AlphaTauri, the premium clothing brand from Red Bull, has seen the future of fashion retail and it looks like a Denis Villeneuve sci-fi movie.
At a newly opened showroom HQ in Salzburg, Austria, Berlin-based designers Studio Riebenbauer have used Off-world-esque blackened and oiled volcanic rocks, wet-look floorings, and polished aluminum, blade-like shelving systems to create an environment that reflects the brand’s future-facing DNA. Dynamic and intergalactic lighting configurations, both task and installation, were inspired by the brand’s name – Alpha Centauri being the star placed directly in the eye of the bull in the Taurus constellation.
AlphaTauri’s vision, as also showcased in its Mobile Innovation Lab, is more Tyrell Corp/Nexus-9 stuff, deploying personalised, digital avatars for customers, body scanners, virtual fitting rooms, and VR tours of collections and factories. Products are available to try on but actual purchasing is conducted online, which means that there is no sales till and therefore no inventory concerns for the staff.
With all the brand’s sweaters already produced using 3D knitting technology, specially designed AlphaTauri apps will enable consumers to customise garments down to the finest detail. A seamless production process completes a custom-fitted order in about one hour, with almost no waste.
Enter the futuristic fashion landscape of AlphaTauri
‘There will be an expectation in the future that when you buy something it has the perfect fit,’ explains Murat Acevit, the brand’s chief product officer. ‘The five or so sizes that are currently being offered will not be good enough.’
AlphaTauri takes design cues from its F1 racing team namesake – think best performance optimised through pioneering innovation, with focus on the smallest details; and patented technologies and inventive features to enhance style with functionality. ‘For the AlphaTauri collections, we blend textile innovations and technologies with high-end materials to create forward-thinking designs with longevity,’ adds CEO Ahmet Mercan, who likes to describe the brand as ‘a visionary fashion enterprise’.
‘All our textiles are engineered in partnership with textile innovation leaders from around the globe who go beyond what is already known and out there within fashion. Everything we do is seen through the lens of innovation. As a brand we are always challenging, elevating and exploring. The cycle of innovation never stops.’
Debut collections have been conceived by AlphaTauri’s head of design Mi-Kyong Yeom (formerly of Hugo Boss and Akris) and present an understated moonshot approach to apparel: simple but technically constructed puffer jackets, merino cashmere sweaters in a signature check pattern. Bespoke-fitted 3D-knits are made at dazzling speed, on Japanese company Shima Seiki’s 3D-Wholegarment knitting machine, while outerwear is Taurobran®, a newly developed material formed of a central waterproof membrane bound together with an outer and inner layer of interconnected and ultra-breathable fibres. A capsule of lightweight, minimal trousers, suits and blazers form part of AlphaTauri’s packable and uncreasable travel system.
‘We want to offer features and functionalities without compromising on style or comfort,’ says Mercan. ‘AlphaTauri is aesthetics and innovation in one.’
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