Patrick Girard Quinnell

← Selected work

Regenerative
Fashion Archive

Most student fashion research ends when the show does. RFA keeps it, tags it to the UN goals it addresses, and puts it on the walls.

  • Year2023 – ongoing
  • StudioRFA / BRGB
  • RoleCo-Director, Digital
  • AwardIndustry Readiness 4.0/5.0, UEL
  • Source on GitHub↗
RFA Fig. 01: a woven fabric unravels into a particle field, threads coloured by the four most-tagged UN Sustainable Development Goals across 500 student projects

Overview

A long-running research project by BRGB, run through UEL Knowledge Exchange since 2023, moving from print to installation to live data.

RFA started on the Umbro China project, where I managed the digital outputs, technology and installation. Since then each new project has added a version of the archive, from printed matter at the UEL BA fashion show to an exhibition for TLSS at HYPERLIINK.

The current work turns the archive into live systems: a visualiser that reads student project data from CKAN, and a prototype Immersive Research Room. The project has been shown at Shanghai Fashion Week, the Design Museum in London and a conference in Barcelona, and has secured over £320k in funding.

Iterations

012023

Umbro China × RFA

Umbro wanted to carry British football fashion into China, and we pushed it modern and futuristic. I directed 40 students from Fashion, Games, Film and Graphic Design, with 4 staff on the installations, and ran the digital outputs and technology.

The installation combined projection, a room of screens for the digital work, a VR area and a gaming area.

The project left behind 360° video, volumetric scans of some of the garments, and a place in the Design Museum in China. Keeping all of that, and keeping it usable, is where RFA started.

  • Team40 students, 4 staff
  • Archive360° video, volumetric scans
  • AwardDIA Design Intelligence Award
  • Press100M+ views: Hypebeast, Vogue, Marie Claire
Overhead view of the Umbro China × RFA show: models on white plinths in a circle, surrounded by guests and photographers
022024

UEL BA Fashion Show

The look was a first sketch of the RFA Visualiser: colour and type taken from the UN goals, then pushed into glitch. I made all of it myself around the 15 students' work, from the invites and screen videos to the printed designer list and the installation set-up.

Those print-outs were the first version of the archive as a physical object, a record of who showed and what they made that outlasted the night.

  • Students15
  • TeamSolo
  • MadeInvites, screen video, print, installation
A model walks the runway at the UEL BA Fashion Show, with branded screens above the front row
03Summer 2025

The Common Room

The first public showing of the RFA Visualiser, and the centre of the show. Everything in the archive connects to it and feeds into it, so it ran as the backdrop behind all 27 students' work. I built its first Unreal Engine version and ran the projections.

Produced with Polyester, The Common Room kept the garments from disappearing once the catwalk lights went down. It also launched the RFA journal, the archive's first publication, linking student work and process to industry, research and communities. I art directed it with Wesley Hartwell and two of Polyester's team, and we printed around 200 copies.

  • RoleCo-producer, digital projections
  • Show27 students, ~200 visitors a day over 3 days
  • JournalCreative and art direction, ~200 copies
  • PartnerPolyester
Models stand on the floor at The Common Room show, with the RFA Visualiser projected on the screen behind them
A hand holds The Common Room journal open on a grid of black-and-white model portraits
042026

TLSS × HYPERLIINK

TLSS is a Chinese football brand moving into the European and British market, and they came to us after Umbro China. This iteration started from asking how RFA could work commercially: a football shirt built from the TLSS visualiser, rendered in wireframe so it reads as data.

At HYPERLIINK the exhibition mixed students' physical and digital clothing with projects from external partners. The shirts are coming soon.

  • ClientTLSS, football brand
  • FormatExhibition, apparel
  • NextSports shirts, coming soon
Panel talk at HYPERLIINK in front of the TLSS visualiser on a large screen, with the RFA portal and SDG poster on the left
05In progress

Visualiser & Research Room

The RFA Visualiser pulls student project data live from CKAN and maps each project as a point of light, coloured by the UN Sustainable Development Goals it is tagged with. Visitors search it and filter by goal.

The Immersive Research Room puts it on four projected walls, with a search station in the middle of the room. I've built the Visualiser with four interns so far. We're building the room now and raising budget to finish the digital build. Next to it, a classic archive room already holds the work, with screens playing the students' digital pieces and videos.

  • DataCKAN, live · 17 SDGs
  • Room8 × 6 m, 4 projectors
  • Sensing2× Azure Kinect, webcam
  • TeamMe + 4 interns
  • StatusIn build, seeking funding
  • Source on GitHub↗
Isometric diagram of the Immersive Research Room: projected north and east walls, a ceiling projector cluster, two Azure Kinect sensors and a central PC search station
Plan view of the room: four projected walls around an 8 by 6 metre floor, with Kinect sensor coverage and the search station
Render inside the room: walls of coloured light points, an SDG bar chart and the search station desk
RFA Visualiser interface: a search bar, 273 matched projects shown as coloured points, and SDG 1 to 17 filters along the bottom

Outcomes

  • £320k+Funding secured across the project, including £15k UEL Knowledge Exchange
  • 100M+Views of Umbro China × RFA across press including Hypebeast, Vogue and Marie Claire
  • 2 awardsIndustry Readiness 4.0/5.0 from UEL's Vice-Chancellor and President, for RFA's ongoing innovation. DIA Design Intelligence Award for Umbro China × RFA.
  • Shown atShanghai Fashion Week. Design Museum, London. Conference in Barcelona. TLSS at HYPERLIINK.

Credits

  • Patrick Girard QuinnellCo-Director, Digital
  • Wesley HartwellCo-Director, Research

Links