Bethany Williams
When it comes to Bethany’s design philosophy, social, ethical, and environmental issues go hand in hand, and innovative design can actually be a tool that poses real solutions to the sustainability issues our planet currently faces.
With this approach in mind, working with Augmented Atelier in collaboration with More or Less presented some exciting opportunities for Bethany. “I was just really excited about it because, the idea of being able to create garments that aren’t creating waste could be so impactful,” she reveals.
Working with a digital process that eliminated multiple rounds of pattern-making and model fittings offered an interesting contrast to her studio process and way of working. “I thought it was so interesting to eliminate the fitting step. With this, you see the sketch, the digital patterns, and then immediately it appears on the body—which was a really amazing process that eliminated a lot of extra work for us.”
Fredrik Tjærandsen
Fredrik Tjærandsen’s approach to fashion focuses on performance, motion, and the body in relation to the space around it. His process seemed well-suited to the digital challenge of Augmented Atelier. He explains, “I usually work best in 3D experimentation.” Rapid iteration is not possible when hand-crafting garments with materials like latex that are both expensive and hard to manipulate. “Normally, there are physical limits like gravity and size and material restrictions. Now these can be eliminated. There’s a whole new range of ideas that suddenly pop up for me that I can visualize within the project.”
Rottingdean Bazaar
Rottingdean Bazaar is the work of artists James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks. The pair met in college at Central Saint Martins and their approach to fashion is as unconventional as the experimental garments, objects and images they create.
Rottingdean Bazaar found that their process translated quite nicely to 3D digital design. “It was interesting to think about what could be done in a 3D digital space that couldn’t be done outside of it,” says Luke. “We thought a lot about animation and the way something could move around the body or in space.” As with all of their work, Rottingdean Bazaar’s digital designs leaned into the conceptual. The looks they created challenge traditional notions of what garments can and cannot be made from, while tying in the digital platform.
Phoebe English
Phoebe English is committed to keeping her boutique fashion line local. Phoebe founded her women’s and menswear label in 2011 off the back of her debut graduate collection. It’s built on rejecting “fast” fashion; she champions sustainability in her designs and her business decisions.
The experience opened Phoebe’s eyes to the new direction technology might take fashion in the future. “To be able to pull an augmented design out of the computer and have it within human scale for designers is really incredible. It allows us to understand how we can develop ideas or push the fabric representation or fit into a new dimension,” she says. She also sees promise in how it can function as source of collaboration.