Inside Vogue X Snapchat’s High Fashion Augmented Reality Adventure

Versace’s golden gorgon comes to life as her fierce serpents hiss at buckle-and-belt-clad heroes. Stella McCartney leads us through a forest of translucent, magic mushrooms that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. And Thebe Magugu bends time and space as a nostalgic trip back to his childhood home in the South African diamond mining town of Kimberley takes an unexpectedly trippy twist.

As London Fashion Week 2023 kicks off, Vogue is striking a pose with a creative helping hand from Snapchat. A new immersive event blends high fashion, physical world building and experiences from the creative cutting edge of augmented reality. Curated by Edward Enninful OBE, editor of British Vogue, the show ‘Redefining the Body’ certainly redefines our relationship with clothing and design in the digital age, and that between our physical bodies and digital dreams. More prosaically, it also offers a glimpse into the future of retail experiences.

David Norris, European head of creative strategy at Snap Inc, is my guide, showing me around the experiences shaped around six huge brands and designers: Kenneth Ize, Stella McCartney, Versace, Dior, Richard Quinn and Thebe Magugu. Each room is a physical art installation, showcasing stunning outfits - which is then enhanced with an interactive augmented reality component, accessed via the Snapchat app. There’s also the opportunity to try on the high-end designs via a smart AR mirror in each room.

As we pass from room to room, David is keen to point out the details, from the enchanting glowing spores set off around Stella McCartney’s mycelial room to the hidden puppy in Thebe Magugu’s childhood living room. Richard Quinn’s dotty garden room makes clever use of Snap’s in-camera ‘World Mesh’ technology, which allows it to scan and detect 3D spaces. Sprigs of blue flowers and lush green leaves then appear to blossom on surfaces throughout the space.

Some of this may be familiar to marketers and creatives who made their way to Cannes Lions in June 2022. Vogue and Snapchat first premiered ‘Redefining the Body’ there, but it was such a success, David says, that both Snap and Vogue were keen to take the collaboration to the public at events like Fashion Week and to take the opportunity to develop the experience, invite new designers to participate and to continue to push things forward.

“I think what's really exciting today, being sat here in London on the first day of Fashion Week, is actually being able to bring that exhibition to London, evolve it and bring some new designers in. Having the context of Fashion Week for the partnership with Vogue is a brilliant moment for us,” says David. “I'm really excited for that.” 

The project is one that lives or dies by its craft. Working with an exacting editor like Edward Enninful was always going to mean that details would be closely scrutinised. Add six visionary designers and fashion houses to the mix and the creative ambition was sky high. In the hauntingly timeless Dior room, for example, visitors trying on looks inspired by Catherine de Medici in the AR mirror can pick out individual, embroidered stitches. It’s a tiny touch that lends substance to a room that’s ethereal, hung with glowing white outfits and which comes to life with architectural AR archways that are papered with a romantic Parisian map design.

“It's been a wonderful experience,” says David. “From the vision that Vogue and Edward Enninful brought to the exhibition, to the designs and inspiration that each of the designers brought in and the incredible garments that they're all featuring. Then the challenge to us was: ‘how do you not only bring the garments to life but also bring the spaces to life through AR?’. I think the beautiful thing was the strengths that each of us brought to it. Obviously, for us, augmented reality absolutely is central to everything that we do at Snap. I think combining those three things and everyone having high expectations of that kind of experience we wanted to create meant we all pushed in terms of the craft and the levels that we could get to.”

Indeed, ‘Redefining the Body’ opens its doors just as Snap launches its new ray tracing technology, which allows digital AR objects to reflect light more realistically. The first brand to jump on this has been Tiffany & Co, which has released a new lens to allow users to try on its Tiffany Lock bracelets. As with the fashion world, a luxury jewellery brand like Tiffany will approach such experiences with an focus on craft, which in turn feeds into Snap’s quest to constantly improve the AR experience.

“When you think about how light reflects and bounces off things, it's always been a challenge in AR,” says David. “We've constantly been growing and evolving how to do that. But now having ray tracing within the camera, means that actually reflections are true to life and realistic. In terms of that craft, and the elevation of that impact, it's next level.”

