News Category
The dematerialisation of fashion will dramatically change the way we see ourselves and the world. The Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) has curated this Collection of work by students from across UAL who have explored new and exciting ways to create, communicate and consume fashion through digital media and emerging technologies.
Check our Hybrid Cultures collection here
Main image by David Oldenburg
The Fashion Innovation Agency are featured in Forbes after initiating a collaboration between AnamXR and Pangaia to produce a virtual, immersive experience for Pangaia’s new FLWRDWN collection.
“We’re doing this to create a visual but also metaphorical connection to the products [and their holistic discovery], because people have become extremely disconnected to the source of their garments. As the scientific adage goes, you don’t teach a lesson, you set up the conditions to elicit a meaningful experience. There has to be a degree of self-discovery.” – Dr. Amanda Parkes, an acclaimed bio-media designer, fashion technologist and Pangaia’s chief innovation officer.
Read the full article here: forbes.com/sites/katiebaron/2020/12/07/digital-storytelling-evolves-eco-innovators-pangaia-push-the-envelope-for-online-immersion/?sh=762384da60aa
The FIA team connected JW Anderson and Holome, a new company experimenting with augmented reality, to digitally showcase their spring 2021 collection. The collaboration was featured in vogue as signaling new potential for fashion’s virtual future.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE here: https://www.Vogue.Com/article/fashion-is-building-a-virtual-future-starting-with-its-showrooms
FIA’s bespoke AI in Fashion course is featured in Forbes.
20 LCF students volunteered to be part of an 8 week AI course that allowed them to learn Python to write code, gather fashion data, and use it to develop creative fashion solutions and experiences. With no prior coding experience, the students recreated an entire fashion catwalk show using artificial intelligence.
“Initial uses of Artificial Intelligence have focused on quantifiable business needs, which has allowed for start-ups to offer a service to brands… Creativity is much more difficult to quantify and therefore more likely to follow behind.” – Matthew Drinkwater, Head of the Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion.
Read the full article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookerobertsislam/2020/09/21/why-fashion-needs-more-imagination-when-it-comes-to-using-artificial-intelligence/#739a31a83f63
Matthew Drinkwater, Head of FIA, is featured in Grazia UK discussing the potential for digital clothing as a new business opportunity for the fashion.
“Creating digital clothing for games is allowing brands to target a younger consumer that is entirely comfortable spending real money on virtual content. Digital clothing within gaming is creating an entry-level purchase that will build brand loyalty and also offers the tantalising proposition of potential exclusivity, where digital clothing could become as, or more, valuable than physical pieces.” – Matthew Drinkwater, Head of FIA
READ THE FULL ARTICLE here: https://graziadaily.Co.Uk/fashion/news/virtual-fashion-games-apps/
The Fabric of Reality, an immersive virtual fashion show in collaboration with RYOT studios and FIA, is featured in Forbes and quoted a ‘landmark event’ for fashion.
High fashion is rupturing at the seams thanks to the shockwaves of covid-19, the pressures of sustainability and a new era of virtual appetites and innovations are throwing much of the sector’s tired-looking hierarchies and processes into disarray. Just over a month out from the usually sanctified September fashion weeks and mid-way through a mostly scrappy summer of digital substitute events, how to handle the catwalk show (do we still need them? If so, in what formats? And who’s the audience/s now anyway?) Has underscored much of the wrangling. It’s made last week’s immersive ‘fabric of reality’ XR initiative – three interactive ‘rooms’ within an individually navigable virtual museum, experienced simultaneously by 150 people in VR and 100k+ more via live-stream – a potentially landmark event. – Katie Baron, Senior Contributor of Forbes
“What’s often been missing from these types of fashion experiences is that they are largely video-based and still feel very 2d, lacking interaction or presence. Here, you’re totally immersed, it’s a very visceral and powerful method of communicating with an audience.”– Moin Roberts-Islam, Technology Development Manager of FIA
READ THE FULL ARTICLE here: https://www.Forbes.Com/sites/katiebaron/2020/08/04/the-fabric-of-reality-finally-an-immersive-xr-brand-experience-worth-the-hype/#4fa6f81765f9
The Fabric of Reality is featured in Vogue Business as an inspirational fashion show that can extend reality and identity.
“Extended reality fashion experiences don’t replace the ancestral craft,” acknowledges designer Damara Inglês, who created her garment using an HTC Vive Cosmos VR headset and a Google Tiltbrush. “Instead, it opens a whole new dimension of fashion possibilities and future dreaming, allowing us to expand the wearable vocabulary in ways that become inclusive of our digital identities.”
“We wanted to give people a sense that it is incredibly different — it can offer these similar feelings that you would have front row at an amazing show. To show you can experience a sense of adrenaline and excitement.” – Matthew Drinkwater, Head of FIA
READ THE FULL ARTICLE here: https://www.Voguebusiness.Com/technology/heres-what-an-inspiring-digital-fashion-week-looks-like
RYOT Studios and the FIA present The Fabric of Reality, an immersive virtual fashion show experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
“If we mix the physical with digital content, there’s an opportunity for jaw-dropping, amazing moments shared across multiple platforms. There are so many opportunities for brands to experiment and communicate differently,”– Matthew Drinkwater, Head of FIA
“I firmly believe we’re moving from a digital content world to a virtual experiences world. Immersive storytelling is a great way of engaging the audience – they remember it as if they experienced it, not as if they watched it.” – Sam Field, Creative Tech & Innovation at RYOT Studios
The Fabric of Reality will be shown live on 29 July, 2020 at 6:30pm BST within The Museum of Other Realities
FIA comments on the fashion industry’s turn toward digital spaces to showcase collections.
“People are beginning to question the reason for a physical show and the value of a physical show when the technology exists to reach a much bigger audience through a digital space,”– Matthew Drinkwater, Head of FIA
READ THE FULL ARTICLE here: https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/coronavirus-crisis-spurs-digital-fashion-shows-1203550663/
IN LIGHT OF THE CURRENT PANDEMIC, EVENT AGENCIES ARE LOOKING TO DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES. MATTHEW DRINKWATER EXPLAINS WHY FASHION AND LUXURY WILL NEED TO CREATE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS TO CONTINUE COMMUNICATION WITH THEIR CONSUMERS.
“CURRENTLY, IT’S NOT AS IF BRANDS HAVE ANOTHER CHOICE. EVENTS HAVE TO STOP, SO IF THEY WANT TO CONTINUE COMMUNICATING THEY WILL HAVE TO LOOK AT DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES.” – MATTHEW DRINKWATER, HEAD OF FIA
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: HTTPS://WWD.COM/BUSINESS-NEWS/MARKETING-PROMOTION/EVENT-AGENCIES-TOUT-DIGITAL-ENHANCEMENT-CORONAVIRUS-1203544515/