The Toutiao X All Comes From Nothing Spring/Summer 2017 presentation and runway show titled “Fashion in Bytes” displayed the close relationship between technology and fashion. The audience was first ushered into a theater at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Sky Museum, where a Toutiao representative gave a presentation about how technology can inform fashion through providing demographic data. The Vice President of the Toutiao news app also went on stage to share specific data surrounding fashion and fashion news, like how the Toutiao users have searched for Gigi Hadid over 16 million times. The third section of the presentation included a panel with fashion industry professionals Simon Collins, Eric Rutherford, Jeanne Grey and Peggy Wang who spoke about social media’s role in fashion. Across the board, the panelists agreed that both fashion and social media are means to connecting with others.

“Data is people,” said Rutherford. “We get fashion from the street, and again that’s people. How many clicks or how many views you’re getting off something, that’s people who are participating in what you are doing.”

Following the lengthy, but informative presentation, the audience migrated to the runway. The All Comes From Nothing runway show itself displayed a range of modern looks designed by Eva Yiwei Xu who took inspiration from James Turrell’s installation “Skyspace.” The color scheme progressed from pale blues, to pastel pinks, to deep blacks mirroring the dimming of the night sky. A peachy, soft trench coat turned dress looked effortlessly put together. Many of the looks featured wrapped details and asymmetrical layers. Burnout skirts and tops reflected the shifting transparency of clouds. Silhouettes included a mixture of flowy and clean lines, which speaks to the free-moving ACFN woman.

The entire collaboration between Toutiao and ACFN showed the ever-progressing mindset of both the tech and fashion industries and how the two may intersect in meaningful ways.

Email Sophie Fay Shaw at s[email protected]