rag & bone unveils its spring 2021 collection in a virtual world

It’s fitting that Founder and Chief Brand Officer Marcus Wainwright has titled rag & bone’s Spring 2021 collection film Metamorphosis. In the true spirit of transformation, rag & bone is unveiling key pieces of this collection virtually in an experimental short film. This virtual collaboration features a digital avatar walking the “runway” through a New York-inspired landscape, modeling the versatile collection—from day to night—with a constant loop of styling options.

Audio description Off

The idea is to use the virtual showcase to convey the concept behind the collection, which rag & bone sees as “the essential, perfected wardrobe” with quality pieces that are made to last and “provide a sense of safety and meaning.”

Final looks of all six digital garments created for the rag & bone Spring/Summer 21 Collection.

Front view of the first look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included a poncho, gold dress, leggings complimented with boots

Back view of the first look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included a poncho, gold dress, leggings complimented with boots

Front of the third look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included a tortoise shell sunglasses, ribbed sweater, cargo pants complimented with boots

Back view of the second look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included a poncho, cargo boots complimented with boots

Front view of the third look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included a tortoise shell sunglasses, ribbed sweater, cargo pants complimented with boots

Front view of the fourth look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included the white suit pants and jacket with Ansley Slide

Front view of the fifth look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included the white suit jacket with sunday legging and Ansley Slide

Front view of the sixth look of the Metamorphosis ss21 digital garments, which included the golden slip dress, with white sling bag, legging and sliders

Explore the rag & bone spring/summer 2021 digital collection

Discover Metamorphosis—the rag & bone spring/summer 2021 collection—created in collaboration with Microsoft. Explore the realms of possibility with digital garments in this surreal virtual showcase. Available now.

Addison Rollable Poncho with Eva Slipdress (front view) | For the first look of the Metamorphosis collection, a poncho is paired with a gold dress and leggings complemented with boots.

Addison Rollable Poncho with Eva Slipdress (back view)

Addison Rollable Poncho with Cargo Pants (front view) | This second look from the collection features the Addison Rollable Poncho, but with cargo pants.

Addison Rollable Poncho with Cargo Pants (back view)

Katie Striped Sweater with Cargo Pants (front view) | The third look features tortoise shell sunglasses, a ribbed sweater, and cargo pants complemented with boots.

Katie Striped Sweater with Cargo Pants (back view)

Abby Suit with Ansley Slide (front view) | In this fourth look, white suit pants and a jacket are paired with Ansley Slide shoes.

Abby Suit Jacket and Sunday Leggings with Ansley Slide (front view) | This fifth look pairs the white suit jacket and Ansley Slide shoes with Sunday leggings.

Eva Slipdress, Sunday Leggings, Hayden Sling, and Ansley Slide (front view) | And in the sixth look, a golden slip dress is paired with a white sling bag, Sunday leggings, and Ansley Slide shoes.

Eva Slipdress, Sunday Leggings, Hayden Sling, and Ansley Slide (back view)

rag & bone honed its craft of digital creativity by tapping into Microsoft technology. From Teams to Azure Cloud, Microsoft helps to power the rag & bone creative process—including the Metamorphosis virtual showcase. Creating this short film was a collaborative process that brought together artists from around the globe—spanning fashion, design, virtual modeling, and film—using Microsoft Teams.

An early drawing of the Abby Suit

Digitally rendering the suit jacket

Close up shot of the material quality and detail of the digital garment

A closer look at the detailed fabric

A constant loop of styling options

The Azure platform then gave the team access to powerful remote graphics processing units (GPUs) that made it possible to render the rag & bone collection virtually and in 3D.

The result is a virtual showcase that shows how high-level craftsmanship and attention to detail can now carry over into digital fashion, too. The idea isn’t to replace human creativity and craftsmanship. On the contrary: it’s to preserve and evolve it with digital tools that push the realm of possibility while maintaining a high level of quality in the garments themselves.

This isn’t the first time rag & bone has used technology to unveil its collection in an unexpected way. In September of 2019, rag & bone harnessed Microsoft’s Azure Kinect DK technology to transform models and their garments into 3D pointillist images. These images were then projected onto large-scale screens within the show space, bringing the runway to life with multi-dimensional art that challenged attendees to rethink the conventional fashion show format.

Going forward, customers can continue to expect tech-infused design and innovation that reinvents everything from the design process to retail. As Marcus Wainwright says, “The process of reinvention itself is what drives our work.”