Joyce To - AMD Akademie Mode & Design

Protagonist between earth and nowhere – AMD Akademie Mode & Design

About me

Multidisciplinary fashion designer with a strong view upon society and cultural developments. Creating fashion from personal perspectives, emotions and beliefs. Focus on concept development, research, form finding through collage, draping & sketching. Good knowledge in production and material sourcing. Manual + digital approaches (procreate, adobe & CLO-3D). Work with precision, dedication and diligence in every step of the process.

About the collection

Digital worlds are all around us in the forms of social media, simulation programs and most notably in video games. Videogames are becoming an evermore important medium and will only become more integrated into our lives. The fashion industry seems to have picked up on this and many brands have had collaborations with different video games. The resulting collections have however often disappointed in integrating the concept of digital reality into their design language. As someone who has grown up playing video games, it makes me think of how many of these collections never seem to truly belong to the game they are supposed to be about.

The collaborations are still a success due to an initial hype but once that is gone, we are left with skins and clothing pieces that feel strange and lack a sense of belonging in such a world of fantasy.They mostly are copies of garments we wear in everyday life, which defeats the purpose of why we escape to digital realities in the first place. We are there because it is different from physical reality and because we get to experience things we cannot in real life. What is the point of copying the real world into the digital ones? As the world of fashion collides with the digital world, we should think about new ways of getting inspired and visualising this ever-growing fantasy world and existence created by us.

In this thesis, a personal view upon the concept of the metaverse is formed through research in gaming experience, environments & identities. This research is then focussed on the main visual inspiration MMORPG (video game) Final Fantasy XIV as it is one of the most played games that are in theory very similar to the concept of the metaverse. Research has been conducted in the form of questionnaires for the players of this game. The questionnaire was mainly to see how and what is the most important to them, in this way, the consumers views & needs can be included in creating something with the digital world as the main inspiration. The last part of the questionnaire is where the participants were asked to send in their favorite in game outfits. The final results of this research indeed shows how people do not long a copy of their physical live & identity, they want the opposite, the options to explore and experience different things, a fantasy. A very important factor that should be considered into designing for the future.With a metaverse as grand as its concept demands, the lines between our physical and digital worlds will become more and more blurred. We will want to wear clothes that seem out of the ordinary, in an attempt to stand out or blend in with one or more realities.

Fashion in the real world is often used to communicate information to others, such as your socio-economic status, personal values and or cultural affiliations. In other words, fashion carries meaning and can therefore be seen as of some importance to the wearer. In virtual realities, people exist through their avatars which serve as the embodiment of the user. Therefore, the source research, purposes and reasons are very important to be considered in designing a collection people would long for when it is inspired by this topic.This collection is a statement collection based on the purposes and values of digital realities, digital art and in-game fashion & environments. It showcases its fantastical elements as well as the desire to explore alternative storylines outside of our conventional physical reality through the silhouettes, original print designs & a unique digital outfit. Every outfit is an idealistic dreamy version of itself, as to represent this need for fulfillment that seems so unobtainable in real life. All outfits are made to look elegant, well thought out and well put together. On top of this, they all represent their own kind of protagonist that you might want to be that day.It is important to be reminded of the purpose of the digital world. Let’s celebrate the unusual.

Credits editorial pictures – Model: Ines Gärtner H&M: Haneen Ajub Background: Daniel Grant Post production: Tue Nyboe