PARIS — The Hong Kong government-backed digital fashion initiative FabriX returned to Paris Fashion Week for the third time with a lineup of designers for “Tomorrow Was: Fragments of Tomorrow, Told Through Fashion.”

Featuring four designers showing in Paris — Kevin Germanier, Alainpaul, Caroline Hú and Didu — the activation is a four-part installation that’s aimed to showcase how fashion can be experienced beyond the runway thanks to AR try-ons, AI storytelling and 4D visual creation, which involves 60 cameras to scan and capture a moving figure.

Under the curatorial lens of fashion stylist and consultant Audrey Hu, each of the designers was paired with an artist to explore the question of what fashion will mean tomorrow.

“My angle is trying to infuse a human touch while showing it from a digital point of view. To me, the theme is very nostalgic. It’s all about human experiences and memories. So it’s important in a digital age that we reminisce and bring that into the future,” Hu told WWD at the exhibition’s kick-off at Palais de Tokyo on Monday.

Germanier partnered with 3D sculptor Ram2 and technologist James Cao to create a 4D-scanned couture experience that lets visitors interact with and step inside the artwork in real time.

Alainpaul, the brand founded by Alain Paul and his husband Luis Philippe that was a 2025 LVMH Prize for Young Designers finalist, teamed with Shanghai-based artist Liu Shuwei to explore time and emotion through illuminated lightbox installations.

Caroline Hú worked with choreographer Emma Portner in a dance-film hybrid blending Hu’s romantic couture with Portner’s explorations of movement, identity and solitude.

Didu, meanwhile, collaborated with AI artist 0nastiia on a tarot-inspired, AI-generated visual narrative exploring empowerment, transformation and mysticism.

Hu pointed to Alainpaul’s delicate fabric, weaving into Liu’s photographs about Shanghai’s gone-by clubbing scenes as if they were fading memories.

She also lauded how Portner conveyed Caroline Hu’s delicate sensibility and romanticism through movement and human touch in her performance. “It’s an epic film about two lovers and the struggle between them,” she added. “It’s deeply emotional.”

These experiences were put together in one place via a bold, futuristic set by Gary Card, the set designer known for his work for Dover Street Market, Jean Paul Gaultier and Louis Vuitton.

Shin Wong, project director at FabriX, said she wanted to bring something more substantial than an interactive kiosk, and something that blurs the line between digital and reality with a paradoxical twist.

“‘Tomorrow Was,’ for me, is a fantasy. There are so many bad things going on in the world right now that you just want an escape,” Wong explained of the concept.

Wong said designers connected with the oddity and paradox of being shaped by the past and not knowing what the future holds. “It made them think,” she said.

Cross-cultural exchanges were also essential to the project. “I think it’s great for a fashion designer to work with a visual artist from another culture and have this exchange in a very natural way,” Wong added.

Overall, the FabriX director hopes the audience can walk away with a fresh perspective on digital fashion.

“I want them to feel the young energy and that they have created something quite beautiful, and not being so stereotyped about digital fashion. We’re known for ARs, but it’s not just about ARs. Because of AI, things are changing so rapidly, we need to constantly think about how to tell fashion stories through digital,” she added.

FabriX was founded in 2022 with the mission to “weave a new reality for fashion” and to introduce the next generation of local creative talents to global fashion audiences. It offers support to designers through all stages of the digital design journey, from sketch, design and 3D digital production to listing on global digital fashion marketplaces.

The initiative is being presented by the Hong Kong-based creative hub PMQ, a not-for-profit social enterprise. PMQ has 100 million Hong Kong dollars, or almost $13 million, in funding from the Musketeers Education and Culture Charitable Foundation, while Create Hong Kong, of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, serves as the lead sponsor.

Last September in Paris, FabriX worked with leading digital identification solutions provider Avery Dennison, digital fashion commerce infrastructure provider Genesis-One, and augmented reality and artificial intelligence specialist Zero10 on an enhanced AR try-on kiosk with new digital fashion items from six designer brands: Bianca Saunders, Charles de Vilmorin, Florentina Leitner, Paolina Russo, Ponder.er and Wilsonkaki.