Heliot Emil Spring Summer 2024 Fashion Show

Discover Heliot Emil's Spring/Summer 2024 collection. Unveil trendsetting fashion that blurs the line between art & style.

It may come as a surprise, but within the fashion world, there exists a realm where the freeform creativity of Collina Strada coexists with the minimalist utility of Heliot Emil. That realm is called AI. Both Hillary Taymour and Julius Juul made the bold decision to input their past work, with Juul adding his latest season's designs, into a computer. They then embarked on the challenging task of editing and deciphering the machine's interpretations of their unique design DNAs, ultimately translating them into wearable garments. In both cases, human labor was indispensable, as Juul aptly pointed out that AI has not yet reached a stage where it can entirely replace humans in the design process.

It is only fitting that the Juul brothers, Julius and Victor (creative and business directors, respectively), would be at the forefront of experimenting with this cutting-edge technology. The fashion industry has often been hesitant to embrace such innovations, frequently resorting to a retro-futuristic aesthetic to symbolize tech, and often leaving it at that. However, Heliot Emil takes a different approach, consistently focusing on what lies ahead. Julius Juul emphasizes, "For us, it's always been about trying new innovations. We always try to incorporate new things, whether it's 3D printing or staging a digital show. We want to see how that interacts with what we're doing so that we don't just become repetitive."

The brand's aesthetic is characterized by its tough, streamlined, hardware-rich design language, devoid of excessive emotion. Interestingly, this spring's collection, born from the marriage of man and machine, unexpectedly embraced a poetic quality, largely attributed to the increased use of draping in both classical and deconstructed forms. Julius Juul reflected, "I think [this AI experiment] has taught me quite a lot about looking inwards." Moreover, it stretched the creative boundaries of the team on a material level. Juul added, "It was so interesting to see all of the signatures that the algorithm spits back at you, like the metal details, the trims, those kinds of things. But given that it has fewer boundaries than what we have in reality, it also came back with some very interesting things that, upon closer examination, can't be created in reality: seams that can't be finished, or a part appearing out of nowhere. That was a very interesting complexity to grasp; the machine doesn't understand the physics of the real world."

To address these challenges, Juul and his team turned to suspension techniques, many of which did not visibly involve hardware. The collection featured less voluminous puffiness and more layers and draping, which, while at times intricate, created a pleasing sense of flow, steering the overall aesthetic from a Rick Owens-inspired look towards a more refined Ann Demeulemeester 2.0 vibe. In essence, this collection was unexpectedly beautiful, albeit somewhat lengthy. A more discerning edit would have conveyed a clearer message.

The dichotomy between the human touch and artificial intelligence was evident in the juxtaposition of the organic and the engineered, the tangible and the abstract. Juul acknowledged that AI struggles with the abstract, but designers must also grapple with intangibles. As he aptly put it, "Fashion is a reflection of how we all feel and act in one way or another. There are things that we're consciously doing, and then there are subconscious influences present in collections as well." Heliot Emil, known for its deliberate and purposeful approach, appeared to have uncovered an unexpected softness through technology, revealing an intentional brand with a surprising depth.