A new world of fashion in the metaverse: Singapore's Vogue sees the September issue as a testing ground for innovation

If it is said that the reputation of the fashion magazine "September" was established by "Vogue", I think no one would object. Since its inception in 1909, the September issue has always been the "opening season" of the fashion week. It will collect the latest clothing series launched by major brands in the world. In the glorious era of paper publications, the brand will never be slack when it comes to the budget of the season when the season is changing, which has created a magazine that is much thicker than other months. "Fashion Bible", it can be seen that fashion magazines attach great importance to September.

A precedent for global co-creation participation based on encryption technology

Even though digitalization has become the main transformation goal of the media and publishing industry, the importance of the September issue is still unabated due to its close connection with fashion week, but the battlefield has gradually shifted to the digital field, especially in the fashion industry. In the present time of sustainability and multiple values, how to use innovative technological means to demonstrate the core concept that the brand wants to communicate, while taking into account fashion aesthetics and cultural connotations, has become an important issue for the Singapore edition of Vogue, which is based in the cradle of new innovations.

With the unveiling of the Condé Nast Group's global integration strategy, it has been shown at all levels that the regional markets under the "Vogue" brand have become more closely connected. In 2021, the global co-creation theme " Fashion's New Beginnings " in September with the image of "sunrise", the Singapore version boldly adopts the innovation of no physical version of the magazine cover, to catch up with the trend of "Summer of Crypto Art", and globalization. In cooperation with the cryptocurrency exchange "Binance", the cover of this month was handed over to the encryption artist to create, and through blockchain technology, two NFT covers with unique edition numbers were issued and auctioned .

The physical magazines that readers buy on the channel will only print the QR code to promote the special website of the issue, which makes the Singapore version and the Taiwan version become the world’s first NFT market for “Vogue” (the auction of both ends). The time difference is only 8 hours) In addition, the Singapore version of "Vogue" also released a total of 15 encrypted art creation NFTs with the themes of fashion, beauty and design, and even collaborated with French luxury brand Balmain. Director Olivier Rousteing teamed up to create an augmented reality (AR) virtual clothing NFT called "Flame Dress", which can be said to be a veritable encryption art grand slam.

Seeing that one year has passed and the timing is coming to 2022, what innovations will Norman Tan, the editor-in-chief of the Singapore edition of Vogue, bring to the theme of global co-creation this year?

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Clothing and the Metaverse

Midjourney AI, which has just made waves at the Colorado State Fair Art Event, has also emerged in the global co-creation theme of this "Vogue". The Singapore version cooperated with Australian artist Terry Gates , led by beauty director Alli Sim Teal, in "Fashion's" New World" is the September issue of Vogue's global feature, creating what can be called the first artificial intelligence-generated fashion editorial content section.

This topic focuses on the concept of metahumans. Through MidJourney, a series of beauty units (Bio Resonance) that integrates biological eggs and crystal elements representing the earth are produced. In the unit, different versions of AI models are also displayed. The difference between the images generated under the same set of core vocabulary (prompt), Terry Gates said that creating through AI is like a learning process, trying to understand what kind of vocabulary things can be explained through, and how to modify the keyword prompts to obtain better results, while at least over a thousand images were generated during his creative process.

In the fashion unit named " Pixel Perfect ", it has teamed up with Yimeng Yu , the virtual fashion brand of the same name founded by the interdisciplinary fashion designer Yu Yimeng from China, to create three models inspired by the "Vogue" Singapore edition. Exclusive virtual costume designs inspired by the real virtual world, namely Curvature, Nirvana and Rebirth. Yu Yimeng graduated from the London College of Art. In the past, she has created virtual costumes with different styles for Chinese actresses Hu Lianxin and Qiu Tian. The sculptural design style is full of complex details, which fully demonstrates her innovation in design. And subversive, but also in line with her positioning of haute couture.

Yu Yimeng said his design style was inspired by the avant-garde photographer Man Ray and the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, dedicated to blending darkness and elegance, softness and hardness, order and chaos, "Maybe this has something to do with my background growing up in China, Instilled in me the value of balancing yin and yang," she said in an interview. The digital haute couture dresses she created for the Singapore edition of "Vogue" subtly combine soft silhouettes with hard materials. This contrast also fully demonstrates her creative philosophy. Among these three dresses, "Nirvana" and "Nirvana" Rebirth" can also be provided to users through the "Fashion New World" metaverse space to be introduced next, providing users with a free experience as a virtual avatar (female character appearance is limited).

Virtual space × virtual clone

The highlight is coming. In this global co-creation theme, Vogue Singapore and Extended Reality (XR) design expert Polycount.io worked together to create a virtual space, combining VR/AR remote collaboration carrier Spatial and cross-metaverse platform virtual With the technical cooperation of the three parties of Ready Player Me , the exclusive " Fashion New World " metaverse space for the September issue has taken shape.

In this space with multiple arch openings and surrounded by a ring-shaped wall, the left wall displays the aforementioned Midjourney AI-generated beauty unit and digital haute couture creations by Yimeng Yu, and the right side is designed by Zantz Han. Shooting, Chinese supermodel Zhang Lina performed the cover story of the September issue of "Vogue" Singapore. These contents are presented in dynamic images. When stepping on the towering stairs in the center of the square with the falling petals, the top is the The composition also uses a ladder image to represent the cover of this issue of Vogue Singapore, stepping into a new world.

According to the description in the cover story of the Singapore edition of "Vogue", the scope of this opening is only the first stage of this virtual world, and the second stage will be released simultaneously when the October issue of the anniversary issue is published. Therefore, it can be seen that there is an arched doorway at the back of the circular plaza with the letter V symbolizing the initials of the "Vogue" logo. The sign on the side reads "Unlocks October 2022". At that time, it should be possible to reach this virtual world through this arch. Second stage area.

The "Fashion New World" metaverse space built by the Singapore version of "Vogue" on the Spatial platform can be experienced through computers, mobile APPs and Meta's Oculus virtual reality (VR) headset, but if you want to try it for Create an exclusive look for your Ready Player Me character in this virtual space and wear a digital haute couture uniform from Yimeng Yu. I would suggest that it is more efficient to operate through a desktop computer or a laptop, and as mentioned earlier , the series created by Yimeng Yu are only suitable for female character appearance, but you can create multiple characters under one Ready Player Me account, so if you choose a male character at the beginning, you don't have to worry, just create another female character.

Unlike the special issue of "NFT" in the September 2021 issue of "Vogue" Singapore, which focuses on encryption art, in 2022, the Singapore market will open up the imagination of more technology and future blueprints through the global co-creation theme "Fashion's New World". Whether it is the AI beauty unit that focuses on the environment and natural evolution, or the digital haute couture with the theme of life cycle, after combining with the virtual space of the metaverse they worked hard to create, it presents a look like in the movie "Level 1 Player". The boundary between reality and virtual has become blurred, and the new world predicted by science fiction writers in their works seems to be gradually unfolding before our eyes. Although it is still not perfect, we can strongly feel that we are moving in this direction. , The Singapore version of "Vogue", which is always looking for the best balance in the combination of fashion and technology, seems to have won another beautiful battle.

What are your impressions of Vogue Singapore? What do you think of this market, which is based in the cradle of new innovations? Does the combination of fashion and technology match your imagination of the future? Welcome to share in the message. If you think the content inspires you, please share and clap, and welcome to follow my Instagram . :-)