Fashion Decoded
Storyboard, animatic and illustration for two chapters of Google Arts & Culture's VR series with MoMA, delivered via AKQA.
Agency: AKQA. Client: Google Arts & Culture, in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art. Two chapters of the same VR series: storyboard and animatic work for the White T-Shirt chapter, and illustration for a Salvatore Ferragamo pitch. Shown as delivered — process and pitch work, not final paint.
The Brief
Fashion Decoded is a Google Arts & Culture VR experience, built with AKQA for the Museum of Modern Art, tracing the cultural history of everyday clothing through immersive 360° storytelling. My work covered two chapters: the White T-Shirt, six mini-stories (from the US Navy to Hollywood to hip-hop) that emerge from a single garment on a mannequin, and a follow-on pitch for a Salvatore Ferragamo chapter centered on Old Hollywood glamour.
The Approach
The White T-Shirt chapter called for six scenes storyboarded, posed and rough-animated inside a two-to-three week window. Each scene needed multi-figure crowd staging (a row of sailors, a rap battle circle, six supermodels on a shoot) readable from inside a 360° VR environment, not a flat frame. The rough animatics below are the actual delivered work. The colored passes next to them were added afterward, as a way of walking through the pipeline from animatic to finished frame.
The Ferragamo pitch started from research: Old Hollywood red carpet photography, the real 1937 opening of Rome’s Cinecittà film studio, studio-era fashion references. That research set the tailoring, the bias-cut gowns, the posture of a client having her shoe fitted by a kneeling designer. Each figure was drawn standalone, then composited into the full scene.
Chapter One: The White T-Shirt
01 — US Navy
A row of sailors steps out from behind the t-shirt into a synchronized sweeping routine, staged like a musical number and built to surround the viewer on every side.
Drag to compare: rough animatic as delivered, against the colored pass.
Before
After The same sailors run to the hero t-shirt, hang a clothesline, and pull the rope as wet t-shirts swing out, filling the ceiling of the room with drying laundry.
Drag to compare: rough animatic against the colored pass.
Before
After 02 — Hollywood Bad Boys
A crowd of screaming fans encircles the t-shirt and parts to reveal James Dean, leather jacket over one shoulder, cigarette in his mouth. A full film crew rolls in around the viewer to dress the set before he rides his motorcycle into frame.
03 — Female Sex Symbol
A photo shoot scene: six supermodels in white t-shirts tied up with jeans pose for a photographer against Warhol’s Factory, each with her own silhouette, hairstyle and stance, built to stay on-model across the full sequence.
The full six-model lineup, drawn and colored as a standalone illustration.
05 — Hip Hop Culture
Two rappers face off in a battle circle, a full crowd filling the space around them, the kind of dense, multi-figure staging that needs to hold up from every angle once the viewer is standing inside it.
Drag to compare: rough animatic against the colored pass.
Before
After 06 — Revival Into Luxury
The sequence closes on a runway built out from beneath the hero t-shirt. Models in designer t-shirt looks walk past the viewer before Kanye West steps out to take his bow as the designer.
Chapter Two: Salvatore Ferragamo
A follow-on pitch for a Ferragamo chapter: three key drawings, built from real references. Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, a red carpet premiere where Ferragamo personally fits a client’s shoe, and the 1937 opening of Cinecittà, his shoebox stacked beside him as the ribbon is cut.
Figure Studies
Each figure dressed and posed from real studio-era reference, then composited into the red carpet scene above. Two are shown sketch to color, side by side.
Sketch
Color
Sketch
Color
Three more figures from the full red carpet composite:
The Key Moment
Scale: Cinecittà
The brief’s most ambitious drawing: the real 1937 opening of Rome’s Cinecittà studio, staged as a wide ceremonial scene with a full crowd.
Drag to compare: sketch against the colored pass.
Before
After The Result
Two chapters, two disciplines: rough animatic and multi-figure staging for the White T-Shirt, researched illustration and scene composition for Ferragamo. Both delivered against a real agency brief and timeline.
- 6 scenes storyboarded, animated and illustrated for the White T-Shirt chapter
- 5 individually drawn figures, plus 2 full scene compositions for Ferragamo
Working Process
Both chapters moved the same way: reference and research first, then rough staging, then finish. The colored passes shown throughout this page were built after delivery, as a way of revisiting the animatics and figure studies with the same process a finished frame would get.
