How Hollywood technology is changing fashion retail

The London College of Fashion is experimenting with photogrammetry and augmented reality to give retail a much-needed shakeup

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Matthew Drinkwater is bringing Hollywood-style technology to high street fashion.

As head of innovation at the London College of Fashion, Drinkwater has adapted a range of camera photography techniques for use in online retail and developed augmented and virtual reality systems for showing new products. At the most forward-thinking retailers, depth sensing, image quality and facial recognition are changing how brands sell to customers.

"It's going to allow us to start placing almost photorealistic people and products into the real world with consumers," says Drinkwater, who spoke at the annual WIRED Retail event. Using photogrammetry and more than 100-cameras in a rig around a person or object, Drinkwater has been improving the way high-fashion is displayed online.

Photogrammetry is the process of building 3D models from 2D images. Drinkwater uses the technique to recreate luxury projects as 3D models, which can then be embedded online. Scans don't just apply to individual items; entire human models can be scanned. And holograms of scanned people can then be shown in real-world environments through augmented reality.

Working with London startup HoloMe, Drinkwater used a 4K camera to record a model walking down a catwalk and then recreated this digitally. "Computer vision technology allows that to be processed into a life-sized hologram that you can view on your mobile device," he says. "It's now getting to the point where you will be able to capture those models through your own device in the next few years because of their scanning capabilities."

Naturally, there is a cost to developing these technologies. "You need to prove the model," Drinkwater says. For high street fashion brands, he says, a wide use of these techniques are still some years off. But for the creators of luxury products, it makes more sense. Expensive fashion industry products have greater profit margins and can have larger marketing budgets behind them.

"We've noticed in early testing that consumers are clicking through on those sorts of images more. Every single one of their customers is walking around with a smartphone in their pocket and are very ready to explore new forms of payment and have new experiences through those devices".