Versace, Dior, Gucci: augmented reality makes designer fashion accessible to everyone

Through a Snapchat scan, visitors to the “Vogue x Snapchat: Redefining the Body” exhibit and social media users can access an immersive experience in which Medusa comes to life. —Photo courtesy of Versace x Vogue x Snapchat

Tuesday, June 21, 2022 11:16 PM MYT

PARIS, June 21 — A dream come true! Until June 24, you can slip into outfits from the world’s biggest fashion houses, including Balenciaga and Versace, thanks to new technologies. British Vogue and Snapchat have teamed up to deliver the first-ever immersive and interactive augmented reality fashion exhibit that lets you experience the stories and designs of multiple luxury brands like you’ve never seen them before.

Is technology transforming fashion and culture experiences? This is the theme of the exhibition “Vogue x Snapchat: redefining the body”, organized by Edward Enninful, European editorial director of Vogue, and launched during the Cannes Lions festival of creativity. For the first time ever, clothes from seven of the world’s leading luxury fashion houses are transformed through immersive digital experiences and personalized Snapchat lenses, making designer fashion accessible to everyone.

Technology at the service of inclusion

At the La Malmaison Art Center in Cannes, seven spaces have been fitted out and transformed to pay homage to the creative worlds of Dior, Gucci, Balenciaga, Kenneth Ize, Richard Quinn, Stella McCartney and Versace. They are all houses chosen for their subversive vision of fashion, trying, through their collections, to shake up stereotypes, norms and conventions related to age, morphology and gender. And it is precisely this creative aspect that visitors to the exhibition can now discover through augmented reality experiences.

“It has always been important to me to make fashion accessible to everyone. Using augmented reality, Vogue x Snapchat: Redefining the Body is an exhibition that invites everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexuality and size, to discover and enjoy fashion from some of the best designers and brands in luxury in the world. It doesn’t get any better than that,” says Edward Enninful. Not content with discovering exclusive archive garments from these major fashion houses, with a simple Snapchat scan, visitors will be able to try them on virtually, just like Snapchatters around the world via Snapchat’s Lens carousel and Dress Up tab. of Lens Explorer.

They will also be able to access all of the augmented reality experiences in the exhibition, from Balenciaga’s dark, opaque space to Stella McCartney’s digital bees pollinating mushroom spores, Gucci’s mirrored “illusionist” scenography, and the opulence of Versace’s space, in which his legendary Medusa comes to life. “Through this exhibition, and augmented reality more broadly, we hope to introduce new levels of accessibility, creativity and expression to the world of fashion and design,” said Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc.

An ode to digital fashion

Augmented reality today appears to be essential, even inseparable from the fashion industry, which is evolving at the pace of the latest technologies. Following Meta’s announcement of the launch of its first digital fashion store, featuring brands such as Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne, this exhibition seems to herald the advent of fashion that crosses the physical, digital and virtual realms, allowing users of social networks and metaverses to dress their avatars, but also to access iconic clothing that would have previously been out of reach.

As part of this exhibition, Vogue and Snapchat have teamed up with DressX, the virtual fashion specialist, to create a capsule collection of limited-edition merchandise. — Studio ETX