Eight China-based fashion designers were invited to Paris Fashion Week to present alongside several of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists at Tomorrow Le Palais, a showroom for emerging designers. But when they could no longer travel to Paris from China due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, Tomorrow chief development officer Julie Gilhart coordinated a backup plan: each designer would create an introductory video to discuss and display their work.
The last-minute videos weren’t of high production value but successfully introduced the audience to the designers. It was also a learning experience, Gilhart says. “We all think we are so technically connected, but this has made us realise we are actually not. We are using [tech] as a tool but when the shit hits the fan, we aren't really prepared.”
While calls for a new approach to fashion month have accelerated, this season’s spate of cancellations — with Seoul and Tokyo fashion weeks being the latest — due to Covid-19 have clarified the need for technology that facilitates an alternative to in-person fashion shows, presentations and showrooms.
Vogue global network head of fashion shows Emily Zak chose to tune in remotely for some Paris shows. She found some surprising benefits. “When I wasn’t travelling from show to show, I had more time to absorb them,” says Zak, who turned to multiple sources — including livestreams, online slideshows and Instagram — to follow runway content. “That’s a real benefit that maybe I wouldn't have appreciated fully if the circumstances hadn’t come to that full boil. I don’t know why we haven’t invested more energy in coming up with an alternative.” (Vogue and Vogue Business share the same parent company, Condé Nast.)
Following shows remotely raises concerns that the in-person “visceral” momentum will be lost, Zak acknowledges. She points to the vibration of human voices singing at Louis Vuitton, and the vast puddle of water at Balenciaga as moments that wouldn’t resonate as well when viewed digitally. While it’s true that technology hasn’t nailed virtual rain — yet — there are early explorations of how fashion events could pivot to digital, a move that could become increasingly common.
“This is a huge focus of everyone working in immersive technology — creating a sense of 'presence',” says London College of Fashion’s Matthew Drinkwater, whose Fashion Innovation Agency has worked on a number of projects that use augmented, virtual and mixed reality, a group collectively referred to as cross reality, or XR. He says that creating a sense of immersion is critical to the success of digital events. “It's not about using XR to take us away from people; it’s more about how the development of these platforms will connect us in ways we could never have anticipated.”
Video
This year, YouTube’s new fashion vertical, /Fashion, live streamed more than 40 runway shows, including newcomers Bottega Veneta, Jonathan Simkhai, Tod’s, Marni and Lanvin. YouTube’s fashion month livestreams garnered over four million views.
In China, live streaming is already a popular way to shop and see collections, and brands have embraced local platforms. Last September, Gucci’s first livestream on Chinese platform Weibo brought in 16 million viewers. “People say it’s hard to replicate, but look at what movies can do. The length that people have gone to create these amazing fashion shows — like bringing in sand to recreate a beach — there is no reason why you can't have more effects [on video]. You could have a flying unicorn going across the screen,” says Connie Chan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “The idea of what is possible should dramatically open up and the costs should go down.”
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强制取消促成虚拟时尚技术(Vogue Business)
八位中国时装设计师应邀参加了巴黎时装周，在新兴设计师的展示室 Tomorrow Le Palais 与 CFDA /
Vogue 时尚基金会决赛入围者一起参加。但是，当由于冠状病毒相关的旅行限制而使他们不能再从中国前
往巴黎时，Tomorrow 首席开发官 Julie Gilhart 协调了一项备份计划：每位设计师都会制作一个介绍性视
频，以讨论和展示他们的工作。
临时要求的视频虽然没有很精致的制作效果，但成功地将设计师介绍给了观众。Gilhart 说，这也是一次学
习经历。“我们都认为我们在技术上是如此紧密相连，但这使我们意识到我们实际上并非如此。我们正在
使用[技术]作为工具，但是当遇到突发事件时，我们还没有真正做好准备。”
尽管要求采用新的时装月方式的呼声日渐高涨，但由于 Covid-19 的缘故，本季的一系列取消活动（首尔
和东京时装周是最近的）已经阐明了对替代真人时装表演、展示和展示厅技术的需求，
The full article read on the Vogue Business