Nicola Formichetti never ceases to amaze us with his innovative way of thinking and his individual way of merging fashion into the mainstream via different venues.
PHOTOS: The Nicola Formichetti Pop-Up Photographed By Evan Joseph
Whether it’s styling Lady GaGa, designing for French fashion house Mugler, or opening his own kaleidoscope inspired Pop-Up Shop during New York’s Fashion Night Out, Formichetti is constantly an innovator in his field.
Case in point: the virtual runway show Nicola created with multi-player video game design company CCP at his limited time only store.
STORY: NY FASHION WEEK: Nicola Formichetti’s Pop-Up Shop Party Recap
By using his shop’s manager and Mugler model, Rick Genest a.k.a Zombie Boy, as the avatar to model his clothes, Nicola, in collaboration with CCP, were able to create a complete futuristic environment to display clothing designed by Nicola.
PHOTOS: Zombie Boy Rick Genest Erases His Tattoos For Schön Magazine
True, fashion week is long over but we have some behind the scenes footage of what went into making the virtual show a reality.
You can also read an excerpt from Dazed Digital’s interview with Nicola on the following page!
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Dazed Digital: How did you hook up with CCP?
Nicola Formichetti: A mutual friend introduced me to Mary Lee, CCP’s digital fashion editor, and we began this collaboration. Our first collaboration was to create a life size avatar with clothes designed by me for my pop up store Nicola’s during New York Fashion Week.
DD: Can you explain the technology behind this project for us novices…Nicola Formichetti: We call it ‘sophisticated technology’. Through the use of CCP’s Carbon technology graphics, the virtual runway became a fully interactive, real-time virtual catwalk experience.
DD: What was the biggest technological challenge when making this film?Nicola Formichetti: Nothing really. I was working with tech teams in Iceland, China and New York. Like how I work normally. Everyone was such a professional actually, we all used our own skills, there really wasn’t much of a challenge.
DD: How is designing for an avatar different from a real life model?Nicola Formichetti: When doing digital design you have more options to work with, you can change the designs on the spot rather then being limited by fabric and patterns, digital fashion gives you unlimited options immediately.
