New York Fashion Week show staged with a 7-foot-tall holographic model

Designer Maisie Schloss’s digitally-created psychedelic prints and cyber-inspired chic partywear are perfect for the fashion industry looking to the possibilities of a virtual future. During her fashion week in New York, she indulged in her fantasy this digital and launched her Maisie Wilen’s latest collection on her own label with her 7-foot-tall holographic model.

Over the weekend, Fall 2022 show attendees entered a gallery setting to find a line-up of virtual models performing a series of repetitive GIF-like movements. Some are inspired by dolls from Mattel’s 2010s franchise Monster High, and they wear green and blue body paint, creature ears and fins, spin in mid-air, wiggle their hips, and play with guests. and sometimes emitted animated blue lightning bolts and bubble impacts.

The retro-futuristic collection is full of homages to the virtual world. Some models wore VR glasses. There are some nostalgic silhouettes from the 2000s, including sparkly party tops, bodycon styles, vinyl trench coats and backless halter dresses. “We really want to push every fantasy we can create,” Schloss said of the collaboration with Yahoo.

“I really hoped it would serve as a study of the often blurred line between reality and fantasy. What makes something that is real feel unreal?” she said in a video call. explained.

The LA-based designer, whose label is named after her mother’s maiden name, began her career under the Kanye West umbrella, starting out as a Yeezy assistant and working her way up to womenswear designer. Three years before her, West awarded her her first grant from his incubator her program and she founded her own label.

Since then, her clothes have been worn by Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, and Kylie Jenner, and were shown on HBO’s show Euphoria, where e-girl aesthetics and fantastic makeup dominate high school hallways.

“Surreal yet lifelike”

Nigel Tierney, head of content innovation at Yahoo, said the show is a far cry from the “traditional passive viewing experience” of fashion shows.

“They can play with assets in their environment,” he said. The “Monster High”-inspired cast appears in her AR wherever the user is, like Frankie Stein, the cool daughter of Frankenstein’s monster, and Maisie moves through space wearing her Wylen outfit. I can do it. For example, in Frankie’s animation, she gets an electric shock. “We are thinking about stepping into a world like the Metaverse and what that means for individual brands,” he added.

Creating a physical show for a large audience during the pandemic proved challenging, so designers embraced digital presentation and rethought the boundaries of fashion shows. But even with the return of in-person shows, the virtual influence remains, and Schloss is fully embracing that change.

“We are no longer constrained by what we can show at a traditional fashion show,” she said.

And while it can be hard to justify material in the digital realm, Schroth’s collection is made for it, leaning toward the surreal and “or even disorienting,” she said. .

“I made use of optical illusion prints (and) unique textiles that might fool the eye,” she explained.

To create the larger-than-life holograms and AR imaging of the show, Yahoo’s team installed 106 cameras around the model in a studio space, capturing 360-degree imaging in crystal-clear 6K resolution. , displayed all the details of the garment. Maisie says the experience is “like being inside a GIF lookbook.” The images “bring so much dimension to the clothing…you can see them move in this very surreal yet lifelike way,” she said.