‘Redefining the Body’ is a creative calling card for Snap, and the coming year is packed with flagship brand collaborations. For example, in the summer, Disney will be celebrating its 100th anniversary with an augmented reality Snapchat experience that will tour London, paris and Berlin. But not every brand needs the city centre theatrics. In many cases, brands are finding value in Snap’s ecommerce platform, with its try-on facilities. However, says David, the lessons gleaned from envelope-pushing projects like ‘Redefining the Body’ help push the platform forward for everyone.

“There’s always a learning, there’s always an understanding of how you can best enhance and add value to whatever the experience is that you’re creating,” says David. He explains that by observing how visitors move around a space or engage with various interactions within an experience, the team is then able to take that insight to clients and advertisers who are developing an AR retail experience. At the Vogue experience, for example, each room’s Snap Code (which triggers the in-app AR scene) has been deliberately positioned away from the ‘magic’ try-on smart mirrors, to avoid creating bottlenecks.

The world of high fashion has embraced technology and designers are keen to position themselves as cutting edge pioneers. However, zooming out from the runway to the high street, and it’s clear that what the Snap team learn from these experimental collaborations may soon become part of our everyday shopping behaviours.

The digital try-ons using the smart mirror is a really clear example of this. “The ability to try on a couture garment there and then is a nice feeling anyway, but you extend that out to the high street… Window shopping could take on a whole new meaning, where you're walking past[ a shop window] and are able to kind of see what a new jacket looks like,” says David.

David and the team are also seeing a tipping point in terms of the public’s familiarity with and comfort with augmented reality. David draws a parallel between the normalisation of vertical video - Snapchat was a pioneering outlier on this and now every campaign has a vertical video component.

“In terms of tipping points, I think we're gathering pace in terms of AR being a part of that toolkit, the media plan. People are recognising the value that can bring and the differentiation you bring to your media plan,” he says. “Within Snap, we've got 250 million people every single day using AR. So the audience is there, the behaviour is already there…. The fact that there's that scale of engagement, I'm certain that over the next two years, AR will continue to gather pace in terms of normalisation.”

Taking a step back, it’s noticeable that more brands have been turning to Snap and other AR platforms in recent months - indeed it’s one of LBB’s projected trends of 2023. After three years of trying to make the metaverse happen, perhaps advertisers are seeing greater value in experiences that blend the digital and physical more fluidly rather than locking people into a fully virtual world - particularly, after the covid lockdowns.

“For us at Snap, the real world is an amazing place. Snap has been built off people having connections and connecting with their friends and family through the camera. When it comes to augmented reality, the benefit and opportunity to add a layer of computing to the real world and enhance that experience you’re already having is one that feels more natural,” says David. 

“I think from a brand and advertiser point of view, it's also more powerful, because you have the ability to add value and enhance someone's real world experience,” he continues. “That, I think, gets you to a place that’s more comfortable for people. And I think you've got that human thought first, it makes technology a lot easier to understand.”

David reckons there are still some misconceptions about augmented reality among brands and agencies. “I think a lot of the myths of AR being, you know, really expensive, really complex, really hard to make. It's actually not. At Snap, we're constantly trying to make it easier for people to create and use AR,” he says. Moreover, he’s keen to emphasise that the barrier to entry is far lower than some might imagine. Lens Studio, launched in 2017, is a web based creator platform that allows people to develop their own AR experiences.

“I think the other thing with AR is probably the perception that it is good for the flashy brand awareness moment - and it can be brilliant for doing that. But actually, what we're seeing more and more is the value through the consumer journey, in terms of product consideration, or loyalty, or more conversions,” says David.

But for all of the talk of Snap’s power as a driver of sales, the Vogue collaboration is one of sheer delight. Even David, who has been with Snap for six years, isn’t immune to the playful charms of an experience like ‘Redefining the Body’ - and for him, the most satisfying aspect of the project has been watching people as they discover it.

“Seeing the reaction on people's faces as they're discovering the AR magic within each of the rooms is always the thing that gives me joy. You create an experience that you concept and you develop and you build and you execute... But then we actually see that individual’s experience of trying on a Stella McCartney dress or seeing the Versace head come to life as the snakes come toward you… that’s magical.”