INITION has partnered with Westfield to launch the spring summer 2015 season with an immersive pop-up experience at Westfield London and Stratford City.
Quick Facts:
Who: Westfield / Portas Agency
What: An immersive, interactive fashion installation
Where: Westfield London, Westfield Stratford City
When: 27-29 March (Westfield London), 12pm – 8pm: 2-4 April (Westfield Stratford City)
Tech: Virtual reality, motion tracking, gestural control
Drawing on three key trends from the upcoming season – Denim, Floral and Future Modern – and using an array of the latest emerging technologies, the experience is guaranteed to completely immerse guests within the world of spring fashion in a way not seen before.
In collaboration with Westfield, INITION developed a concept for three unique activations, each of which will invite visitors to explore the upcoming trends using either virtual reality or via a personalised avatar.
The first uses virtual reality head-mounted displays in conjunction with gesture tracking technology to enable guests to enter a virtual, futuristic landscape where they can use specific gestures to browse different trend pieces and ‘fly’. To fully explore a trend, users adapt a ‘superman pose’, whilst clapping transitions the experience to the next seasonal trend. Participants will be afforded a high level of freedom to explore the space which will result in a unique conceptual journey each time.
The second experience will involve guests approaching a large scale video wall which, using the accompanying tracking technology, will register the shape of the participant and represent an animated avatar form that can elicit visual ‘trails’ relating to the season’s trends – glowing lines for ‘future modern’, woven threads for ‘denim’ and garlands of spring buds for ‘floral’.
The last stop on this experiential sartorial journey will bring out the stylist within. Utilising Westfield’s “Edit Me” trend microsite, guests will be able to digitally curate products to match the season’s trends, discovering and experimenting with styles and new looks on offer from retailers within the centre. Extending this year to include menswear fashion, the Edit Me site will give style-savvy men the chance to explore SS15’s best looks without leaving the event space.
Discussing the concept, Westfield’s Director for UK & Europe, Myf Ryan, commented, “With the evolution of Future Fashion we wanted to explore a more abstract way for our customers to experience the season’s key trends. From research Westfield conducted, we know that shoppers are eager to explore new fashion technologies and are intrigued by new virtual ways to experience it – 52% would use Augmented Reality in a retail environment and 57% are tempted by Virtual Mirrors. This event will take our shoppers on an incredible virtual journey, which pushes the boundaries of fashion and technology”
INITION Producer, Ainsley Henn, added, “we’re delighted to be working with Westfield to bring state of the art interactive technology to the reach of thousands of consumers. Combining Westfield’s insight into the key SS15 fashion trends with INITION’s expert knowledge of technology has resulted in a unique retail theatre experience that is informative. engaging and altogether mind-blowing!”.
Press Coverage:
- Event Magazine: “Westfield stages Future Fashion virtual reality“
- Marketing Magazine:
