Wayback Machine/Internet Archive
The World Wide Web’s online fashion magazine pioneer, Lumière, is history, with its domain name lumiere.com listed at Brandbucket for an impressive US$695,560.
Founded and published by Stig Harder from October 1995, it was revolutionary in its presentation, at a time when many websites were text-based with grey backgrounds. It may also have been the pioneer of large-format online advertisements that aped the look of a full page in a fashion magazine.
Harder had previously founded Fashion.net, which launched in January 1995, and period press identifies it as the first fashion website. Attempts by Fashionmall to retcon itself into an earlier web fashion brand in later publicity are not supported by the company’s own US SEC filings.
CondeNet, the web arm of Condé Nast, paid a substantial sum for style.com to e-tailer Express Fashion, part of Columbus, Ohio-based Limited, in the late 1990s. It was believed to be an even greater amount, though online references to the sale have mostly disappeared.
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