Auroboros debuts first digital ready-to-wear collection

London-based fashion label Auroboros has unveiled its first digital ready-to-wear collection during London Fashion Week in partnership with the Institute of Digital Fashion.

Showcased as part of the British Fashion Council’s DiscoveryLab initiative, Auroboros presented a nature-inspired 14-piece collection that was rendered on a physical model and styled by Auroboros’ first digital stylist, Sita Abellan via video.

The inaugural ‘Biomimicry’ collection combines nature with technology to “wear the future and create your sci-fi-fantasy,” explains the fashion label. Taking inspiration from mythological plants, sci-fi films and personal narratives the collection draws influence from a 21st-century experience, creating a new cultural identity built for the metaverse as part of its plan to build a digital wardrobe for “all occasions”.

Paula Sello, Auroboros creative director and co-founder, said in a statement: “Auroboros’ digital, especially the ‘Biomimicry’ collection, truly reflects the scientific and technological advances of the 21st century, with cultural references that are both personal and universal in their meaning.

“We’re not just using technology to showcase physical garments, but using that as a means to an end in and of itself, made for the metaverse and physical world for limitless new possibilities. Moving away from the cyclical repetition of the past trends, the Auroboros house is pioneering change in the fashion industry and what can be worn on the body. Presenting a sci-fi fantasy for everyone to immerse themselves in.”

The ‘Biomimicry’ digital collection also explores sustainable innovation and digital virtuosity within the world of luxury fashion, adds the designers, with the full collection available to purchase from the Auroboros official website and for a limited time only on DressX.

One of the highlights from the purely digital collection is the ‘Venus Trap’ dress with its intricate detailing, which was available for customers to try on via Snapchat after the show by scanning QR codes created by the Institute of Digital Fashion on billboards and fly posters throughout London.

Commenting on collaborating with Auroboros, Leanne Elliott Young, chief executive and co-founder at the Institute of Digital Fashion, said: “For us we wanted to amplify the collection and start the discourse that’s been the shadow surrounding digital fashion and fashion weeks, how does it actually get to the consumer and become an experience IRL? Effectively how can we pivot from ‘to view’ to ‘to wear?’ It feels like the energy of LFW that died through lockdown has landed again, IRL x URL is here. It’s a first for LFW in so many ways.”

Auroboros is a fashion house merging science and technology with physical haute couture and digital-only ready-to-wear and is currently the designer in residence at the Sarabande Foundation, the charitable foundation established by the late Lee Alexander McQueen.

Alissa Aulbekova, Auroboros creative director and co-founder, added: “By removing the ‘borders’ and ‘guidelines’ of fashion, we had such freedom to build the whole world of Auroboros that is also reflective of today’s society and potentially presenting a solution to many of the fashion industries downfall in unsustainable production and lack of innovation.

“We are changing the narrative of the future now and making it hopeful and utopian with our liberating designs and concepts especially with ‘Biomimicry’ where we invite to explore nature through technology and reconnect with one’s own creativity at zero cost of material waste.”