Designed the first virtual museum for Valentino Garavani.
Valentino Garavani, renowned as Valentino, is an iconic Italian fashion designer.
In a gesture of generosity, Valentino opened the doors to his extensive legacy, offering online archives spanning five decades. These archives include nearly 100 fashion shows on video, 5,000 dresses, original sketches, and photographs, providing a comprehensive view of Valentino's world.
Recognizing the opportunity to innovate, my team at Novacom Associates in Paris embarked on a groundbreaking project: creating a real-time 3D virtual museum, a concept unseen in the fashion industry.
The challenge
As a Full-time Senior Interaction Designer at Novacom Associates, I spearheaded the effort to collaborate with a diverse and globally distributed creative team. This team included fashion designers, architects, set designers, motion designers, and 3D artists (Patrick Kinmonth and Antonio Monfreda). My role involved designing an interactive navigation system that would elevate user experience within the virtual environment, leveraging my expertise to ensure seamless interaction.
Additionally, I adapted the interface for optimal use on iPad devices, enhancing accessibility.
Furthermore, I oversaw the creation of a digital library housing over 5,000 unique creations, ensuring a rich and immersive experience for users.
The development team had chosen to use the famous Unity Technology Engine, used in video games, to create the interactive virtual environment. This choice framed the possibilities of all the designers involved in the project and posed the constraints of working in 3D.
The outcome
The culmination of our efforts was a landmark event held at the IAC Building in New York. Hosted by Anne Hathaway and attended by luminaries such as Hugh Jackman, Franca Sozzani, and Amit Sood, the launch showcased our innovative virtual museum to the world.
Following a press conference and a star-studded party, the museum garnered significant attention, drawing approximately 20,000 visitors within its first month alone. This achievement marked a magical moment for me and my team, affirming our dedication to pushing the boundaries of design and technology in the fashion industry.
Step1: The Valentino Metaverse
The goal was to create a timeless museum for the renowned fashion designer, showcasing exclusively his collections in a digital format within a 'virtual museum,' echoing the ephemeral artistic direction of the exhibitions Valentino used to create in reality but now preserved indefinitely.
I recommended an experience rooted in reality rather than just an artistic visual experience. Easy to handle, the goal was to reach the widest audience possible, and the virtual aspect allowed us some room for creativity.
The museum was originally crafted for the web to ensure broad accessibility, and Unity technology was selected for its capacity to craft interactive virtual environments with outstanding material and lighting rendering capabilities.
Real-world exhibition
Virtual exhibition
Step 2: Move around in a virtual environment
I've designed 2 navigation options for moving through the 18 environments spread across approximately 107,639 square feet.
In close relation with the architect and 3D artists.
The first uses a 3D path linked to the simulated movement of the body in space as in video games (FPS), to navigate from a room to another, user pass through a repetitive shape of the red cube, an early emblematic model of Valentino's career.
The second allows a discontinuous hypertextual circulation via the legend of the map which functions like a menu.
Step3: Interact with content
I created an interactive library to display all this content in one place.
Choose between drawing, dresses, photographers and shows, and back in time 50 years ago for each theme.
The content of the museum is divided into 3 categories:
- Dresses (physical)
- Drawings (physical and digital)
- Medias (photos and videos, physical and digital)
As this content needed to be dematerialized, I worked with service Italian and French providers to scan all documents.
The most complex challenge was that of the dresses, Mr Valentino made a selection of 400 of his masterpieces.
We had to create a device (above) to take 360° HD photos for each model (the technology at that time did not allow to digitize the models instantly in 3D, as we can do it today).
The process was long for my 2 young assistant designers who took care of an automated process of clipping and retouching (90 photos of each of the 400 dresses)
The Premiere
A magic moment for me and my team. ✨
It took place at the IAC Building in New York. Presented by Anne Hathaway (actress) and guests like Hughes Jackman (actor), Franca Sozzani (Editor in Chief of Italian Vogue), and Amit Sood (creator of Google Art Project). Followed by a press conference and a party with many famous people from fashion and cinema.
