fashions been sleeping like the music
industry was when digital music came to
the fork digitization is about to happen
to our clothes data by design data
becoming caramel around the body pushing
a button for fit it would be a necessity
EXO can live in people's wardrobes
digitize their clothes allow them to
live with digital technology around
their body in a very authentic amusing
interesting emotional way the fashion is
kind of still quite antiquated and the
way that we consume content is so quick
profession to to be able to keep up with
that which it has - it needs to be able
to engage an interface one way of
viewing EXO is we've heard the socket
we're enabling fashion to link and to
coupled with technology on and around
our bodies I think for both of us you
know we're fundamentally we're hybrids
we're made up of fashion designers
engineers working alongside material
experts and product designers complete
four corners coming together to
distinctively design these products so
that they're authentically fashion we
have a phrase making science fiction
science fact and that neither comes from
Benjamin Nora is a combination of
building very very strong narratives and
before we even go to technology or
design we build scenarios of future ways
of living we'll write these stories and
share these stories with our collective
to create things that feel like the
ultimate fantasy
intimacy and emotion or two really
really big things in our work and
they're very closely associated to
fashion you know we're all about
connected bodies and the emotion of
connected bodies and that's really
really key that kind of underlines what
we do so some things are about moments
big manifestations working with artists
we gather big crowds together and they
ultimately see the human body in a very
different way historically fashion was
really about spectacle and it was about
embracing the moment and what we can
bring through really fantastic inputs
and out
is this kind of new way of the artist
becoming this peacock again the story of
how we began to work with performers is
really interesting I was at the time
working at Philips Electronics and we
built a dress called the barbell which
is a blushing dress it read your levels
of arousal and blushed for you we were
no way implying that we would wander
around with a heart on our sleeves but
we were looking at the movement from
intelligent to sensitive technologies
lady gaga and her stylist makoto for
machete became obsessed with this dress
and started a campaign to try to get us
to show our work outside of the the
technology environment and then the
black IP stylist vehicleand she had been
set the brief by will.i.am we want to be
robots and she cleverly sought out all
the people that were working in wearable
tech and we were a big big part of that
multiple artists came after that Azealia
Banks what Wayne McGregor for a long
time artistic ways it was a very very
natural evolution having an element of
fan culture attached to Studio EXO is
really really important and the artists
that we're working with are enabling us
to build a level of contact with the
general public our fashion future will
be much more like a fashion past and I
think we'll invest in products and live
with them and I think the kind of
co-creative relationship between
consumer and product will totally
transform as your clothes upgrade as
you're embedding content in them as
you're transforming them for fit as the
body changes in our kind of levels of
desire and ambitions for the body
transform
I think what was brilliant for us to do
EXO is Gaga is the ultimate news Hausa
Gaga is a very very very smooth
collection of highly creative people
we've been very welcomed into that
collective I think coming from one
collective group of people who sits in a
room and makes crazy things what I
enjoyed so much about working with Nancy
and Benjamin is that they sort of do the
same thing they bring something to the
table that we can't even understand it's
so fitting the way we dream and the
kinds of things we want to create and
where she's at philosophically in her
own personal artistic development she
sees herself as an ambassador for
fashion and technology because of the
platform the audience she has there's a
really really really good fit with
volantis specifically is a very
collaborative development we had ideas
about dresses that could fly or float or
levitate the challenge was to actually
make her fly thank you so much for
coming here tonight I wanted to for the
first time ever introduce you to
volantis volantis is made up of six
large scale drones that come together to
lift Gaga off the ground
it's battery-operated and it's
completely green Gaga steps in and it's
then flown by pilots who are on the
sidelines much like you would a model
airplane or helicopter putting
technology on someone's back is not easy
I mean the way that they took a little
idea saying we want to fly and then four
months later we're flying somewhere is
shocking really
the beauty of the machine from a design
perspective was her limitations that it
was custom built specifically for Gaga
for her payloads so from our point of
view how do we create carbon-fiber dress
or something appears as a dress that's
as light and unobtrusive to the rest of
the machine weighing every element of
the garment so that we absolutely
matched it to the lift all of those
little details became paramount it's
really important to place these things
into the theater of everyday life so if
you're going to create a fly and dress
you have to create a flight suit you
need to design something
for it to be flown in you have to design
somewhere for it to fly
we built her flight Couture so
everything she was wearing a flight
jacket that she wore afterwards so it
really gave this 360 degree experience
there are so many people throughout the
years who have done technical clothing
clothing that lights up or does whatever
Nancy and Benjamin are so next level and
forward-thinking you can tell them I
need this to look like a gown and they
will sit in a room and Benjamin will sit
in the corner and do the technology and
Nancy's sketching everything and working
on the fabrics and nobody's really doing
that everybody looks like a robot in
technological clothing but Nancy really
understands femininity and women and the
need for a performer specifically jogger
to feel sexy and look sexy in this
clothing that can be somewhat cumbersome
at times
the body enclosed with the final
frontier we believe that fashion hasn't
caught up with the speed around how
every day lives and as a results there
is a space there for a new mode than you
blew them you know we believe that the
work that we are doing moment with
laying down the framework we're really
interested in dreaming up or the future
of fashioning our relationships with
technology and how as then moves closer
and closer to the body our clothes adapt
and we'll change to meet those demands
with digital skins first we see that as
you know being in an interface between
the canopy dermis and us and in some
ways that is textile material around the
body and there is so so so much
interesting stuff going on in bio
electronics and you know we can't deny
that that's happening and the kinds of
products that will happen in the future
you know everybody's kind of curious to
know you know will our skin be a
camouflage will we you know will it
actually ultimately act like a chameleon
and there are very very high chances you
know with material science they will
invade our skins but I think it has to
be in the hands you know of the right
people designed in the right way
bought the masses in the right way it
really is going to come down to
compelling design joining the dots
between engineering and creativity
co-creating with the consumer that we
can take things from the Couture
environment and scale them up in numbers
take pieces from the work that we do
with artists and on stage in a very
controlled environment and and bring
them to the masses first you know
accessories which is the the market
we're in now then we move to that
fashion as a node and then we will
ultimately get into hybrid humanism your
digital skins the whole kind of
singularity movement that's been talked
about fashion revolution we believe that
that's what's coming
you