Balmain
Balmain Launches Virtual Showroom with Olivier Rousteing's Avatar and Virtual Models
Today, luxury French fashion house Balmain opened its first virtual showroom with Creative Director Olivier Rousteing’s avatar as its host. Virtual models present key looks in 360 degrees, and stories from the cruise collection are shared with behind the scenes videos.
In a video posted to Rousteing’s Instagram, his avatar playfully refers to the virtual showroom as the ‘Zoom collection.’
On April 15, Rousteing participated in the Vogue Global Conversations series on “The Future of Fashion” alongside Natacha Ramsay-Levi of Chloé, Cedric Charbit of Balenciaga, and hosted by Nicole Phelps of Vogue Runway.
Rousteing shared his thoughts on the possibilities for the virtual. “With digital, I can make my fashion show on the moon or walking on the clouds,” said Rousteing. “I see digital as pushing your dreams to the next level.”
It’s exciting to see those statements come to life exactly two months later with Balmain’s virtual showroom announced today.
Rousteing participated in the Vogue Global Conversations series on “The Future of Fashion.” Zoom screenshot by Helen Papagiannis.
As reported by WWD in an exclusive interview with Rousteing, the virtual showroom will be housed at a password-protected site and the designer hinted at presenting the cruise collections to press in “a completely different way, really soon.” We can’t wait to see how Rousteing will push the creative boundaries and what new realities will emerge from Balmain.
Balmain is no stranger to the virtual, having used digital models (referred to as “Balmain’s Virtual Army”) previously in a campaign in 2018 in collaboration with Cameron James Wilson, digital supermodel Shudu, and CLO.
“The new virtual troops reflect the same beautiful diverse mix, strong confidence and eagerness to explore new worlds. Anyone and everyone is always welcome to join the #BALMAINARMY,” reads a Balmain Instagram post.
Balmain’s “Virtual Army” of digital models from 2018. Image: Balmain
In March, I wrote about the possibilities for virtual fashion and Zoom and designed a series of digital mock-ups for Gucci. With Balmain’s new 3D digital assets created for the freshly launched virtual showroom, I’m excited to see how this content could potentially be repurposed by the fashion house for other immersive experiences like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality including digital goods, virtual try-on experiences for e-commerce, fashion shows, retail window displays, and advertising campaigns (a few of the many examples I shared in my LiveWorx virtual keynote last week).
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