Graduate Fashion Week 2026 Wrap Up: Where Digital Innovation Met Fashion's Next Generation

Rebecca Flynn
18 hours ago
2 min read

Two people stand in a mocap volume watching a large screen showing two 3D characters on a blue horizon background.

Graduate Fashion Week 2026 brought together the brightest emerging talent in fashion at the Truman Brewery, London, and this year, the future of the industry wasn't just on the runway.

Within the Digital Innovation Lab, Target3D’s pop-up installation was giving visitors a glimpse of what dressing might look like in a world where physical and virtual garments coexist.

Virtually Wearing Tomorrow's Designs

Target3D set up a live OptiTrack motion capture system powered by The Captury's markerless, real-time technology, in a feature called Duplex Mode. No suits, no markers, no complicated setup. Visitors could simply walk in, move naturally, and instantly see themselves wearing digitally recreated garments from a selection of this year's graduate designers, rendered in CLO’s Virtual Fashion engine.

Attendees were wearing them, moving in them and interacting with them in a way that static displays can't offer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yDSPWDX8nc

The Fashion Designers Behind the Digital Garments

Three graduate designers were selected to have their work brought into the virtual space:

Lou Miller (Leeds Arts University)

Chung Wa (Raven) Yau (Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts)

James Rapinett (Kingston University)

Each had pieces digitised in CLO, allowing visitors to experience their designs from the inside out.

For Lou, whose "Damned Outfit One" featured in the installation, seeing the response firsthand was a highlight.

"It's amazing to see my clothes in this format at such an amazing event."

A New Way to Interact With Fashion

The installation underlined something that the wider industry is beginning to grapple with: digital fashion isn't a replacement for the physical, rather a new dimension of it. Being able to virtually try on a graduate collection piece prompts a different kind of engagement, one that's more personal and more visceral than simply viewing it.

The Graduate Fashion Foundation, which organises the annual event, continues to provide a vital platform for emerging designers to reach industry professionals and the public alike.

Having technology companies present in a dedicated Digital Innovation Lab signals a growing recognition that the tools shaping tomorrow's fashion industry are just as important as the garments themselves.

Looking Ahead

With graduate designers already working fluently in 3D design software like CLO and engaging with motion capture and virtual try-on technology, the boundary between physical and digital fashion is only going to become more porous.

At Target3D, we look forward to watching this next generation continue to break boundaries in expression, and if Graduate Fashion Week 2026 is anything to go by, they're already well on their way.