Fashion Research Institute, Inc.

About FRI Board of Directors Advisory Council Press News Releases Virtual Worlds Art Fashion	Beyond the Hype: Fashioning the Business End of Virtual Worlds Forget about virtual fashion. Let’s talk about designing real life fashions using virtual worlds NYC, NY, November 27 2007: Virtual world-based fashion design is now a reality. “Soon all fashion designers will be originating their designs and managing the production in virtual worlds.” says Shenlei Winkler, director of the Fashion Research Institute. “Why such a dramatic change? Economics, pure and simple.” The Fashion Research Institute (FRI) in conjunction with IBM is developing a product lifecycle management solution for the fashion industry that specifically addresses the industry’s unique needs. The FRI-IBM solution will sweepingly alter how fashion does business. The solution cuts time to market. It provides real time information to fashion executives and allows better management of human and material resources. It is a greener solution, as well, as it reduces the carbon footprint of traditionally wasteful fashion industry practices. “We’ve moved beyond the marketing hype of virtual worlds. With our solution we have answered the question ‘How can you use virtual worlds for big business?’” Winkler said. “Quite apart from virtual fashion for avatars which remain in virtual worlds, FRI has created a new process that encapsulates the real life fashion designer and her workflow in a virtual world. Designers and other fashion industry personnel work together in a virtual world to expedite real life production, using an IBM-backed solution that seamlessly manages the process. FRI’s virtual world-based product design solution allows collaborators to design, modify and perfect their products in real time. Product design-centered conversations occur with a real time presence of all concerned parties regardless of geographical location, time zone differences, or language barriers. Fashion businesses that use virtual worlds for product design will deliver huge savings of time, money, and energy. Fashion Research Institute (FRI) conducts research into technology-based initiatives and develops emerging technologies to sweepingly overhaul traditional fashion industry practices and methodologies. FRI’s mission is to reduce the carbon footprint and change the environmental impact of the industry in ways that are sustainable, replicable, respectful of the practitioners, and meaningful for all stakeholders. Some of FRI’s projects include inventing new, improved forms of lyocell textiles from waste biomass generated from biofuels production; inventing a virtual world-based design methodology; and inventing a new anti-counterfeiting methodology for luxury fashion products. # # #

Art
Fashion

Beyond the Hype: Fashioning the Business End of Virtual Worlds

Forget about virtual fashion. Let’s talk about designing real life fashions using virtual worlds

NYC, NY, November 27 2007: Virtual world-based fashion design is now a reality. “Soon all fashion designers will be originating their designs and managing the production in virtual worlds.” says Shenlei Winkler, director of the Fashion Research Institute. “Why such a dramatic change? Economics, pure and simple.”

The Fashion Research Institute (FRI) in conjunction with IBM is developing a product lifecycle management solution for the fashion industry that specifically addresses the industry’s unique needs. The FRI-IBM solution will sweepingly alter how fashion does business. The solution cuts time to market. It provides real time information to fashion executives and allows better management of human and material resources. It is a greener solution, as well, as it reduces the carbon footprint of traditionally wasteful fashion industry practices.

“We’ve moved beyond the marketing hype of virtual worlds. With our solution we have answered the question ‘How can you use virtual worlds for big business?’” Winkler said. “Quite apart from virtual fashion for avatars which remain in virtual worlds, FRI has created a new process that encapsulates the real life fashion designer and her workflow in a virtual world. Designers and other fashion industry personnel work together in a virtual world to expedite real life production, using an IBM-backed solution that seamlessly manages the process.

FRI’s virtual world-based product design solution allows collaborators to design, modify and perfect their products in real time. Product design-centered conversations occur with a real time presence of all concerned parties regardless of geographical location, time zone differences, or language barriers. Fashion businesses that use virtual worlds for product design will deliver huge savings of time, money, and energy.

Fashion Research Institute (FRI) conducts research into technology-based initiatives and develops emerging technologies to sweepingly overhaul traditional fashion industry practices and methodologies. FRI’s mission is to reduce the carbon footprint and change the environmental impact of the industry in ways that are sustainable, replicable, respectful of the practitioners, and meaningful for all stakeholders. Some of FRI’s projects include inventing new, improved
forms of lyocell textiles from waste biomass generated from biofuels production; inventing a virtual world-based design methodology; and inventing a new anti-counterfeiting methodology for luxury fashion products.

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