Womenswear
Eva Lili Bartha
Lili Eva Bartha is a postdisciplinary designer, whose work focuses on discovering new horizons in fashion and embodiment, with the use of innovative tools and cross-realm work. Her practice is led by her passion to improve the unsustainable state of the fashion system. Firstly, by looking at digital fashion design and emerging technologies such as VR and AR, whose implications can improve businesses while reducing socio-environmental footprint. Secondly, by looking at the physical, implementing Circular Economy models to encourage the fashion community to reduce pre- and post-consumer waste.
Working in multiple realms provides opportunity to connect the physical understanding of fashion with its digital expansion, while multisensorial and immersive experiences, informed by haptic and audio research in Virtual Reality, provide a platform to connect and communicate this diverse body of work.
Having a background, that combines a scientific mindset with an innovative design thinking, results in a unique perspective on the creative sector. Initially trained to be an Applied Mathematician (Applied Mathematics MSc, University of Szeged), studying the building blocks of the universe drives Lili’s practice to question the definitive system of fashion itself, and reinvent the notion of ‘garment’ and ‘wear’.
Lili assisted bespoke designers in a number of countries (Mary Katrantzou, London; Manish Arora, Paris and New Delhi). She’s also been a freelance designer in London (KTZ London, Modern Mirror NY) while attending the Fashion MA course at the Royal College of Art. Her works have been showcased and exhibited in San Francisco (Arts of Fashion 2016), London (Immersive Kind Future of Fashion Showcase 2020, Royal College of Art SustainLab exhibition 2020) and Copenhagen (Copenhagen Fashion Week, CIFF 2018, AWOW Fashion Technology Showcase 2018). Lili has been granted the Entrepreneurship Grant of the Danish Export School in 2018. Her flair for a broader research-based work resulted in a number of acknowledgements: Future of Work, Microsoft, RCA–Winner Team, 2019 March, Creative Tech Lab selection, LCF + Arcade East + East London Dance, 2019 July, HTC Vive Hackathon–Winner Team, 2020 January, and she is a proud member of Digi–GXL, an inclusive, 24/7 global community and support network championing womxn, trans and non-binary people who specialize in 3D design and animation.
Lili Eva Bartha is currently researching the impact that emerging technologies could have on the fashion industry: digital materiality and virtual craftsmanship, gamified interactions in digital showcase environments, VR / AR showcase and try-on opportunities by the use of body-tracking, motion capture and body scanning, research on immersive, multisensory experiences investigating human presence in the digital through reactive environment and interaction design with the use of Interactive Machine Learning.
‘Would you wear a digital garment made out of liquid glass? What would your body look like, if you could customize it without any limitations? What kind of universe would you build for yourself, if you could live simultaneously in reality and in fiction?’
“ Horizons”, the digital work presented here, explores a possible future for fashion design and its showcase, touching on the growing role that the digital realm plays in our everyday lives. The work invites the viewer into an overarching digital framework, pushing the boundaries of fashion as we know it. From intricate details such as body tailoring, through virtual craftsmanship to world building, the possibilities are endless. Having multiple directions, the work also looks into new approaches to fashion collections, as an alternative to traditional collection development by reducing the number of physical looks by 50%, and introducing physical-digital look pairings. The digital designs then can be ‘worn’ over on the physical, visualized via Mixed Reality headsets such as Magic Leap, while physical ‘hybrid’ soft robotics garment panels provide haptic feedback on the body, synchronized with the movement of the digital garment to give an impression of its presence. Due to current critical circumstances, the physical looks have been executed digitally as well, being ready for physical manufacture when the times are appropriate. Presenting content in mixed realms will result in a range of interactive showcase options: from 360 experience in our browser, to Virtual and Augmented Reality application, the collections can be viewed on a full spectrum of immersion levels. The viewer becomes a participant, a player, an equal element to the experience, walking among 3D scanned or imaginative models, interacting with the looks. The collection pieces can be tried on: in real-time, in synchrony with our own body movement, or as a filter on social media.
“ Horizons” is also part of an exploratory research initiated by Lili Eva Bartha's digital studio, Digital Fashion Framework (DFF), an extensive digital platform working with 3D fashion design and creative XR (VR, AR, MR), founded in 2020, while attending the Fashion MA course of at the Royal College of Art. DFF provides consultancy for small and medium independent fashion labels with digital implementation and sustainable business model modifications, engaging with the designers of today in a much needed discussion on how one’s practice can contribute to the improvement of fashion at large.
"I believe that innovative solutions such as the work presented here, showing the potential of digital tools and their implications regarding the fashion system’s socio-environmental impact, can be a part of the change so needed. I am ready to initiate and join discussions moving things forward, to lead but also follow, to listen as well as act. Innovation and improvement derives from an open mind, willing to share knowledge and skills, while embracing and supporting the community. " - Lili Eva Bartha
