Brand Interrogation

Brand Interrogation New Codes

By Luke Owen

WIP

Creating a new reality, re-thinking what is, and creating what could be...

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Contents page

Brand Interrogation.......................................................................4-5 Concept..........................................................................................6-7 Shape.............................................................................................8-9 Digital.........................................................................................10-11 Streetwear...................................................................................12-13 Metaverse...................................................................................14-15 Uniform......................................................................................16-17 Minimalism.................................................................................18-19 Augmented Reality......................................................................20-21 What I’ve learnt from Brand Interrogation................................22-23 References........................................................................................24

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Brand Interrogation

Through the 20x20 method, I’ve highlighted what I believe to be keywords and phrases within New Codes. The following pages are going to be delving in to these in more detail, via mood-boarding and questioning why I’ve chosen these words, which will not only visually communicate what I’m trying to say, but will add reasoning and underpinning to my work in general. Something that is important to do is find out the reason why as this then leads in to a deeper understanding of my work in general.

The chosen words are about the market level and what I think is key to reaching this market level, so conceptual, exclusivity, luxury etc. Some of the words describe the consumer, for example, Gen-Z, Streetwear and digital. Some of this work will also be talking about the final production of this project and what that is going to look like in terms of the platform it sits on, will it be film, photography, an app? Many of this questions will be supported in this following process and I think having the visual and then the breakdown of the visuals next to it will be really useful in understanding New Codes as a whole.

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Concept

1. an abstract idea. “structuralism is a difficult concept” One of the main values behind my work is concept, the idea of creating a new entity that we haven’t seen before, be it digital and conceptual. Taking inspiration from artistic designers and creators as I think this is really important when it comes to creating. That we look at more than just fashion for our ideas. For example, architecture or art pieces themselves, because they can offer different ways of telling stories than we’d typically see in fashion and I think this is where we create something new within the industry, through the combination of other industries as well.

One of the main reasons I gravitate towards digital fashion, is the opportunity, the availability to defy physics, the world as we know it and when creating digitally, we can reimagine everything we’ve ever seen before. So those first concepts of a new runway show, or a new collection for Craig Green, could be a reality, in terms of creating those abstract shapes and motion that in the ‘real’ world we wouldn’t have ever previously seen.

Another approach to concept is the idea of challenging how people view what they are consuming, creating a narrative that takes some ‘reading between the lines’ or flipping the script completely and I think this has endless possibilities also. Having that added narrative as well as the visuals is something I’m trying to achieve.

I think creating something that has visual value in the immediate effect and then something that can also change with age or even within this journey itself.

Something that will be repeated is the idea that this work is part of a methodology of how we can consume digital fashion, bringing conceptual streetwear into the metaverse, but not how we once knew before, but something completely new.

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Shape

1.

the external form, contours, or outline of someone or something. “she liked the shape of his nose”

2.

a geometric figure such as a square, triangle, or rectangle.

Shape is important, something I think I’ve decided is the idea of something that is completely black and white, the purpose behind this was to create visuals that purely focused on shapes and form. I think taking away a visual aspect like colour will help focus this and make the form, the forefront of the project.

I want to mix and experiment with the ideas of organic and non-organic shapes, using all sorts of forms to create what I want. Later on I will experiment with unique architecture I can find, and I think the location of my film will also be really important as this can add another dimension to the storytelling and could maybe inspire more of the looks on my models throughout filming.

In terms of organic looks, I also find a lot of inspiration through plants and or natural landscapes so that is something that will also come later on in the book, and whether I can create a complimenting contrast with the clothing I use in the shoots. This could be a super interesting narrative to show the difference between natural and digital looks, adding another layer in to the storytelling.

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Digital

1. (of signals or data) expressed as series of the digits 0 and 1, typically represented by values of a physical quantity such as voltage or magnetic polarization.

