Have you watched our fashion film? <<< This is Phem.

Phem is an exploration of fabrics that can digitally change colour and pattern. We wondered, What would it be like to wear fabrics like this? and What would it be like to conceptualise and build a fashion brand that uses fabrics like this?

The fabric Phem uses works similarly to augmented reality in that it appears one way through a smartphone screen and another way in real-life (you can read more about that here). However, how it technically works is not what’s important to us. Making these garments and the fashion film was a way to explore what it means to design garments with a digital layer, or, garments with a hybrid digital-physical existence. Much like the way many of us live today–navigating between digital and physical experiences–we wanted to see how this space could be used expressively for fashion. Can it be feminine? Can it make us feel something? Can it make sense in everyday life, like for example, while reading the newspaper or drinking a coffee?

Below is an interview with designer Angella Mackey where she describes more of the thoughts behind Phem.