Clowning around: Fashion film uses gaming software

New York – Digital artists Reed + Rader have released the world’s first fashion film made using video games technology.

Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader created the fashion editorial, Brave New World, for American fashion publication V magazine. The film stars models Sophie Sumner, Kelsey Gerry and Aysche Tiefenbrunner, and features brands such as Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood and Agent Provocateur. The viewer is given a tour of a fantastical circus, complete with a mermaid, cigarette-smoking clowns and a girl who is trapped in a bottle.

The film was made using the Unreal Engine, software designed for the creation and development of video games. ‘It’s something I’ve been playing around with since I was a kid,’ Matthew Rader tells LS:N Global.

Rader says the boundaries between gaming and other art forms are melting away. ‘Gaming ideas have infiltrated culture,’ he says. Reed + Rader plan to expand Brave New World into a larger immersive experience. ‘We’re really excited about having people explore environments that we create, whether or not that has any gaming mechanics to it.’

LS:N Global previously explored fashion films in our piece on Prada’s Futurist Montage and the convergence of art and gaming in our Innovate on Morphopolis.