Jaime Perlman’s More or Less magazine in partnership with Microsoft is set to unveil a fashion presentation that embodies the magazine’s underlying ideal of creativity over cost and consumption. The digital designs incorporate advanced technologies to enhance creative potential and demonstrate a viable digital transformation of fashion design, production, and presentation that bypasses the physical garment to prioritize efficiency, sustainability and creativity.
To create the Augmented Atelier collection, four emerging design talents were invited by Jaime Perlman to reimagine the design-to-showcase process with a digital-first mindset to spotlight their unique sense of style. Designers Phoebe English, Rottingdean Bazaar, Bethany Williams and Fredrik Tjaerandsen applied digital processes in order to transform their existing design practices, and then brought their new garments to life using Microsoft’s Azure Cloud and Azure Spatial Anchors. The Azure Spatial Anchors bring the digital garments into the real world and allow multiple people to interact with the garment in the same position in real time, making it the ultimate tool for design collaboration, retail and showcase. The 360° view demonstrates the real volume, fabric texture, and even motion of the physical garment, providing a much deeper experience than a 2D rendering, with a much faster, and less wasteful development and iteration process than creating traditional fabric samples.
Initially each designer followed their own process, developing ideas and sketches to create an original design concept. They then worked with a technical production team to create the digital garments, from wireframe and grayscale modelling to final textures and lighting. Like any other garment, there were rounds of approvals, samples, test materials, and fit adjustments. Then, each digital garment was brought to life digitally in Azure Remote Rendering. Finally, using Azure Spatial Anchors technology, the garment was shared with multiple team members in a bespoke app. The app recognizes a fit mannequin, and maps the garment onto it in real time, so users can engage with it in their physical space, all at the same time.
Augmented Atelier extends the More or Less creative vision of planet first and boundary-pushing design to new heights through a flexible process and pipeline towards the creation and production of digital fashion lines displayed in a bespoke AR environment. The result is the first of its kind prototype, built on the vision of London’s most exciting up and coming designers experienced within a bespoke app that allows users to discover each designer’s garment prototype via a 360-degree view that reveals Augmented Reality fashion elements. The ambition is to pose a radical new approach to fashion that could show a path towards new, more eco-friendly possibilities across the entire industry.
Founded by industry veteran and former British Vogue Creative Director Jaime Perlman, More or Less is a manifesto for an industry with rapidly shifting values and the first fashion magazine to prioritize sustainability through reshaping our society of excess. It embraces individuality and true personal style, stemming from the need for self-expression through the way you wear your clothes. In keeping with the magazine’s primary goal of provoking thought about the decisions we make when we buy clothes — such as factoring in the realities of cost and consumption — the Augmented Atelier collection truly pushes the envelope of what’s possible for the fashion industry of the future.
“This project was an exciting experiment for designers to embrace technology as a tool for creativity and innovation,” said Jaime Perlman, founder of More or Less. “As the industry swiftly adapts to this new state of the world, technology offers new opportunities for us to think about design, fashion presentation and the retail experience.”
Microsoft continues to fuel industry-disrupting innovation across the cultural landscape through meaningful partnerships, with those in fashion working towards a more creative, productive and sustainable future. Augmented Atelier demonstrates the industry-shaping potential of digital garment-making through the lens of up-and-coming designers who represent the next phase of fashion based upon eco-conscious-first objectives.
“Using digital technologies allows for blue-sky thinking for designers, unrestrained by the limits that would traditionally challenge them during the physical design process,” said Maruschka Loubser, director of strategic brand partnerships. “Working with such inspiring emerging talent and Jaime Perlman of More or Less has been a revolutionary experience and we are excited to potentially introduce this type of experimentational thinking to the industry.”
