See the Interactive Wall From Target's Phillip Lim Launch

The retailer celebrated its latest designer collaboration at an event featuring a 120-foot-long wall that interacted with guests.

Jim Shi

September 10, 2013

Faced with increasing competition from other mass market brands threatening to eat away at its share of the cheap-chic pie, Target utilized a near full-on technological experience to dazzle guests at its 3.1 Phillip Lim for Target launch on September 5. Not only was the jam-packed party the first event from a brand to take place at the much-buzzed-about Spring Studios in TriBeCa, but it also served as the debut for Target’s new “Stylescape” digital experience. The bash on the first day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week drew fashion plates such as Jessica Alba, Solange Knowles, and Maria Sharapova.

“The clean aesthetic of the space was created to reflect Phillip’s own design ethos and to ensure that the collection and our interactive wall would serve as the stars of the show,” said Target spokesman Joshua Thomas.

A screen measuring approximately 120 by 6 feet ran nearly the entire length of the glassed-in venue, a visual comprising LED panels stitched together. The raised platform erected in front of the screens served as the spot for guests to engage with the wall, with motion sensors enabled to make each of the five city locations—New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Toronto—react to movement.

“It was my very own Star Search moment,” Phillip Lim said.

Lim, who was intimately involved in every aspect of the event, enjoyed that the installation brought North American locations to New York City for Fashion Week and reinforced the versatility of the collection regardless of locale. Created specifically for Lim’s launch party, there are no immediate plans to replicate the tech format elsewhere.

Motion sensors reacted to guests at the event. In the section of the wall that represented Miami, a model danced for attendees.

Photo: BFA NYC

The centerpiece of the September 5 bash was an interactive wall that measured 120 feet long and 6 feet high. The visual created by Mother New York was divided into sections that highlighted five different locations in North America—New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas and Toronto—and responded to different movements.

Photo: Courtesy of Target

At each city section, different activities had different results on the interactive wall. For instance, in the Dallas vignette, guests could click through a projector to make different videos play on the drive-in theater screen or pull on light cords to cause different lighted moments happen—like making fireworks appear or turning on a food truck sign.

Photo: Courtesy of Target

Blowing on pinwheels in one section triggered the movement of balloons in the walls video image. In another area, an audio mixer allowed guests to push a lever to start a variety of events: a laser party with dance music, flickering taxi lights, or turning the Williamsburg Bridge lights on with the sounds of a train going by.

Photo: BFA NYC

In Toronto, guests could make Lim turn around on a park bench by taking a picture of, or with, him, or, by eating candy from a dispenser, they could trigger a sequence of all the cast members in the shot to begin eating their picnic foods.

Photo: BFA NYC