As more and more events head into digital territory, the use of three-dimensional technology is continuing to gain steam. The fashion industry appears to be at the forefront of the trend. Joining brands like Burberry, Ralph Lauren, and Norma Kamali, Forever 21 staged a three-dimensional fashion show, promoting new merchandise to press and consumers at the Daryl Roth Theater on October 25. However, the cost-effective presentation wasn't the first from the Los Angeles-based retailer: Forever 21 debuted the model-free runway display in Vienna, Austria, on April 29 and took it to other stops in Europe before hitting the U.S. in October. Conceived by the clothing company's digital agency Space150, the seven-minute show was a simple and eye-catching way to draw attention from consumers and press, as well as introduce the brand to new areas.
"The show is on a traveling tour—it started off in Vienna, Austria, and traveled to Brussels, Belgium. It was in London in July, in Los Angeles on October, 20], here, and then it's going to China," said Chris Rose, Forever 21's special events and PR coordinator. "We decided to have a 3-D show because we knew we were launching into all these new markets and we wanted to do something different. Something creative, something digital."
With a relatively small amount of staging—compared with the production elements necessary for presentations with live models—the show consists of three dimensional holographic models walking toward the audience, ascending a vaporous staircase, posing amid digital green raindrops, and disappearing in twinkling bursts of light.
For the stops in Los Angeles and New York, the program was accompanied by Forever 21's first foray into pop-up shops, sites stocked with looks from the show and staffed by employees from the retailer's existing stores. Forever 21 also used the temporary retail areas to test out new handheld cash registers created by loading point-of-sale technology onto iPhones.