**1. Introduction**

As a writer of science fiction, one of us (Edwards) has written about the use of dynamically changing skin-tight garments in a future civilization. In the scenario worked out in this fictional world, the first volume of which is called Plenum [1], these membrane-like garments protect their wearers from the hardships of the vacuum of space, but they also incorporate nanotechnologies that allow surface patterns to change and swirl across the surface of the skin, or even to extrude into the third dimension.

Inspired by these ideas, and also by earlier work as a fashion designer on the part of Edwards (see collections at www.geoffreyjenedwards.com/fashion-design), a small multidisciplinary group was pulled together from different backgrounds and abilities to prototype garments that do this. Rather than using nanotechnologies, which aren't advanced enough to permit this kind of application yet, we are working with augmented reality (AR) technologies instead. Michaud is a student with training in mathematics who has retrained in the textile arts, Proulx Guimond is a visual artist with training in 3D design and animation, and Caron-Roberge is a programmer.

Augmented reality is beginning to be used by certain avant-garde fashion designers and artistic visionaries [2]. Like many emerging technologies, the technical challenges are considerable. The field of augmented reality capabilities has progressed rapidly in the past decade, but there are still major issues that are not

easily resolved to support real-time AR visualization in a robust artistic performance setting.

In this paper, we shall describe the application context, the particular choices made, and the technical challenges we overcame in order to present a real-time fashion show in front of a live audience, showcasing our designs.