This is an integral part of my project, the digital aspect takes up a large part of why I’m doing what I’m doing. In terms of the fashion industry, I think everyone will adopt more and more technology as time goes on, whether that be marketing and social media or design and creation. Every brand will have some sort of digital footprint that maybe goes all the way in to the metaverse or not.

Digital fashion varies a lot though, from augmented/ virtual reality to 3D design and shape shifting mannequins, the fascinating aspect to digital fashion is the pace in which it moves and how it is always evolving more and more, day by day.

The moodboard shows work from video games and fashion predominantly, as when I think of the word digital, those are the first things I think of. Avatars are a massive part of the digital landscape as that’s how we contextualise what we create in the digital universe. I think the mixing of ourselves and our digital avatars is the natural next step in creating progression in to the metaverse.

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Streetwear 1. casual clothing of a style worn especially by members of various urban youth subcultures. “she was one of the first mainstream artists to champion streetwear, wearing oversized hoodies and graphic tees” Streetwear is a massive part of my project, and culture as a whole, with most people within Gen Z and Alpha taking part in a code, group or uniform within streetwear, without realising it most of the time.

As you can see by the definitions, streetwear originated from youth culture and is known for coming from some of the biggest cities in America, like New York and along the west coast in Los Angeles. Skate culture also had a big influence on streetwear as we know it now, with brands like Supreme really doubling down on hype culture in the 90’s and still today, with competition from brands like Patta, Palace and more.

One of the reasons for my project is discovering what streetwear could be in the metaverse and what will that look like, I think we need to evolve from this uniform and everyone dressing in the same thing because I think we lose creativity and individuality especially through this, New Codes is the adaptation of this topic and I want to create a trend that will trickle down from the conceptual streetwear scene in to the mainstream streetwear scene.

Something that has become more and more prevalent in the past couple of years, is the hype and importance of logo’s within our culture, and how a certain piece of clothing makes you look or the social/ economic status it can give you. Supreme is a brilliant example of as they release ‘box logo hoodies’ every season for years and years, and they always sell out, because of the semiotics behind owning something that is seen as a staple within the streetwear scene. Or something that has blown up in the past couple of years, Nike Dunks, with Off-White making 50 collaborative designs, Kylie Jenner wearing rare dunks or influencers pushing the general market up two fold, these have taken over in terms of a streetwear identifier that gives you a free pass in to the streetwear world today.

Trends are always going to come and go within streetwear because at the moment, that’s how it works, but I think we can rethink how we consume streetwear in terms of buying/ selling and showing, which is why I think the Metaverse is a brilliant next step as it influences all three of these aspects. For instance, within the metaverse we can animate and create moving and evolving clothing to elevate fashion like we’ve never seen before, I want to experiment with this an d see how I can change streetwear into something new.

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Metaverse

1. a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.

Read that definition of the metaverse, and in a year’s time we’ll see how it’s changed…

The metaverse is still a new entity in terms of what it means, what it’ll look like and how we will interact with it, and it’s defined differently by a lot of people, for example, I’ve seen explanations talking about how it’s not just a virtual platform, but a state of mind, that is all about how we value our online persona’s more than our physical ones, so we sacrifice our ‘real’ life for the ones we show on Instagram, Twitter etc. So for some, they might already be in the metaverse. Another description is that we’ve already been in the metaverse for some time, through social media, but we just haven’t realised it. These are all super interesting theories and I think make for good conversation and debate.

But I believe the metaverse has been teased in many ways in the past, one of my favourite films in terms of subtle cultural impact is ‘Ready Player One’, which in short is ‘When the creator of a virtual reality called the OASIS dies, he makes a posthumous challenge to all OASIS users to find his easter egg, which will give the finder his fortune and control of his world.’ (Ready Player One, 2018). I included an image of this in the top left of the moodboard as I think it shows a good depiction of what the world could look like with this metaverse.

