Inside the Mind of a Fashion Prodigy
What do Rihanna, Beyoncé, the Kardashians and I all have in common?
No, not that.
We’ve all collaborated with Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing.
When Olivier was appointed, he was the youngest designer to lead any Parisian fashion house in over 60 years. Since then, he has made a habit of experimenting with technology, culture and the rules of luxury.
So when we began talking about possible projects, virtual reality jumped out as something he was intrigued by.
Balmain was not the first fashion house to try its hand at VR. But until then, the technology had mostly been used to offer a glimpse behind the scenes. Olivier was interested in something more creative. Not VR as access. VR as an artistic expression.
A challenge we took rather literally when we launched My City of Lights during Milan Design Week in 2018.
Created in collaboration with the award-winning visual effects studio MPC, My City of Lights takes viewers on a ride through Rousteing’s mind. Metaphorically.
After a long interview with Olivier, we mapped his creative journey as a series of surreal environments, each one designed to evoke a different emotional state he passes through when creating a new collection.
Viewers were plunged into uncertainty.
Then came the fire of his ambition, swallowing everything in its path.
Reality buckled around them.
The path tightened. The walls pressed in.
And just as the pressure peaked, everything tore open to reveal a way forward.
Throughout the experience, viewers were guided by an immersive 3D soundscape, mixing interview snippets, poetry and sound design to create the strange sensation of being inside his head.
For Balmain, it was also essential that the physical experience felt as considered as the virtual one.
So we took the project directly to Oculus, who invited Olivier to work with them on a unique couture headset. The result was a first-of-its-kind collaboration that felt like a luxury experience inside and out.
In just four days, the experience generated more than 3.5 million social impressions and earned an exclusive feature on Vogue.com. Following its Milan debut, it went on a global tour.
Its biggest audience came in September, when Olivier incorporated the VR experience directly into his SS19 show. The virtual journey into his creative process became the opening act before the reveal of his very real collection at Paris Fashion Week.
