“The metaverse is incredible”: haute couture 2.0 by Julien Fournié | Arabnews en<

BUSSY-SAINT-GEORGES, France: French fashion designer Julien Fournié has canceled his show for fear of creating a “haute couture cluster” in Paris in the midst of a pandemic, but no regrets: outfits filmed for his collection will be on a gaming platform video that reaches a billion people.

She, played by Czech model Michaela Tomanova, wears a short tutu-style petticoat, long gaiters and mittens. He, played by Julien Fournié, is in a superhero suit. They meet in a virtual world, take off their helmets, look at each other and marvel.

“Love is magic, metaverse is amazing” (love is magic, the metaverse is incredible), we learn from a song broadcast on a loop during filming in a large studio in Bussy-Saint-Georges, 30 km from Paris.

- "Obsolete" fashion designer -

The film will be released on January 25 as part of haute couture week and was to accompany the show scheduled for the same date, but which was canceled, the house not wishing to create "a Paris haute couture cluster" given the extent of contamination by Omicron.

"The parades are the apotheosis of a collection, but if unfortunately we can't parade, we will have this sublime film which was the first choice and which will be broadcast worldwide on Tencent platforms", explained to the AFP Julien Fournié in his dressing room putting on makeup, before the decision to cancel the parade was taken.

Then “nothing will prevent us from traveling, from making micro-presentations all over the world with our clients. I will soon be leaving for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China,” he continues.

If the health crisis is a logistical headache and upsets the way fashion houses work, Julien Fournié nevertheless draws a positive balance from the two years of Covid which, according to him, forces designers to question themselves and become “multifaceted”.

“The profession of fashion designer as it was 10 years ago is completely obsolete. With the Covid you have to re-enchant the world and bring a new dimension to your work, there are now plenty of means thanks to social networks, digital, metaverse”, he lists.

We enjoyed learning how to emboss metal today with @artisnaples! We were so proud of the beautiful artwork we crea… https://t.co/tFzK5ZQYRt

— Katie Schneider, M.Ed Fri May 03 03:35:50 +0000 2019

At the beginning of December, he propelled haute couture into the metaverse, this virtual world on which digital giants including Facebook work, via the Battle Royale game PUBG Mobile which affects a billion people in the world.

- For 13-25 year olds -

Players can acquire clothing and accessories for their avatar here.

With the film for the haute couture collection, he is continuing his momentum and intends to eventually create the “digital Julien Fournié house” to “respond to the requests” of video game designers who “know how to make avatars, but not clothes”, as well as helping fashion houses invest in the metaverse.

The playful side and aesthetics of video games run through the entire collection: the first dress is presented by a model on a roller skate. draft and fly away.

The tops are made from tangles of colored elastic, the suits are flexible because we “want lightness, we no longer want to be in shackles”.

For Julien Fournié, the foray into the metaverse will attract a new, younger clientele and promote accessories.

"It's now not just women in their 60s, but also young girls who dream of the innovation and grandeur of haute couture," he says. “The gamers are between 13 and 25 years old, that's what starts to get interesting. It will be an incredible medium for selling accessories, eyewear licenses, perfumes or handbags”.