Fashion weeks the world over are showcases of extreme fashion and creating a novelty experience is no mean feat. However it looks like this year at London Fashion Week, Steven Tai managed to do just that, create an original experience by mixing real-life models with a virtual model and sharing it in an augmented reality experience. The fashion designer was assisted by ILMxLabs, which is also renowned for Lucas films aka the people behind Star Wars.
They called it a real-time performance-driven live digital augmentation powered by the LiveCGX technology of ILMxLabs. Whilst the real models were on stage, they interacted with their virtual model in an augmented reality screen. The virtual model was also present beside the stage, where the person in a motion sensor suit carried out the movements that allowed for a real time experience. She walked and moved in a similar way to the real models and also modelled a changing array of fashion designed by Steven Tai. The fashion the virtual model displayed changed as she moved, which obviously is prepared before the show and only displayed in real time. On the screen where the virtual and real models walked the designers inspiration for the collection, namely the streets of Macau were featured. The whole set had features from this inspiration displayed.
The collaboration was facilitated through the fashion innovation agency at UAL and the GREAT Britain campaign.
To me it just looks awesome, how we could have all sorts of interesting new uses for storytelling technology. I think it is great to see so many technology and design fields coming together and creating a unique experience. Watching this makes me excited, it just shows what the possibilities are and I truly look forward to the days where we can experiment with these blended experiences in reality.
If there is a take away for the world of gamification design, then for me it is that we are not stretching our storytelling and blending of innovation muscle far enough. I look for inspiration from lots of areas and fashion and innovation in general are two of them.
