Taking the Traditional Fashion Show
to a New Dimension
Topshop Oxford Circus store (Photo courtesy of wired.co.uk)
LONDON, UK - Fashion retailer Topshop is to live-stream a virtual reality (VR) experience of its London Fashion Week show taking place at the Tate Modern.
The Topshop Unique show will take place between 16 and 18 February and will be live streamed from the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern to offer the brand’s customers a virtual front row seat.
Working with 3D specialist agency Inition, Topshop will give shoppers at its London Oxford Circus store specially commissioned head-sets to wear to enter the 360-degree virtual world, which will be a hybrid of live-feed of the runway, the backstage action, the VIP arrivals, the set design and animated features.
Special cameras recording the scenes will be deployed on the catwalk and backstage so that each participant can look around at models and celebrities as part of the event. Those wearing the headsets will also be able to trigger certain events by looking at objects placed in the virtual world. For example, staring at a virtual switch on one of the screens will cause the switch to be turned on and reveal a time-lapse of the catwalk setup.
The Arcadia Group-owned brand will also stream the show and content to its website. Activity will include a live Twitter gallery on its homepage from the morning of the show and the retailer has asked fashion insiders to tweet content from the front row of the show. Topshop will also post Vine videos.
Video courtesy of Topshop
Sir Philip Green, owner of Arcadia Group, said: "The Topshop Unique show is going from strength to strength; not only in terms of the collection but also in how we share this with our customers at home and in our stores, giving them an up to the minute runway show experience.
"This season’s live stream in virtual reality between two iconic London destinations, the Tate Modern and our flagship store in Oxford Circus takes the idea of the traditional fashion show to a new dimension, as we continually look for new ways to engage, excite and involve our customers."
For the last few years, Topshop has worked with a technology partner during London Fashion Week. In 2012, it worked with Facebook to allow people to customise the clothes and accessories from the collection as they appeared on the catwalk, while in 2013, it worked with Google+.
Topshop Unique SS 2011 (Photo courtesy of ladiescrown.com)
Andy Millns, co-founder and creative director of Inition, added: "We are excited that Topshop has the vision to explore the next revolution in mass media - virtual reality. It is the ultimate interface to the digital world with the power to transport the user to another place as soon as they put on a special display.
"With this project, there are a quite a few things we haven't done before. Bringing in and distributing two full HD video signals into the live virtual environment, for example. People understand what it means to create and develop a video, but not necessarily this. So that's been a steep learning curve.
"This unique technology has the potential to open up fashion shows to the consumer at home and we believe this will be the first of many executions of this kind. Inition is delighted to be working with Topshop on this ground-breaking project."
Topshop’s Unique show is the first fashion catwalk to take place in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.
Source: Event Magazine, Marketing, wired.co.uk, WWD
Topshop Unique AW 2013
Topshop Unique AW 2013 (Photos courtesy of ImaxTree.com)
Topshop Unique AW 2013 (Photo courtesy of ImaxTree.com)
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