PARIS — Say goodbye to those energy-sapping small-screen video conferences. French start-up La Vitre is connecting teams across different locations with a human-size screen that can be used for everything from fittings to sales appointments — and luxury brands including Chanel are already on board.
The French fashion house adopted the new technology more than two years ago to facilitate exchanges between its ready-to-wear and knitwear design teams and suppliers in locations ranging from Normandy to Scotland and Italy, cofounder Romuald Boulanger told WWD. Other leading luxury brands have followed, he added.
He anticipates many more use cases for fashion, luxury and retail brands as he and cofounders Anthony Vannier and Thierry Bouquain refine the capabilities of the interfacing tool, launched in 2019.
“We know there are a lot of jobs in the fashion industry and that we don’t know all of them, but based on our exchanges with our clients, we know this is a promising segment for us and that we really bring added value to users,” Boulanger said.
“Whether it’s connecting workshops during the manufacturing stage, showing a finished look on a model, a custom fitting or a one-to-one sales appointment with a customer in-store, there is a broad range of applications for this tool,” he added.
La Vitre will be demonstrating the product at the Tech for Retail show, which kicks off in Paris on Tuesday. It has previously taken part in the Viva Technology conference in Paris and the NRF Big Show convention in New York City, among others.
During a presentation at the Microsoft headquarters in Paris, Boulanger and Bouquain demonstrated how La Vitre works. Designed to remain switched on at all times, the touch screen is activated by knocking on it like a glass door.
The people on either side can then have a live exchange enhanced by a range of technologies that include AI-powered live translation and closeups on product details, either through a connected smartphone or via partner Fosfor’s Crystalbox, which allows products to be displayed in actual size and 3D.
For instance, a design team in Paris can speak to a manufacturer in Italy while zooming in on a fit model to demonstrate adjustments, all the while dragging and dropping spec sheets, sketches or photographs onto the screen and drawing annotations, while a dialogue box instantaneously translates what each person is saying.
A seamstress making adjustments on a couture client in China or the United States can connect directly with the atelier in Paris to get live feedback, while a watchmaker in Geneva can present its latest launch live to a client in the Middle East, for example.
In order to ensure an optimal experience, an internet connection speed of at least 5 Mbps (megabits per second) is required, Boulanger said. The camera settings can be adjusted according to users’ needs, he added.
“It’s not just: ‘We see each other, and that’s it.’ It’s: ‘What is important to see?’” he noted. “We can tweak the camera settings to ensure the image is optimal and even more defined.”
Boulanger also sees applications in retail, citing the example of Spanish smart clothing brand Sepiia.
Keen to gauge the local appetite for its wrinkle- and stain-resistant garments, the label set up a screen in a shopping gallery in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, that was connected to its store in Madrid. Customers were able to make purchases remotely through another partner, payment platform W-HA, a subsidiary of Orange.
“Initially, it was supposed to be a demo, but it turned into a pop-up store,” he said.
La Vitre, a sister firm of digital agency Ucaya, was initially born from the need to connect its teams in Nantes and Paris. Now Boulanger sees further applications in fields including health care, training and events.
He pictures remote meet-and-greet opportunities with soccer stars on the sidelines of matches, or with singers backstage at pop concerts.
La Vitre has showrooms in several cities in France as well as in Monaco, Geneva, Montreal, Dallas and Atlanta, with plans for a Toronto location early next year.
A bundle with the La Vitre kit, 86-inch screen and speaker can be leased for 500 euros a month, with a minimum commitment of 36 months, a spokeswoman for the company said. The start-up declined to provide revenues, but said it aims to have 500 screens active in the medium-term, versus 300 at present.
