London College of Fashion unveils tech prototypes with Microsoft

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 11, 2018

A partnership between Microsoft and London College of Fashion has seen students embrace cutting-edge technologies like mixed reality, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to explore the future of fashion.

The prototypes and proposals were presented at the London College of Fashion’s BA18 degree show in a “layered and multisensory visual-sonic experience” in east London’s Oval Space last week.

They were the results of a semester-long incubator co-created by Microsoft, where students across both the bachelor’s and master’s programs applied to participate to learn more about new technologies and ways of integrating them into the fashion world.

Microsoft provided the resources and technological assistance, with additional input coming from industry insiders.

The groups worked on developing AI-assisted digital signage for fashion retail, a style assistant app that locates complementary garments in-store, an activewear-embedded running app, RFID threads to track a garment’s life cycle, a mixed reality store, and a digital tool for retailers to experiment with elements like store layout and visual merchandising.

The ‘Future of Fashion Incubator was supported by  sustainability-minded designer Charli Cohen; fashion creative Sofia Barattieri; Bia Bezamat, innovation editor of TheCurrent; Sophia Matveeva, CEO of Style Counsel; designer Hayley Elsaesser; and Natasha Franck, CEO of EON and a past winner of the H&M Global Change Award.