There are many brands taking the step in to the Metaverse, but one of the innovators, for me, as the Institute of Digital fashion, creating a lot of metaverse ready content and collaborating with brands to grow their impact on the industry, I’ve seen they’ve done a collaboration with Central Saint Martins, a fashion school in London, an article said this about the project ‘The project consisted of a four part-course where participants were invited to learn how to create clothing digitally, led by IoDF co-founder and creative director Cat Taylor.’ (Byrne, 2021). Meta-teaching will be super important to moving the industry forward, especially with a lot of Gen Alpha’s learning coding and more virtual skills as part of their core curriculum in school nowadays.

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Uniform

1. remaining the same in all cases and at all times; unchanging in form or character. “blocks of stone of uniform size” 2. denoting a garment forming part of a person’s uniform. “black uniform jackets” Something that came up a lot in research, is the idea of uniformity and apparently it’s a younger generation trait to do with how we what acceptance from our peers or some form of admiration from others, hence why the influencer market is on a massive boom at the moment, because they promote a copycat lifestyle that a younger, more impressionable market invest in.

But in terms of actual fashion, the term uniform can be a good or bad thing depending on the topic, for example, the idea that we’re losing our individuality through dressing the same and not having our way of standing out or wanting to be unique can be a problem, but uniform has had a positive impact in term sof giving people who maybe don’t or can’t relate to their peers, a way to relate through the clothing they wear, or find people who present themselves in a similar way, this is speaking from personal experience where in Chester, the streetwear scene isn’t very big so having a small group you can talk/ relate to has helped me grow massively.

An article I found spoke about the origins of streetwear and looked at some African-American streetwear brands that have crafted a uniform over decades that has changed the way America perceives streetwear and I found this quote really interesting ‘They favour self-expression and the home-made, DIY artsyness – they have punk roots and a new age purity. “Sincerity and creativity” according to Online Ceramics, are what unites and drives them. “We’re all artists doing our own thing, and being accepted as ourselves into the fashion world.”’ (Patty, 2019) Even though I want to move away from uniform in terms of identical looks, I can understand that many groups and tribes have benefitted from having this to identify themselves and I think creating something that looks unique visually and has it’s own look, whilst having the feeling of community and individuality is SUPER important and interesting.

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Minimalism

1.

A movement in sculpture and painting which arose in the 1950s, characterized by the use of simple, massive forms.

2.

An avant-garde movement in music characterized by the repetition of very short phrases which change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect.

Minimalism has always interesting me in terms of how it can portray a story or style, without the need for any over exaggeration or use of objects, colours, patterns styles that aren’t completely essential to the narrative.

The moodboard shows a collection of images that range from architecture, art and design which shows where minimalism is mostly used. These images have inspired ideas for what I might want to potentially do and can be useful for looking at ideas for photoshoots and how to fill ( or not fill in this case) the space for my video and lookbook.

Minimalism, in my opinion, speaks for itself and I think, can be used to stand out younger generations as we’re so used to the maximalist approach in Hollywood films, social media and our daily experiences in terms of advertising and marketing. So I think a more muted approach will be the best way to get the attention of Gen Alpha.

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Augmented Reality

1. a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.

Augmented reality as per the description, is about the integration of virtual technology in the real world, so at a basic level, something like a snapchat filter or an Instagram filter that adds an animal face on yours, or edits your face/ fore or background to something different. This can be a great tool to advertise or spread your brand on these social platforms as people feel like they’re part of something, but don’t have to invest money in to it. For example, brands will create a face filter for Instagram, that they advertise with Influencers, that contains drop dates or products that they’re about to release, this is a great way to interact with people and is basically free advertisement that can go as far as good the filter is.

Brands like Gucci and Dior have already used snapchat filters to advertise virtual sneakers that you can try using your camera on your phone, just by searching their name on snapchat. This is a subtle way that a lot of brands use to advertise now. The Institute of Digital Fashion have utilised augmented reality a lot in the past couple of years. One of the projects they’ve worked on is with Machine-A, the London based concept store that focuses on virtual reality clothing, ‘The virtual store, a first for a luxury multi-brand retailer, was developed in partnership with the Institute of Digital Fashion to coincide with London Fashion Week’s start on February 19. Machine-A will showcase the work and inspiration of emerging UK designers like Martine Rose, Richard Quinn and A-Cold-Wall, to boost visibility during a particularly quiet fashion month that’s limited to digital-only shows and experiences. The project was strategised, delivered and funded by IoDF.’ (Chitrakorn, 2021).

