Over the past year, designers have had to create new ways to present their collections - take a look at what Demna Gvasalia, Marine Serre and other top designers have done

Since the Covid-19 pandemic closed borders and made mass gatherings impossible, designers have had to find new ways to show their collections virtually.

In November, Gucci held GucciFest.

This week-long mini-art festival showcases 15 short films from emerging designers such as Bianca Saunders, Priya Ahluwalia and Charles De Vilmorin.

Since then, we've seen Demna Gvasalia launch The Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2021 collection under the name Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow, a multi-platform experience built using the latest virtual reality capture technology.

Next week, we'll see social networking site IMVU host a digital runway show featuring brands such as Collina Strada, Gypsy Sport and Mowalola.

While the fashion industry has dabbled in this area before (Louis Vuitton and Prada have both dressed characters in "League of Legends" and "Final Fantasy" games, respectively), over the past year, A new generation of designers - including Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, Casey Cadwallader of Mugler, and Marine Serre - collaborate with digital artists seeking to leverage emerging technologies to push the boundaries of what they can reach.

Here, some of these creatives talk to us about the new digital frontier of fashion.

Hillary Taymour commissioned collaborators to produce video games and films for her Collina Strada pre-fall 2021 series (which premiered as part of GucciFest), Two of them are French-born, New York-based multi-disciplinary artist Freeka Tet and animator Jefferson Wenzel.

The latter also worked on Taymour's Spring/Summer 2021 launch, animating characters drawn by artist Sean Kierre Lyons, and later developing some of these ideas for use in video games.

Tet turned Wenzel's video game into the film Collina Land, and went on to collaborate with Taymour on her Fall/Winter 2021 launch, which featured the likes of playwright Jeremy O Harris and model Ruby Aldridge as Animorphs-inspired characters.

Jefferson, after you finished animating the Spring/Summer 2021 series, what ideas were you interested in developing for video games?

"Video games can provide a level of engagement that I don't think traditional media can sometimes achieve. It's about creating something that is both fun and expressive, and video games are the perfect medium, especially for the fashion world. Fashion is about vision, and so are video games. A traditional fashion show is certainly a great presentation of a brand's visual identity, but being able to participate in a game as a model wearing pieces from the collection and exploring the virtual world with them is especially memorable."

Freeka, how would you like to see fashion designers engage with digital technology in the future?

"I'd be interested to see them focus more on selling only designs (3D models, patterns), so you can tailor clothes to the design and then limit production only as needed."

2. Dimension Studio

When Balenciaga unveiled its Fall/Winter 2021 collection via video games, the fashion press and gamers hailed it as a watershed moment, bringing together luxury and virtual worlds to create exciting possibilities.

An immersive adventure set in the city of 2031, the project is a collaboration between different studios around the world (Dimension Studio, Substance & Inhalt, and Streamline).

While working in Paris during the lockdown, Dimension Studio used the Polymotion stage truck (a truck with 106 cameras) to film 50 models using the most advanced stereo panoramic photography technology, turning them into avatars for video games.

Simon Windsor, Co-founder, Dimension Studio: "We're just dipping our toes into this trend - through the interactive world of the web, the use of game engine technology, avatars and three-dimensional video, all offer powerful new ways to bring the world of fashion to life, allowing brands to expand their universe." Designers are presenting in new ways, buyers are able to try before they buy, and customers are experiencing brands in a more meaningful and sustainable way."

Will interactive, immersive experiences become an alternative to fashion shows in the future?

"The only limit to the future is our imagination - we can break the laws of physics and brands can create interactive playgrounds for people to immerse themselves in." This could greatly increase the fashion industry and retail brands' access to ideas, and the key is to make the experience more entertaining and targeted for customers. The shift from physical to virtual opens up huge opportunities for fashion and retail - without the constraints of geography and physics, there are no limits to creativity and sustainability.