Picture: Maya Jama, Instagram
Maya Jama opened the 2020 BAFTA Awards red carpet in a live debut of the world's first 5G-powered augmented reality (AR) dress.
The 25-year-old presenter stunned on the red carpet outside the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday, as she wore a dress designed by multi-disciplinary artist Richard Malone, which used AR technology powered by 5G and set up by EE.
Audiences at the ceremony were able to watch in awe through Samsung Galaxy Fold 5G smartphones and on screens at the top of the red carpet as the AR dress began to come to life when Maya stepped onto the EE stage.
The AR experience saw lengths of shimmering digital material begin to swirl around the dress, which responded to Maya's movements in real-time.
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A post shared by Maya Jama(@mayajama) on Feb 2, 2020 at 2:09pm PST
The animated material wrapped around her to form a completely new design for the top half of her dress, and as the designs continued to evolve, more and more digital fabric flowed around her before billowing out around her to form a spiral of this cutting-edge digital fabric.
In a stunning finale, the spiral of material began to change form, transforming from its material state, into a stunning crystallised structure, glimmering in the spotlights on the red carpet before shattering and falling away from Maya to reveal the physical dress underneath this extraordinary display of augmented reality.
Speaking about the history-making moment, Maya said: "Tonight was a total whirlwind and I still can't believe I opened the EE BAFTA red carpet wearing a 5G powered AR dress! It was amazing to be part of something this big that's been months in the making and that genuinely pushes the boundaries of fashion and technology."
In addition to being stunning to watch, the dress was also sustainable, as Richard Malone used ethically sourced fabric including recycled, regenerative ocean waste, recycled wool and wadding from ex-factory waste to create the gown.
The dress was hand sewn with over 100,000 stitches and took over 250 hours to complete, with the finished product being made up of six layers in total, with over twelve full body length wires, totalling over 18 metres in length, and eighteen sensor bulbs.
