For FW21, Demna Gvasalia gave us Afterworld, an online first-person role-playing game, while this season saw the Balenciaga designer present his SS22 collection on a series of Eliza Douglas clones. The latest digital trip is a FW21 motion-captured animated short.

Directed and produced by innovative video game developer Quantic Dream, the campaign uses “motion capture to create animated versions of real actors” – with hyper-realistic results. The plot follows two characters who meet at a dreary facility that offers temporary escapes to virtual scenarios. Clocking eyes while waiting in line, they enter the VR experience separately yet can’t help but subconsciously cross paths in the digital realm. Joining the dots, the VR world here is partially made of the same settings created for Afterworld, with each character wearing Balenciaga FW21, obviously.

Once the headsets are removed and both characters return to reality, they meet IRL and, embracing each other, they glitch into different characters, signifying “the uncertainty of place and identity in this realm, too.”