Rapha, nice but a bit pricey?

It's a fashion industry term, synonym for portfolio, and I wholeheartedly agree with you.

I continue to think that Rapha are missing a really big trick about how to present clothing online. It could be done in a way that gets to the point sooner, and more effectively.

Rapha may know branding, but they've never fully got the web. Fuck, I'd give them some of my time for free if they were ready to listen.

Lookbooks have existed as far back as I can remember. Digital lookbooks made their entry around 2009 and started popping up in almost every RFP we got that year. It exists at a balance point many branding and online retail discussions end up at after trying to meet requirements of storytelling, photography, branding and a larger than life (web) type of presentation. It allows for great control over how to present lifestyle products. Many companies feel this helps tremendously when you base your product strenghts around points that is best experienced over time or just in person. Whereas giving it a 300x200 thumbnail wont do it justice or even worse hamper the product. Many of these companies dont want to sacrifice their high profile branding based retail platforms and instore experiences to make broad appealing ecommerce. In some ways it can hurt them more than they gain in the end.

A commonly used example in consumer marketing where the demand is kept high by keeping supply below the demand is harley davidson.