Holly New, an MA Digital Fashion Innovation student at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), has designed a fully digital fashion look for a music artist persona, as part of an immersive concert experience built inside online video game Fortnite.
Via her VR Fashion Studio, STUDIOOFNEW, Holly designed a custom outfit for singer NØELLE’s Fortnite persona. NØELLE will perform immersive concerts in Fortnite organised by Copper Candle, who specialise in producing virtual theatre and live events for the metaverse.
Developed in collaboration with Copper Candle, the project marks Holly’s debut as a fashion designer working within Fortnite’s creative platform.
“Players type in the code to load the concert island where her music will play and characters can move around the space," Holly explains. "When everyone leaves or the concert ends, then the concert is over, and when someone enters the island again, the concert restarts - as long as no one’s already in it.
“The whole idea is to give emerging artists the opportunity for digital exposure in the metaverse and gaming communities.”
“Using a combination of AI, VR and CLO3D, I worked with NØELLE to achieve a look suited to her music," says Holly. "I designed her stage outfit using my full pipeline; built in VR, refined in CLO3D, driven by vision, not templates.
“I used the AI for garment ideas, VR for base building and sketching to test ideas, and then brought it all into CLO3D for refinement before being put into Fortnite. This is the workflow that I developed through the MA in Digital Fashion Innovation, and it’s been an amazing experience to put it into practice for something as huge as Fortnite.
“What started as a VR workflow that I worked on day and night, using tools no one thought belonged in fashion, has just made its way into one of the biggest platforms in the world. I couldn’t be prouder – STUDIOOFNEW, my studio, the world's first VR Fashion Studio – is pushing the boundaries of fashion design and garment creation, integrating immersive XR technology directly into the fashion pipeline."
While not officially affiliated with Epic Games, Holly’s work demonstrates how independent designers and studios are using Fortnite Creative to explore new possibilities in digital fashion, performance and spatial storytelling.
“Fashion is no longer waiting for the runway. It’s loading into the game,” Holly adds, “and this is what that looks like. It’s not about validation. It’s proof.”
Players of Fortnite will be able to attend the concerts via a code in the game released on Saturday 9 August.
