Press Release: Leading Fashion and Luxury Brands Embrace Virtual Production at Pier59 Studios in the First Months of its Virtual Production Studio Operation

Tom Ford, Fendi, Neiman Marcus, and DKNY Among Top Fashion Brands Adopting New Production Techniques in their Ad Production

As the fashion world takes part in New York Fashion Week (NYFW), which is running from September 7th to September 13th, Pier59 Studios is excited to announce that major luxury and fashion brands have been utilizing its cutting-edge virtual production studio to shoot their ad campaigns throughout the summer. Installed earlier this year, Pier59 Studios boasts the world’s largest and most technologically advanced virtual production studio for fashion and advertising.

Leading fashion brands such as Tom Ford, Neiman Marcus, Fendi, and DKNY have enthusiastically embraced this new era of production techniques; these luxury brands and others have used the virtual production facility at Pier59 Studios to shoot extraordinary advertising spots that will launch over the next few months. These esteemed brands have harnessed the photo-realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections provided by Pier59's MegaWall volume to create captivating advertising campaigns.

“I’m very excited to move forward with filmmaking and still photography using this new technology…I think it will be cost effective and also open up a lot of creative avenues.” - Steven Klein - Photographer

The virtual production studio at Pier59 Studios offers innovative, digitally created environments that feature real-time computer-generated imagery in 2D, 2.5D and fully-integrated 3D Unreal Engine scenes. Unlike traditional green screen technology, which is composited in during post production, this revolutionary capability allows backdrops and visual effects to be captured in-camera (ICVFX) during the shoot. This provides enormous creative flexibility while enabling performers to interact with these virtual surroundings and visualize what the audience will see. Additionally, virtual environments are cost-effective and resource-efficient, making them an ideal choice for short format productions.

“With virtual production techniques, producers, directors, and creatives of all types can easily control the optimal time of day, the season, the weather, and the location—whether real or imagined—while realizing substantial cost savings, increased control, and creative flexibility. It has been exciting to see well-known brands in the fashion industry readily embracing this opportunity and utilize our studio and expertise,” said Steve Baum, Chief Innovation Officer at Pier59 Studios. “What sets Pier59’s facility apart from any other virtual production facility is its location in Manhattan and our in-house virtual production expertise. Agencies and production houses can rely on our industry knowledge and extensive virtual production expertise to ensure their production is executed to the highest standards.”

Having served the industry for nearly 30 years, Pier59 Studios, located at Chelsea Piers in New York City, encompasses 11 column-free studios and an impressive 110,000 square feet of multimedia studio and live event space.

"Pier59 Studios is a world-renowned venue for fashion and advertising based in New York. Building a dedicated virtual production studio in our space has given ad agencies and production companies access to use this cutting-edge technology here in Manhattan. I am thrilled to see so many well-known brands already using the space and our expertise,” said Federico Pignatelli, Founder and Chairman of Pier59 Studios.

The state-of-the-art Pier59 Studios' virtual production studio, which opened in February 2023, boasts an LED volume featuring a main 65’ curved LED screen and 40’ articulating ceiling, housing more than 25 million pixels capable of generating over 25 billion colors. Additionally, the 8K system is controlled by the world's most powerful virtual production software and hardware, generating more than 200 teraflops (200 trillion calculations per second) of computational power.

About Pier59 Studios:

Founded in 1995 by Federico Pignatelli and his Art and Fashion Group Corporation, Pier59 Studios is a 110,000-square-foot premier photography and multimedia studio located at Chelsea Piers in New York City. As the largest photography facility and multimedia complex in the world, the space is equipped with state-of-the-art technology. It accommodates the needs of photographers, designers, advertising agencies, and television production companies. Pier59 Studios features eleven column-free studio spaces, including a 5,400 square-foot sound stage constructed for live performances, special events, video, and commercial projects. Nine studios are designed for both natural and artificial lighting and are equipped with movable retractable walls to allow for full flexibility and modularity of their unique column-less spaces to meet all production needs.