At TG3D Studio, we’ve always been ahead of the curve in introducing digital innovations. Digital systems and AI technology have been in place in many companies for some time, but mainly used in the design stages and retail back office. During the early stages of the pandemic, fashion designers were at a loss as to how to go ahead with their businesses without physically being able to fit their clothing creations on living models, or how they would hold a catwalk show at all.
Then, the realisation hit: digital! By scanning a model oralready knowing her measurements, an accurate avatar of her can be made. Thiscan be used to both create accurately fitting-garments, and show herstalking down the runway wearing them along with other models. The technology was taken up en-mass and with huge enthusiasm.
An Immense Success
For Balenciaga Autumn/winter 2021, Demna Gvasalia created a show entirely using digitally rendered avatars. It was displayed to the audience as a game, while the press viewed it on Oculus Rift 3D headgear. The Financial Times (paywall) deemed it “A little cold, slightly chilling, it wasnevertheless mesmerising — and a computer game feels like the perfect communication method to engage with Balenciaga’s hypebeast hordes of fans.”
Other designers chose to blend digital with physical, a process that has earned the label “phygital”. Nicolas Ghesquièrefor Louis Vuitton SS21 designed his collection largely over Zoom with his team. He presented it in front of a mixture of strictly limited numbers of live audience interspersed with digital cameras for each invited guest who could not attend. The cameras were individually controlled by the absent guests, giving a 360-degree view of the show. In addition, Ghesquière blendedhis live models with shots from Wim Wender’s classic film, The Wings of Desire for a full phygital experience.
In a filmed interview for Vogue, the designer commented about the process: “I’m kind of fascinated by the evolution of technology, how much it will simplify communications between us, or sometimes putting distances between us, and for me, it’s important to show physically your soul. Things are going on and we are moving on.”
Because of the investment made coupled with its positive reception by design teams and press alike, trend predictions began showing a huge bias towards digital and phygital. Headlines trumpeted that the traditional fashionweek was dead.
The inevitable backlash
However, as challenging and fun as these iterations had been,when restrictions were lifted and live shows went ahead once more, there was an inevitable backlash. Designers had missed doing actual fashion shows, and audiences had missed watching them.
In particular, Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino garnered praise for a show which mingled models with everyday bystanders at a market and café, and other designers simply went back to doing standard catwalk show packed with elbow-to-elbow audiences. Asked what fashion had learned from lockdown, editors mostly mentioned progressive gender issues or model’s sizes. Even though many reviewers were watching the shows streamed digitally via their laptops, phygital experiences are no longer a hot topic.
Conclusion
Fashion designers, by definition, are always looking for the new. Digital felt new and exciting, and now real-life feels more new and exciting -true for all of us not currently under lockdown, I suspect. There is also that element of instant gratification. Their happiness in hearing the roar of the crowd (or its fashion equivalent, the polite applause and icy stares of approval) chimes with the mood of the moment.
However, just as it was hard to negotiate the pandemic itself and the fashion world had to adapt, the world cannot go back to its pre-pandemicdays. This flash of nostalgia is just that: we’ve learnt a lot of lessons. The technology to continue with digital and phygital is well developed, and in addition, has great implications for lowering the environmental and economic cost of fashion.
Too many fashion businesses are shortsighted in seeing the use of 3D for the show and tell aspect only. TG3D Studio believes that utilizing 3D from the beginning can facilitate communication and collaboration, and effectively showcase your work to clients or the public without relying on physical examples. Further down the road, these digital assets can be re-used in bringing a much more interactive and immersive shopping experience with tools like the 3D configurator, XR shopping and other innovations in phygital retail. The lifetime of these digital assets doesn't simply end after the fashion show.
To begin exploring how you can enter the world of phygital, please take a look at our blog How to Design Virtual Clothes.