The Virtual Fashion Studio - An experiment in design innovation and future retail experiences

The Virtual Fashion Studio is a novel interactive experience with virtual mirrors and digital fashion design. The research and design objectives were to demonstrate and create: - future interactions with retail products and environments - emerging technologies be adopted by retailers to sustain physical visitation - new opportunities for emerging fashion designers Project Context: There are a number of Virtual Mirrors being promoted on the web and only a few retailers using them in an effective way. This is mostly due to the current technical limitations with effective scanning technology and the public setting. For example, the only real scenario that a body scanner and 3D garment visualisation could currently work is when the shopper is in a private fitting room and able to view the virtual garment overlaid on their own mirrored body shape unencumbered. Otherwise the body scanner will include the clothing worn as part of the body shape and size of the shopper and the digital garments will then be applied terribly distorted. No fashion designer wants to see their designs look broken and out of shape. Similarly, no shopper wants to see themselves clothed with oversized and unflattering outfits. Project Scope: Researched, designed and developed over only 3 months by a small, efficient team of a lead designer, programmer, 3D artist, and graphic designer. With the support of technical assistants for procuring and installing equipment. We experimented in perfecting a more natural real-time experience with the digitised and 3D garments… especially working on complex solutions for cloth physics and rendering. The research team collaborated with emerging fashion designers who demonstrated an openess to the experimental nature of the project. We worked with them to digitise existing patterns for the 3D Artist and programmer to later model and integrate into the system and UI. A team of 4 fashion design students from QUT, soon began to design garments custom to the system once they had become confident with the new digital tools we trained them to use. These students also quickly recognised how these new tools could very easily become essential prototyping tools for fashion designers. Design Innovations: The Research and development team innovated in the following areas and activities: - Design and development of user interface and interactive system - Techniques, tools and processes for the digitization of fashion garments (patterns) into 3D models - Animations and 3D modelling of all environmental components, mannequins and garments - Cloth physics, real-time renderings and effects for natural movement and interaction with digital garments - Designs and Specifications for Workshop and Photo Studio presentation - Technical specifications, equipment list for purchase and installation Project Context: The Virtual Fashion Studio installations are displayed in the Wintergarden Complex on the Queens Street Mall in Brisbane, Queensland. The Queen Street Mall is the most successful pedestrian mall in Australia with over 26 million visitors each year. This project was first proposed to executives at JLL, a company that manages the Wintergarden Complex. The design team was awarded funding total of $264,000 for commercial research from ISPT to develop and install the works in the Wintergarden complex. These unique installations will be deployed across multiple retail sites managed by ISPT and JLL across Australia.