Dentsu, Bunka Fashion College, and Roblox collaborate to Cultivate Digital Fashion Designers

－ First graduates of “Digital Fashion Program” create works in the digital worlds and unveil them to the world －

Dentsu Group Inc. (Headquarters: Dentsu Group Inc.; Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & Global CEO: Hiroshi Igarashi; hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) has announced the graduation of the first 21 students of the digital fashion program (hereinafter, “the Program”)^*1 launched in October 2024 in collaboration with Bunka Fashion College (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; School President: Sachiko Aihara) and Roblox Corporation (Headquarters: California, USA; Co-Founder and CEO: David Baszucki), marking the completion of the successful training of the next generation of digital fashion designers equipped with digital and physical fashion expertise.

These first graduates now possess the capabilities to design fashion products leveraging the characteristics of both digital and real-world environments. At the fashion show held for their graduation, students showcased digital fashions created on the immersive gaming and creation platform Roblox^*2. These digital designs were also recreated as real-world looks and presented on the runway at Bunka Fashion College^*3. At the gallery adjacent to the show venue, works integrating digital fashions and their virtual booths were displayed alongside physical looks. This exhibition highlights the unique strengths of this next generation of designers, demonstrating their ability to transcend the boundaries between the digital and the physical.

The students created their own collections of digital and physical items based on the theme “My Brand” using Roblox's unique “layered clothing”^*4, and “Roblox Studio”^*5, an advanced creation engine that provides a comprehensive set of free powerful 3D collaborative creation tools, students designed 3D digital fashion items and published these on Roblox. The students have also created an easily accessible and immersive virtual exhibition space on Roblox titled “Bunka Graduation Fashion Runway: Class of 2025”^*6. Visitors to the virtual space can view, try on, vote for, and purchase their favorite fashion items designed by the students. This practical curriculum was provided by GeekOut Inc.

From left: A student’s physical look, digital fashion design, and Roblox avatar wearing the look
The students used fabrics and textures that leverage the unique characteristics of both the real world and the design, and also incorporated a raindrop design enabled by Roblox

From left: A student’s design on digital avatar, the student’s physical look

Many of the graduates of the Program have already secured jobs at major Japanese apparel companies. In addition to the virtual items released on Roblox, they are also preparing to unveil a digital collection, and have started to thrive as professional digital fashion designers.

Going forward, dentsu will continue to expand the opportunities for learning for students who will lead the next generation of fashion designers, support their career opportunities after graduation, and contribute to the development of talented individuals set to become world-leading digital fashion designers.

*1: For more information about the Digital Fashion Program, please see the press release below.
URL: https://www.group.dentsu.com/en/news/release/001351.html

*2: For more information on Roblox, please visit the Roblox website.
URL: https://corp.roblox.com/

*3: For a livestrean of the show, please visit the Bunka Fashion College official YouTube channel.
URL: https://www.youtube.com/user/bfcstaff

*4: “Layered Clothing” is a unique Roblox proprietary technology enabling creation of inclusive digital clothing that fits any avatar body type, allows to layer/combine multiple items and mimic the way physical clothing drapes and forms on a body.

*5: For more information on Roblox studio, please visit the Roblox website.
URL: https://corp.roblox.com/

*6: Please see the following URL for the virtual exhibition space “Bunka Graduation Fashion Runway: Class of 2025” (in Japanese only)
URL:https://www.roblox.com/ja/games/79503413229926/Bunka-Graduation-Fashion-Runway-Class-of-2025

Sachiko Aihara, School President,Bunka Fashion College, commented:
“Our goal is to give our students the advantage of being at the forefront of today’s trends where technology is democratizing how fashion is created and worn, and the growing scale of people’s connections and interactions in the digital world dictates trends and defines style both in the digital and physical worlds. Future fashion brands will be both sewing and coding clothes, and Bunka graduates will be in the position to create sustainable global fashion brands that respond to the interests of digital-forward consumer generations.”

Winnie Burke, Head of Fashion & Retail Partnerships at Roblox, commented:
“Tokyo is one of the world’s fashion capitals, and Japanese designers are known tastemakers. We are seeing this in students’ works that millions of people can now wear on their avatars on Roblox, and we are excited for the next generation of designers in Japan to be creating with Roblox technology and in creative immersive spaces where millions of people connect and create together. It's wonderful that digital fashion on Roblox has grown so rapidly over the past decade, and now everyone from world-famous fashion brands to up-and-coming designers can find a user base that wants their look. Through this collaboration with Bunka Fashion College and Dentsu, I look forward to seeing the creative designs that many more program graduates can produce.”

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About Dentsu Group Inc.: Dentsu Group Inc. is a pure holding company that oversees a corporate group consisting of approximately 140 companies in Japan and approximately 580 companies outside Japan. It directly oversees four business regions: Japan, Americas, EMEA, and APAC, and promotes the development and support to achieve sustainable growth and strengthen competitiveness, as well as group governance, for the entire group. It also contains the Dentsu Innovation Initiative, the R&D organization for the entire group.
Website: https://www.group.dentsu.com/en/

About Bunka Fashion College: Since being accredited as Japan's first school for fashion education, Bunka Fashion College has played a central role in fashion education in Japan, celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. The school’s graduates have gone on to take leading roles in the fashion industry, including as designers active within and outside Japan, creators and stylists at the forefront of fashion, buyers, and press. The more than 300,000 alumni of Bunka Fashion College have helped raise Japanese fashion to the world's top standard and continue to play an active role at the forefront of the industry.
Website: https://www.bunka-fc.ac.jp/en/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bunka_fc/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/bfcstaff

About the Bunka Fashion College Apparel Technology Department’s third year optional virtual fashion course: This course was newly established at Bunka Fashion College in 2024 with the aim of training 3D modelers. It has a practical curriculum that uses 3D software utilized in the apparel industry. Students study how to express 3D data in a realistic way, like a photograph, and also learn how to use 3D computer graphics as a creative tool to create unique designs, such as converting data into an in-game space.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bunka_vf
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bunka_vf

About Roblox: Roblox is an immersive gaming and creation platform that offers people millions of ways to be together, inviting its community to explore, create and share endless unique experiences. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together– in a world that's safe, civil, and optimistic. To achieve this vision, we are building an innovative company that, together with the Roblox community, has the ability to strengthen our social fabric and support economic growth for people around the world. For more about Roblox, please visit https://corp.roblox.com/.

Contacts:
Business inquiries:
Keigo Aoki, Yuki Koyama, Shusuke Morioka
Dentsu Innovation Initiative (within Dentsu Group Inc.)
E-mail: innovation-initiative@dentsu.co.jp 　

Media inquiries:　
Jumpei Kojima, Akiko Shimadzu, Todor Baev
Group Corporate Communications Office
Dentsu Group Inc.
Email: group-cc@dentsu.com