An augmented reality fashion show where bodies become architecture, models appear out of thin air, and the runway exists in a dimension between the physical and the virtual.
Pretend Play was a collaboration with the incredible Rosalie Lemay, who created a line of unique handmade clothes over many months. The project explored how augmented reality could transform the fashion show format: rather than walking a physical runway, models were 3D scanned and placed into AR space. Models appeared out of thin air, walking on walls, shifting scale, superimposed on reality.
The models were scanned using both depth-sensing cameras and photogrammetry, sponsored by Eric Paré and his team at the Montreal Studio. The resulting 3D figures carry the visual artifacts of the scanning process: fragmented surfaces, floating geometry, digital noise. These artifacts became part of the aesthetic rather than flaws to be corrected. The imperfections of the technology became the texture of the work.
Augmented reality allows fashion shows to transcend the limitations of rooms and human bodies. Models appear from thin air, walk on walls, shift scale. The runway is no longer static but a series of superimposed paths. The entities come in and out from the walls. Humans, bodies become architecture.
Working with Roza and Sebastian was a creative pleasure. Their energy invigorated everything around them and they poured their souls into these creations. The combination of handmade physical garments with digital scanning technology produced something neither medium could achieve alone.
The limitations of rooms and human bodies can be transcended. Models appear out of thin air, walking on walls, shifting scale, superimposed. Humans, bodies become architecture.
Pretend Play pushed the AR experiments of Illusive Sympathy into a new domain: fashion as a medium for exploring what bodies become when translated into digital space. The 3D scans of models wearing Rosalie’s handmade garments captured not just the clothing but the gesture, the posture, the presence of the wearer, all rendered with the beautiful imprecision of the scanning process.
The project pointed toward a future where fashion, architecture, and digital art converge. A theme that would later echo in Lignes de Fuite and in the broader trajectory of Samuel’s work, where the human body and virtual space continuously inform each other.
