Balmain - My City of Lights
Inside the mind of a fashion prodigy
What do Rihanna, Beyoncé, the Kardashians and I 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 expressive. Not VR as access. VR as art.
A challenge we took rather literally when we launched My City of Lights during Milan Design Week in 2018.
At that point, most fashion houses had only used virtual reality to offer people a glimpse into a world they wouldn’t normally be able to see – such as a runway show. However, we wanted to push the technology further to create something that had never been done before, something that would only be possible with VR.
Created in collaboration with the award-winning visual effects studio MPC, My City of Lights takes viewers on a virtual journey into Rousteing’s mind. It presents a metaphorical dreamscape that brings to life the emotional process he goes on when designing a new collection.
My City of Lights translated the emotional and creative process Olivier goes through when designing a collection. Not as a literal journey, but a metaphorical one.
Based on a long interview with Olivier, we mapped each stage of his process as a surreal virtual environment, designed to evoke the emotional headspace behind the work.
As viewers moved through the experience, they were guided by an immersive 3D soundscape, mixing interview snippets, poetry and sound design to create the strange sensation of being inside his mind.
As a fashion brand, 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.
