Having attended several of Dassault’s recent fashion events in both London and Paris, it’s safe to say they’re making a big push into what’s always been a 2D industry.
By launching FashionLab, Dassault has set up a ‘technology incubator’ dedicated to stylists and designers of the fashion world, with (from what we can tell) projected tools working around its Catia Natural Sketch software.
Its role in imagining “simpler but sophisticated” 3D design tools for apparel, leather goods, accessories… while being capable of “virtual showroom-back-design” is a forward step in creating working 3D tools for fashion and setting out the task of creating a new software product.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/32925829?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ff0179
To give it a boost and some advisory help, FashionLab has teamed with Julien Fournié, founder of the couture house that bears his name; Jonathan Riss, artistic director of the jewellery designers JAY AHR House, and François Quentin, a designer of complex luxury watches and founder of 4N.
“FashionLab will deliver the power of 3D experiences to a new audience and develop the next generation of fashion designers. This is a totally new approach — a breakthrough for Dassault Systèmes and the world of Fashion solutions,” stated Jerôme Bergeret, director of FashionLab, Dassault Systèmes.
Jonathan Riss, JAY AHR, said, “The luxury fashion industry can benefit from this natural evolution of the creative process, where ideas can be captured and immediately made ‘real’ through the power of virtualization and visualization.”
From the accompanying video, this seems to be based around the development of Catia Natural Sketch, and the incorporation of a quick rendering tool, although if anyone can update the design practices of fashion designers, it seems fitting that it will be a French software company.
