META’SENS / @ THE ROWE / London Fashon Week SS23
Jens Laugesen, the creative mind of the award-winning eponymous brand and founder of holistic/design/luxury/tech advisory collective KONSENS X, together with an international collective of talented digital artists, VIRTUAL TOUCH digital lab team in Hong Kong and supported by the DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION, presents the META\SENS digital collaboration project.
VIRTUAL EXHIBITION /
Tomotheus Vermeulen & Robin van der Akker / Notes on Metamodernism /
INRECON 02 TRILOGY /
In the second instalment of the new INRECON trilogy, Jens Laugesen expresses the transcending of his hybrid design thinking, shifting from analogue craftsmanship and VHS video format to include a new digital fashion media, exploring the metaphysical space between garment making and mixed media digital fashion with a new glitch film, done in collaboration with Film Editor Maxim Young
With META\SENS digital fashion collaboration project, he sets out to explore the meaning of new visual hybrid semantics and align his work in the metaverse with the metamodern in-between arena as defined by Dutch theorist Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van der Akker, exploring the oscillation between a certain nostalgic return to the past and utopian dream of the future and the enlarged space between body and garment in the post-pandemic metaverse.
CREATIVITY IN THE METAVERSE /
The behind-the-creative-process film showcases the creative process behind creative collaboration.
/ / Metamodernism displaces the parameters of the present with those of a future presence that is futureless; and it displaces the boundaries of our place with those of a surreal place that is placeless. For indeed, that is the ‘‘destiny’’ of the metamodern wo/man: to pursue a horizon that is forever receding. / /
Notes on Metamodernism by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van der Akker / 2010 /
CREATIVE 3D DRAPING /
Building on the meta-redefinition of hybrid space and in-between garment objects, this project juxtaposes his craft training in artisan couture draping techniques with new digital design and pattern cutting and 3D development methodologies.
By combining conventional low-tech craft with the latest high-tech digital, he sets out to explore how digital draping tools of Clo3d or Browzwear can be used not only as a visual rendering of ultimate super realistic fantasies and digital garment/pattern production tools but also as a creative cut-and-paste iteration tool, similar to the analogue collage artworks of the surrealist and the post-digital photoshop 2D design aesthetic of the 90s.
/ / I reached out to a group of talented international digital artists to explore the digital process inspiration of multiple in-between design outcomes. I asked them to work individually from two iconic typologies from the garment design vocabulary I had developed since 2018, when I was relaunching my brand on a more conceptual level in London, Paris and Copenhagen Fashion Weeks, supported by the DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION / /
Jens Laugesen /
The systematic documentation of these unexpected tech-generated bold colours has inspired the expansion of his traditionally preferred black and white signature design universe to include saturated greens that signify digital w bright, post-pandemic optimistic greens in the transient from winter to summer as witnessed in the spiritual Himalayan Mountain landscape.
EXPANDED SILHOUETTE /
The unisex iconic tailored flap jacket and the long-back tuxedo shirt are explored in different sizes from 100-150 % to pattern scale, experimenting with volume and the spaces between body and garment. Working from archetype garment pattern blocks, newly expanded volumes are explored by enlarging patterns or digitally pulling the pattern pieces away from the body inside the CLO3d software.
The discovery of the multicoloured tech rendered ‘polygon’ threads identifying the digital seams when pulling digital pattern pieces in the 3D space, illustrating the enlarged area of the expanded garment silhouette and identifying the in-between design space whilst referencing the fragmented aesthetic of the digital glitch.
VIRTUAL GALLERY /
To showcase the film and digital design collaboration, he has developed an immersive design experience in partnership with the leading Hong Kong-based digital fashion lab VIRTUAL TOUCH to render an interactive virtual meta modern gallery space for the audience to discover and explore the collaborative design project.
Referencing a positive facing post-pandemic longing for holistic connection, visitors can enter the rendered 3D gallery space in a nostalgic utopian metaphysical/spiritual world with references to the Himalayan Mountains, with the white tile aesthetic found in the Avantgarde architectural work of Jean Pierre Renaud and SUPERSTUDIO, the leading Italian studio of the 60s.
METAVERSE FASHION COUNCIL /
Jens Laugesen recently joined the METAVERSE FASHION COUNCIL DAO as a Business member of the growing community. He ess recently invited to give. a keynote about his creative journey and transformation from microbiology and couture to reconstructing his innovative brand from launching the award-winning eponymous brand and consulting with a new PHYGITAL brand concept to be found in London Fashion Week in 2023.
/ / We are excited to be involved in this digital fashion collaboration with JENS LAUGESEN for London Fashion Week. His project and interest in how digital can be used as a creative tool is very much in tune with what we do at VIRTUAL TOUCH, and we believe the close collaboration between his conceptual talent and vision and our creative digital team will showcase the true power of how physical and digital fashion can truly converge. This collaboration project is the start of a magical journey between us, taking fashion to a new digital era and beyond. / /
KC MAN / Ceo / Founder / VIRTUAL TOUCH
META\SENS TRILOGY COLLECTIVE /
The METASENS TRILOGY project is don in collaboration with an incredible group of talented digital artist joining the collective to collaborate on immersive digital project and phygital film/installation projects.
The first LFW collaboration would not have been possible without the creative collaboration of the following digital artists, partners and creative collaborators below.
Creative Director / Jens Laugesen / @jens_laugesen_official /
Film Editor / Maxim Young / GORILLA EDITORS / @gorilla_editors
Film Editor assistant / Caden Steed / @gorilla_editors
Rahul Verma / Mumbai / @noform.io
Giancarlo Pazzanese / Amsterdam / @gianpazza
Taya Reder / New York / @studio.taya
Oscar Keene / Melbourne /@oscar.keene.designs
Joel Quadri / Switzerland / @joel_quadri
Pinanki Shah / India / @pinanki_here
Sound Design / Composition / Gustave Robic / @aer.side
CD Assistant / Design editor / Pinanki Shah / @pinanki_here
VIRTUAL TOUCH /
KC Man / CEO & Founder / @virtualtouch_official
Alan Hau / Global Head of Creative Partnerships / @virtualtouch_official