This was made during lockdown to get around the fashion week, and the lack of in physical events we have. Now lockdown is finished and we have more access to more sets and technology. Augmented reality has a lot of potential and a massive part of the future of digital fashion in my opinion, from marketing new products to providing more in-depth remote services and fashion fittings etc. This is something that will be used from fast fashion brands all the way up to luxury and conceptual fashion brands and designers. In terms of the metaverse, I think it has a lot of positives to add, and I think it’ll adapt and become more and more potent in different ways as we move in to more digital reliant world.

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What I’ve learnt from the brand interrogation

Some of the words, after creating visuals and writing a short piece on some of my more important words, have similarities and I think I can connect the dots in terms of what I want to create and how I want to create it. For example, the key points I’ve taken from minimalism, shape and concept are that of a striped back colour scheme and something that has a vocal point, an area of focus with a backdrop. This I think heavily supports and shows minimalism and conceptual ideas.

Shape was something that I thought I’d struggle to find inspiration for, but after looking at architecture and interior/ exterior design, I understand the complexity and detail in shape and design more than before, I think this aids in looking at locations, whether that be a physical location that I can build upon, or potentially thinking of a virtual location, that I can green screen or photoshop my models in to.

This is where the digital aspect comes in, so on my mood-board I looked at the metaverse type of content, so 3D virtual graphics and then a more classic video game context that I think has a lot of value in terms of how to go about making something that, as this is a concept, I think I’m going to look at 3D modelling programs on my phone to potentially create part of my final production. Games like Crysis and The Witcher are famous for their realistic and visuals and conceptual drawings, I’m going to do concept boards and specific imagery collating for the location design.

The metaverse type of design would be a more digital look like the Matrix or Tron as basic examples, something that is overtly virtual. Which I think would need proper preparation around the minimalistic approach as I don’t want to go against this as it’s one of my brand ‘values’. This approach would require collaboration or a more complex photoshoot in terms of location and integration of technology. I think if I went more digital, I’d like to create some augmented reality pieces, like I’ve shown previously, like filters for Instagram and augmented reality that we can use in the fashion film also.

Something to consider is how these can relate to Gen Alpha and my consumer in particular, how do this visuals connect to my audience, whilst offering something fresh and new that either innovates or creates a new perspective. We’ll talk more about the digital natives and how gen Alpha in theory, should and would appreciate the digital fashion world more than any other generation before them.

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References

Augmented Reality (AR). (2022). Retrieved from Gartner Glossary: https:// www.gar tner.com/en/infor mation-technology/glossar y/augmented-reality-ar Byrne, A. (2021, December 28). The Institute of Digital Fashion collaborates with Central Saint Martins. Retrieved from FashionUnited: https://fashionunited.com/education/news/ the-institute-of-digital-fashion-collaborates-with-central-saint-martins/2021122844771 Chitrakorn, K. (2021, February 19). An augmented reality shopping boutique is here. Retrieved from Vogue Business: https://www.voguebusiness.com/ consumer s/augmented-reality-store-machine-a-institute-of-fashion-design Douglas, R. (2022, January 24). Instagram to introduce trial subscription service for creators. Retrieved from Fashion United: https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/instagram-to-introduce-trial-subscription-service-for-creators/2022012460809 Patty, F. (2019, March 14). How Streetwear became a uniform for progressive youth culture around the world. Retrieved from i-D: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/7xnj9x/how-streetwear-became-a-uniform-for-progressive-youth-culture-around-the-world Ready Player One. (2018). Retrieved from Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/

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