrived by delivering products and experiences that connect them to their customers in new and unexpected ways. DVF 360 is just the latest example.