![]() Digital fashion games were a playground where you could pull garments from the void, featureless mannequins in the store, and wear them on a representative and often expressive digital avatar. Apart from being a deliciously cruel and curt portrait of ambition's poise and its merits and faults, it fostered a particularly untouchable view of fashion: this thing seen in a window, haute and high-end, relentlessly unaffordable, recklessly artistic, and yet – somehow, despite the contempt it held for impecuniosity – vividly gravitational.ĭigital landscapes were where fashion became more readily accessible to the average person, although it was still a window through which to witness this time, though, allowing for player participation. The cut-throat, prowling drama of the fashion world was compelling and devilish, a sentiment reflected timely in 2006's The Devil Wears Prada, which featured stellar performances by Meryl Streep as a sly fashion maverick and Anne Hathaway as an eager assistant. I would often heap praise one week and then lash out the next, loudly protesting – while sitting slouched in my t-shirt and Soffe shorts – that I'd never touch such a travesty. I haven't kept up at all on recent seasons, but 2005 - 2007 was a sweet spot for the Runway, and I tuned in weekly to anticipate the designs and gush over and rally for or against particular artists. ![]() The Bravo original began in 2004 and is still currently airing with a new 20th-anniversary special season this year. How did we get here, and how does gaming, as a medium, use fashion itself? Dressing the Digital SelfĪs a teenager, I was obsessed with Project Runway. ![]() In 2021, Balenciaga released a virtual fashion show. Games have been inspired by, and have been the inspiration for, the fashion scene for some time now. ![]() Designers collaborate increasingly with game devs to create and implement both original and branded material to either showcase the pieces or compose them with the game's "feel" in mind. Tetsuya Normura's designs were inspired by particular trends in the early 2000s. The crossover approach to gaming fashion is nothing new: character designers work with fashion to an exceptionally detailed degree, replicating trends and runway ideas to give characters distinct styles that coincide with the game's vision. And it certainly skewed more towards modern futurist minimalism if you check out Japanese clothier SuperGroupies, the Kingdom Hearts page features refined silhouettes that have a palpable luxury in realism while maintaining director Tetsuya Nomura's distinctive brand of grungy rebellion. This coincided with a slick, less whimsical art direction steeped in a monochromatic austerity. The flopping slap of his steps is part of the charming, Disney-cartoon-inspired design of the original 2002 release and subsequent titles.Ĭompare that to Kingdom Hearts IV's revelation in 2022, in which Sora traded his clown shoes for regular sneakers. Think of something as simple yet iconic as Kingdom Hearts' Sora and his belts, chains, and big ol' goofy shoes. Not character as in the actual player – at least, not necessarily – but character as in the spirit of a thing, the elements that go about us visualizing their personality, their place in the narrative, what kind of world they exist in, and what kind of story they hope to tell. ![]() Source: Twitter game design, character is crucial. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |