It seems like the enduring trend for both Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter 2010 is fashion retail. There's been big moves like Balderton selling out of Figleaves for £11.5m and investing $9m in Sarah Curran's my-wardrobe.com. Michelle Dewberry has found a new partner to grow her Chiconomise.com site and even

I was feeling unusually on the pulse having had the darling of the kitchen, Nigella Lawson, choose to wear my earrings for a forth time (look out for the October edition of Good Housekeeping magazine for the pics!).

However Catwalk Genius' Katie Eary Launch Party soon had me realising who's sitting pretty and who's drop dead gorgeous.

Held in The Architecture Foundation in Tooley Street, the blossom of the fashion and tech world came together to raise a cheer for the launch of Katie Eary's new collection. It's no ordinary collection either. Aside from having fans like Lady Gaga, Kate Moss and Sienna Miller, it's made history as being the first fan funded collection to launch from Catwalk Genius' Back A Designer technology.

The concept of Catwalk Genius' Back a Designer is simple enough that even if you prefer candy floss to cognos you can take part:

1. Take a look at the garments designers want to produce


2. If you like it, back it by buying a share in it's production


3. When enough people buy shares the collection gets produced


4. As the collection sells the fans get their money back

For those with a business mind there's also the opportunity to become an affiliate and advertise lines on their own websites, earning commissions on sales. That could prove an interesting way for fashion bloggers to get more involved in the fashion industry. To top it all off there are extra perks like advance shopping options and party invites that go with supporting a designer through Catwalk Genius.

"It's only a small collection," Catwalk Genius founder Helen Brown told me, "and we're delighted to see it on it's way. A big thanks to all our fans."

Wishing Helen well was a wealth of Female Internet Heroes including Audioboo's Karen Barber, and Stradbroke Advisor's Inma Martinez.

And it's not just ladies that realise how profitable being well dressed can be, as I found out chatting to Ari Helgason. Ari's first foray into the B2B world of fashion was World On A Hanger, a software system for managing a fashion label more effectively. Ari subsequently took the YCombinator programme and has started a new business called Fabricly which helps business side customers source suppliers and customers globally. He's currently in the process of relocating the business to New York's fashion hub and has received an offer for his World On A Hanger business. Ari maintained that there is a wealth of untapped opportunity in supply chain optimisation in the fashion sector and I'm sure his expertise will help many reach greater heights.

Another phenomenon sweeping the internet at the moment are the disruptive commerce models. These are generally closed sales communities that require you to sign up. Once in you'll get daily offers at massively knocked down prices. Earlier this year London's Secret Sales was bought up by Germany's Brands4Friends and Keynoir's founders also quietly handed over their ideas to others. Cocosa is still going strong, Glamoo had their launch party just this Wednesday and yet none of these outstanding businesses have yet achieved the scale of one of their peers - Groupon. If I give you just the bullet point view, you'll see why this is what we call breath taking:

• Groupon was founded in 2008


• In 2009 they were not even ranked as an internet retailer


• Today they have 4.6million visitors a month!


• They've had an annual growth rate of 34,625% (according to Compete.com)

Groupon took buying psychology a bit further by combining deeply discounted deals with the need for there to be a sufficient quantity of buyers within a set time frame. For instance, they may offer a spa experience at 70% off. However 200 have to sell within 24 hours or the deal is off. As a result, they've spread virally like wildfire through social networks as friends tell one another to get in on incredible deals and experiences.

In just two years, they've grown to a valuation of $1.2 billion.

And that's not all. In order to get a foothold into the UK market, Groupon bought up the largest existing player with synergies, MyCityDeal.com. So naturally the MyCityDeal.com girls were in jubilant mood at becoming the Groupon Girls. Groupon's UK site has been largely redesigned to fit their livery although there's still a trace of MyCityDeal to the logo for those who got on board early on.

To quote Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital:

“The online shopping paradigm is finally changing. Indeed, I think we’ve seen more innovation in the last 10 months than in the last 10 years. We’ve seen an explosion of interesting technologies and opportunities that seek to change online shopping.”

Here's a cheer to Catwalk Genius and all the rest of you female internet heroes innovating in fashion. We love your new models and your cheap deals, even if it does make us more traditional retailers feel we're having a totally fugly moment...

This article was written by Misae Richwoods, who currently runs MRMedia Group, a company specialising in helping start ups market themselves.