London College of Fashion and Microsoft have unveiled the 'Future of Fashion Incubator'; a program sparked by creativity and meaningful innovation, allowing select group of students across disciplines to experiment with Microsoft technologies to develop ideas that transform the fashion industry.
This exclusive film highlights the students and the technology that have allowed them to bring their vision of the future of fashion to life with stunning results, unveiling innovative ideas with the very real potential to re-shape the industry.
“Collaborating with Microsoft to empower our students with emerging technologies across courses through this project is incredibly exciting.” says Matthew Drinkwater, Head of Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion. “Fusing business ideas with mixed reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, ultimately, will allow a pathway to creating the digital designer business of the future.”
The Incubator comprises of a short-term intensive program, where top students from LCF's Fashion Business School, School of Design & Technology, and School of Media & Communication, collaborated in six multi-disciplinary groups. Over the course of the term, students attended workshops and explored various Microsoft technologies and their impact on the fashion industry – including Mixed Reality/3D, the Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence – all powered by Azure. As part of the program, once the student concepts were established, teams consulted with Incubator Ambassadors Charli Cohen, Hayley Elsaesser, Sofia Barattieri, Natasha Franck, Sophia Matveeva and Bia Bezamat.
Their vision of the future of fashion was brought to life with stunning results unveiling innovative ideas such as an MR store for an immersive multi-brand luxury experience, a smart tagging service for brands who want to track the biography of their garment’s lifecycle and a AI driven smart personalised advertising service, to name a few.
"It has been amazing to partner with London College of Fashion and their Fashion Innovation Agency, to push the boundaries of how technology can really drive impact and foster alternative creative thinking in fashion. The future of the industry is enrolled here, and we want to empower them to make a purposeful difference —not just now, but also when they enter the industry." said Maruschka Loubser, Senior Global Marketing Manager, Microsoft.
Preview the on YouTube here!
About THE TECHNOLOGY
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Microsoft AI systems are designed to augment what people do. The goal is to make AI available to everyone and ensure that AI tools and technologies earn the trust of all. Our AI systems are designed to augment what people do. Our goal is to make AI available to everyone. And we’re committed to making sure that our AI tools and technologies earn the trust of all. AI is already having a tangible, useful impact on many people’s day-to-day lives, whether it’s helping someone quickly create an impressive PowerPoint presentation or allowing people from two different countries to communicate across language barriers. Put simply, AI is the ability of machines to exhibit the kind of intelligence that people have: to see images, hear words and interpret things people do, like gestures and even emotions.
Mixed Reality (MR) – Introducing the era of mixed reality – from augmented reality, to virtual reality, and everything in between, mixed reality empowers us to break free beyond boundaries. Bring digital content into your world. Overlay digital content onto your real world, discovering new dimensions for your work, play, and creations. Blend the digital with the physical and place holograms in the space around you to bring together people, places, and objects from your physical and digital worlds. Transport yourself to new places. Step into immersive digital environments to surround yourself with exciting gaming experiences and extraordinary new worlds. Explore beyond boundaries. Mixed reality will unleash the creativity of every person and every organization on the planet. Forever change the way you collaborate, create, learn, and play.
Internet of Things (IoT) – The Internet of Things is the convergence of artificial intelligence, cloud and edge computing. Containerise cloud workloads – such as Azure Cognitive Services, Machine Learning, Stream Analytics and Functions – and run them locally on devices from a Raspberry Pi to an industrial gateway using Azure IoT Edge. Manage edge applications and devices with Azure IoT Hub, scaled to support your solutions running in the cloud or in private environments such as Azure Stack.
About Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
About Fashion Innovation Agency, London College of Fashion University of the Arts London Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) at London College of Fashion, UAL is on a mission to rewire the industry and build truly digital designer businesses by connecting big brands in digital and technology with fashion designers. Working with emerging technologies, the FIA are helping designers and brands change the way they make, sell or show their collections. The FIA has an extensive network within both fashion and technology and are closing the gap between these industries through our understanding of the opportunities and the challenges that exist. They have delivered ground- breaking and award winning projects in wearable technology, AR/VR and Blockchain.
London College of Fashion: Shaping Lives Through Fashion London College of Fashion, UAL is a world leader in fashion design, media and business education. In boundary-pushing research where fashion intersects with science, engineering, and technology, and in enterprise, where it partners with top brands and helps launch new business. It has been nurturing creative talent for over a century, offering courses in all things fashion. Across every subject, it encourages students to examine the past and challenge the present. To have inventive, assertive ideas that challenge social and political agendas. It gives them the skills, opportunities – and above all, the freedom – to put those ideas into practice.
