Ravensbourne celebrated in The Future Laboratory Future Forecast 2021
Ravensbourne’s ‘Rave Digital’ project has been spotlighted as one of the ’50 inter-Covid cross sector innovations’ by The Future Laboratory Future Forecast 2021: Youth report, which celebrates extraordinary forward-thinking work by young people.
Rave Digital debuted in July 2020 as an innovative collaboration between Ravensbourne’s BA (Hons) Fashion and BA (Hons) Games Design students. The event was the first of its kind for a fashion course, rising from of the ashes of the devastating impact of Covid-19 on live events.
Launched in lieu of the traditional catwalk show, ‘Rave Digital’ featured collections from 10 of our fashion students. These were realised as digital clothes on digital avatars which, with the expertise of the gaming students, were then animated and uploaded into a virtual game-like catwalk show hosted on Twitch.
The event established Ravensbourne as a pioneer of the burgeoning world of digital fashion, and was met with huge critical acclaim, earning praise from outlets including Vogue, Forbes and LOVE magazine.
Just 6 months after the Rave Digital event, many of the students whose work was featured in the show have already made their mark on the digital fashion landscape.
One alumnus, Alexander Knight, has released his debut 13-piece collection on Dress-X, an LA-based fashion start-up that sells digital clothes. When making a purchase, you upload a picture of yourself and later receive an edited photo back of you wearing the piece. His work has been featured extensively by The Future Laboratory in their Future Forecast 2021 promotions.
Another alumna, Hannah Prince, was hired by Techstyler to launch her own Youtube series providing accessible education on new technologies and sustainability.
As the industry adapts to fast-evolving contemporary challenges, pioneering digital techniques will help reinvent fashion, and revolutionise issues around sustainability and inclusivity. Ravensbourne will offer all second-year Fashion students the option of taking a dedicated Digital Technology for Fashion pathway, which will equip them with the latest digital tools to thrive in this exciting, emerging discipline.
Ravensbourne Fashion Programme Director, Lee Lapthorne said, “I’m delighted that our Rave Digital initiative has been recognised as pioneering by so many journalists. The idea for developing our digital offering during the Covid crisis came to the forefront after I realised that we needed to innovate to offer our students the best opportunity to showcase and promote their portfolios.
“Through my On|Off London Fashion Week connections, we have been able to offer our students key industry guest speakers including Charles Jeffrey, Matty Bovan, Halpern and successful sustainable designer Christopher Raeburn. It was during a conversation with Raeburn that inspired me to take action and drive forward with our digital focus and our approach.
“Further to the success of Rave Digital we are now the first to university to offer a Fashion Design Pathway: Digital Technology for Fashion. Not only does this pathway respond to the sustainability agenda, but it also future-proofs our students for the fashion industry.
“I'd like to thank my team and the gaming course team for all their hard work and being so open to collaboration.”