Faux Real

By WGSN CREATIVE TEAM, 02 February 2010

Autumn/winter 2011/12 Macro Trends

Your Space

Faux Real

360

Make the real look fake, as the fake becomes ever more real. A new design direction emerges as we pay
respect to originals, introducing a touch of the unexpected.

Faux Real product has its own message. Push design boundaries, question aesthetic preconceptions
and find new applications. What happens if you switch natural for unnatural colour? Create a fake-looking
WGSN 2014

material from a real fibre? Or even create real-world apparel for an imaginary character? Introduce a
sense of surprise and beauty as the fake becomes inspiration for a new aesthetic, evolving from the neopsychedelia of Sensory spring/summer 2011.

Research and Reference

REAL LOOKS FAKE / STAGED REALITY / DIGITAL OVERLAY / FAKE BY DESIGN

REAL LOOKS FAKE

Faux no longer means cheap; it has developed its own aesthetic. Apply fake-making treatments to
materials and products, pushing surface effect and creating amazing design.

Andrew Zuckerman
photographs wildlife, but
replaces the background with
pure white. Removing the
animals from their original
context intensifies the unreal
effect, leaving them looking like
drawings or photorealistic
paintings.

The Gucci MRTW

spring/summer 2010 Exit 16
Croc Bag is made from real
crocodile skin treated with a
matt rubbery finish.

Think about

Watch...

Stripping away elements of the

products or manipulating
photographic print.

Fabric specialists experiment

with fake/real coatings,
treatments and finishes to
beautiful effect. Changing
perceived notions of value
along the way.

www.andrewzuckerman.com

There is nothing fake about the

luxury of the product - it costs
30,000+.

WGSN 2014

Oyvind Tangen photographed

icebergs in the Antarctic.
Sediment below the ice shelf
creates brown and black stripes,
while the blue stripes are made
up of compressed snow and a
lack of air bubbles.
We love the fake effect of these
natural hypercoloured
formations.
Clearly this is a direction for
dye.
Where we see incredible
pigments that are in fact natural.

Key for the denim market.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Matt paint conjures images of

undercoats, unfinished repairs
and DIY. Now matt black paint
has reached the world of luxury
cars.
The chalkboard finish of this
2009 Rolls Royce Phantom
replaces more obvious glossy
and shiny finishes.
Look at...
Primers and undercoats for new
surface inspiration.
www.insixthgear.com

STAGED REALITY
Explore new ways to communicate your brand message and sell your product.

WGSN 2014

Red Star Motel by Chinese

artist Chi Lei restages the work
of US photographer Lyndon
Wade with Chinese characters.
Both feature events in a motel
room and were inspired by the
subtle differences that come
from shifting the cultural
context.
What does this mean to
international brands?

The UK Natural History

Museums Wildlife
Photographer of the Year 2009
winner was disqualified for
faking the winning picture using
a tame wolf.
He broke the rules, but
aesthetically we ask if that
matters? The photo is beautiful.
This is the essence of Faux
Real.

Brands working in different

geographies can use restagings
to connect with local markets.
lyndonwade.com

A Taiwanese news station has

started showing CG animated
re-enactments of current affairs
recently the infamous Tiger
Woods car accident.
WGSN 2014

Richard Linklaters Boyhood is a

fictional story in which actors
were filmed over 12 years.
Linklater wanted to illustrate the
unknown events that contribute
to growing up.
The release date is 2013.
We know this film is fictional,
but the people and their
physical evolution are real.

The portrayal of a real event in

a medium normally associated
with gaming and movies
reaches out to new audiences.
www.huffingtonpost.com

DIGITAL OVERLAY
The real and virtual worlds are combining, surfacing new proportion, materials, shapes and perceptions
of space.

In Sebastian Campions Urban

Cursor (2009) project, a 3D
oversized computer cursor was
placed in the streets of
Catalunya.
Passers-by could move the
GPS-enabled cursor, allowing
the interaction to be digitally
mapped.
Create physical experiences
that extend beyond the
storefront into the locality.
Imagine involving your
customers in a project to plot all
possible routes between your
stores. Use these results to
build a social network and
powerful graphic interpretation.

In Avatar Machine,artist Marc

Owens recreates the costumes
of digital identities in the real
world.

In this photoshoot from Foam

magazine a dress has been
digitally printed on top of a quilteffect construction.

We love these outfits that

capture the faceted format of
virtual figures and the idea of
trying on your avatar for fun.

Consider the design potential.

Watch out for...

Fashion designers building this
kind of approach into their work
using modular additions to
everyday clothing or outfits
based on unreal
representations of the human
body.
www.marcowens.co.uk

urbancursor.com
WGSN 2014

Layer 2d and 3d surface

treatments in order to play with
new form.
www.freudenthalverhagen.com

FAKE BY DESIGN
Play with faux reality. Pay homage, inject high performance, preserve and reinvent.

Copystand by Stephanie
Syjuco, showing at Frieze Art
Fair 2009, was a five-day
performative counterfeiting
event.

Prada constantly explores fabric

innovation. Its spring/summer
2010 collection embraced faux
fabrics.

A group of artists created

handmade copies of famous
works exhibited in the fair in
basic materials.

What looked like duchesse satin

was in fact a high-performance
stretch nylon-silk combination.
In addition the key print showed
a Japanese man-made beach.

What does this mean to me?

What can I do with this?

Be playful in paying homage to

existing designers, pieces and
projects.

Embrace fake for incredible

fabric and print ideas. Think
about enhancing fabric
performance by imitating natural
materials and even changing
the accepted end use.

www.stephaniesyjuco.com

WGSN 2014

Designers are inspired by the

old Chinese neighbourhoods The Beijing Hutongs.
Traditional furniture - like the
street chair - is being
reproduced, now selling to a
designer audience at designer
prices.
Be inspired by...
Good design that has stood the
test of time. Fuse it with 21st
century modern sensibility to
create modern beauty.

Recently there has been

renewed interest in art crime. In
Italy, we see the first ever
Masters program in
international art crime studies,
while new exhibitions examine
the art of forgery and reveal
how fakes have been
discovered.
What does this mean?
Counterfeiting doesnt help
design, though drawing
inspiration from the old masters
and present-day icons brings in
a wealth of new ideas.
en.wikipedia.org

The Metropolitan Police

Service's Investigation of Fakes
and Forgeries Victoria & Albert
Museum, London January 23
February 7 2010
Close Examination: Fakes,
Mistakes and Discoveries
National Gallery, London 30
June 12 September 2010

WGSN 2014