Ever watch a runway show and think to yourself, I wish I could wear that right now? Well, you’re in luck: Carolina Herrera is giving you the opportunity to instantly wear a design from its new spring 2022 collection, which was shown during New York Fashion Week yesterday. And given it’s a virtual frock, you can instantly slip into it with the click of a button.
This season Carolina Herrera’s creative director, Wes Gordon, partnered with Tribute Brand—an innovative company that makes digital clothing which consumers can buy and “paste” onto themselves—to digitize one of its runway looks. About two months ago, Gordon had stumbled upon Tribute’s Instagram feed, and he was instantly intrigued by what they were doing and wanted to work with them. He also saw parallels between their brand and Carolina Herrera. “We both share a love for bold and dramatic silhouettes,” says Gordon. “So much of what we do at Herrera is about dressing to stand out and to be the life of the party—not wallflower clothes—and that’s what I love about Tribute.”
Together, they decided to digitize look 45 from the new collection: a voluminous, black strapless ball gown that is adorned with embroidered bows and mounds of tulle. The digital versions, however, are available in two different colors—Good Girl red and Herrera pink—and you can try on the gowns with the official Herrera x Tribute app, which launched yesterday. “The feeling of wearing real, beautiful clothes—you can never replicate that,” says Gordon. “However, in this world we’re living in right now, where sometimes we’re forced to be separated from other people, this is a whimsical, fun way to play dress up and allow for that bit of fantasy—without the limitations.” Gordon also loved the idea that virtual clothes are perhaps more accessible than real ones. “It can be worn by anyone, anywhere, regardless of budget and body type,” he says.
For this partnership, Tribute handled the technical side of digitizing the gowns: They create the virtual pieces using 3D software, and once the garments are complete, they then use another software to paste the outfit onto a customer’s image that they submit. To debut the new virtual designs, Gordon enlisted two pop superstars—Charli XCX and Kim Petras—to model the gowns. For the designer, these two celebrities were the perfect encapsulation of innovation and disruption—two themes of the collaboration with Tribute. “Charli and Kim are both leaders of the pop genre right now,” says Gordon. “They're both total champions of incorporating tech into their art forms.”
For Gordon, the collaboration was about more than just a campy celebrity Instagram fit pic, though. “The entire process of working with Tribute was eye-opening for me,” he says. “It’s just a reminder that we live in a magical moment with infinite possibilities."
