Blurring The Digital Lines with Maison Taskin

Gone are the days when runway shows were the height of presenting a collection. Thanks in part to the great coronavirus pandemic of 2020, the fashion industry has been forced to rethink presentations with brands getting creative with digital formats and fashion films. As the world was forced to lock down, a new wave of designers focused on the digital realm emerged, including Berlin-based designer Taskin Goec. Driving fashion’s digital future forward Goec’s eponymous label, Maison Taskin creates what he calls ‘mixed reality fashion’; an innovative balancing act utilising both traditional design and digital technologies, it’s precisely his forward-thinking approach that made him perfect for designing an exclusive look for SHOWstudio’s premier NFT collection ikon-1. Breaking boundaries even further, for his S/S 23 collection Goec utilised AI to not only generate a fashion film, but help him through every step of his design process.

Having studied fashion design at Weissensee Art Academy in Berlin, Goec already mastered the art of pattern making and prototyping before exploring the limitless possibilities of digital design. This approach is evident in his S/S 23 collection thats surprisingly rooted in tradition with voluminous creations as a result of layered assembly. The digital maverick recreates his already imaginative silhouettes using CGI to enhance their gravity defying proportions. 'I usually don’t think of clothes first when I design, but of a whole universe. In my workflow, I create spaces and then I think of the people’, Goec explains.

What really separates this presentation from his previous collections was how he utilised AI through ever step. ‘Working with AI means that I interact with huge data sets. It feels like getting inside the mind of a big chunk of humanity and I can respond to that, rather than just my own thoughts and associations’, he explains. Working from a database of design, Goec was able to generate ideas, as well as use the novel technology to create an innovative presentation.

When it comes to fashion’ digital future Goec states, ‘If we wanted fashion to look forwards again, rather than backward, then I’d say that more designers would need to experiment with mixed reality fashion. It is currently one of the few approaches that reflects how most of us live online and offline at the same time.’

To learn more about Maison Taskin and the work its done for ikon-1 tune in to a special Instagram live on Wednesday 5 October.