Parsons Paris

April 10, 2024

The Future of Fashion is Digital: a conversation with Nile Guiraud on her passion and life after graduation

Article from issue 1 of ‘later’ – the Parsons Paris alumni magazine
Story by Tamara Barakat, Featuring Kritika Kohli, 3D Rendering by Kritika Kohli

Nile is a fashion graduate from Parsons Paris, currently living in California. She is passionate about fashion and the possibilities of digital to innovate and expand the possibilities of fashion. She has been expanding her skills in this field especially since she took a class at Parsons while she was doing her year abroad in New York. 

Tamara Barakat and Nile Guiraud have a conversation on her career, passions, life after graduation and perspective on digital fashion and its future.

I’d like to start by asking what have you been up to? What did you do at school and what have you been doing since you graduated? 

Well, during my time in school, I worked for a textile studio in Paris where I specialized in creating 3D prototypes for them. This allowed us to visualize realistic prints. We had some amazing clients, and the studio transitioned into a digital fashion company known as No More Mondays. After that, I decided to go freelance and recently had the opportunity to work with Adidas and the Metaverse and I’ve been freelancing ever since. At the same time, I was also pursuing a career in modeling. I briefly explored working with a digital fashion and clothing company but ultimately stuck with freelancing. This spring, I relocated to California, considering Los Angeles as a potential destination. It’s been quite an interesting journey. I even attended the Digital Fashion Week in Paris, where I met a lot of people in this emerging field. Finding clients as a freelancer can be challenging, but during downtime, I focus on editorials, personal projects, and networking. Currently, I’m working on two editorials for four different magazines, which allows me to express my creativity through clothing. In addition to my freelance work, I have a few side jobs, including teaching English during the day and bartending. It’s a fun way to save money and learn new skills. I’ve quit modeling to explore these new opportunities.

That sounds great, I’m curious to know, how do you manage your time and go through these different jobs, side hassles and just life at the same time? 

Well, when it comes to my various jobs, bartending can be quite exhausting because I need to reset every week, but it offers me a chance to be social. Each job provides something different; my freelance work usually has me working alone, so bartending serves as my social outlet, and it being a nighttime gig works well for me. Teaching, on the other hand, only takes up a few hours each day, allowing me to step away from my computer and interact with people. Overall, these jobs add value to my day, and having a more stable income is definitely a plus. I appreciate the balance it provides. It’s great!

I’m curious to know, how did you go into digital first? You mentioned that you started working at a textile company first, so how did it evolve to be about digital? 

Actually, it’s quite a funny story about how I got into digital fashion. It was a complete accident. When I was at Parsons in New York during my third year, we were supposed to sign up for a collection course, which is basically a studio class. But, you know, I didn’t pay much attention to the instructions and signed up without really looking into it. I think I might have been a bit late in registering, and all the other classes were full, so I just signed up for what I thought was a regular class. When I walked in, everyone had laptops, and I immediately realized I was in the wrong class. I approached the teacher and explained my mistake. She had seen my previous work, which had a digital aspect, and felt that I could benefit from the class. There were a hundred people on the waitlist, so she advised me to stay, and I thought, “Well, if a hundred people are interested, it must be good.” So I went all in. Back in Paris, I couldn’t find anyone else doing digital fashion in my class. I genuinely loved the digital aspect, and I believed it would give me an advantage in the competitive world of fashion design. Even though digital fashion was new and people were skeptical, I had a gut feeling that it had a future. I still have moments of doubt, but overall, I think I made the right choice. It’s an evolving field, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

That’s great, but how are you perceiving this compared to fashion design? It goes hand in hand obviously, but the work is quite different, so where do you see yourself more?

Actually, I think it’s kind of steered me a different way than specifically fashion design, because now I’m much more into creative direction, which is interesting because I realize I’ve always done some sort of creative direction, like creative direction for shoots. And as a model, I saw a lot of signs of that even before I worked on it. Before I even went to school, I was organizing photoshoots. And so doing digital fashion has kind of brought me back to this where I’m working on set with people. And it’s not really about making clothes anymore, but it’s about making an image. So I’m doing a lot of content creation which steered me into photography and into video work animations. So it’s much more and it’s brought me to a different place than I would have expected. And I’m not necessarily creating clothing anymore. 

Can you describe your client interactions and the specific requests they make? Are they primarily seeking designs for the metaverse, or do they require you to develop prototypes? I’m curious to understand the work that you do.

Well, it’s interesting because there’s quite a variety of types of work we can actually be doing with clothes. Sometimes I will be creating something that they’ve already designed that they want to produce one day. And clothes are a good way to create patterns and get it to production and just work back and forth and make those prototypes. So it can be quite technical in the sense and also done work for the metaverse where they need an animation of some sort and some air filters as well. But often it’ll be like content for Instagram, creating an animation of some sort based on what the client wants. So there’s just quite a variety of different places. And then sometimes clients just want action. Just in another word, we’re actually a student from the firm, created a knitwear garment and she wanted them to own a notion of that for content.

Could you share a story that’s your personal favorite? What type of work truly excites you and gets you genuinely enthusiastic? 

You know, what really resonates with me is when I’m working on the editorial side of things, where I get to direct photo shoots, assemble a team, and then use coding to bring these reative concepts to life. It’s the most thrilling when I have a say in what I create. That’s what’s significant for me at the moment, and it’s incredibly fulfilling to have that freedom to go from the initial idea all the way to its execution, from A to Z.

I’m intrigued to understand the influence of Parsons on your career. You mentioned that this digital fashion class was a particularly enjoyable experience and served as an unexpected gateway to a new path. More broadly, I’m curious about your overall journey with Parsons and how it contributed to your development within the creative field. 

Well, I think I was really grateful for my first person just speaking, writing and the processes, really shaping the ideas, and I thought they really would push me further always. And they really taught me the design and the way that I can play in designing or being like, I don’t know, have. I feel like they were always able to help me, like push my ideas further. 

Remind me again about your graduation, it was in Paris right, 2021?

Yeah, I graduated from there in the year 2021! Oh, my God. That was like two years and a half ago already. I’m now starting to think about doing a masters. Well, we’ll see. I’m in an indecisive place, but I’m just going to apply for things, especially in Fashion Business to expand my knowledge in entrepreneurship and to help me take everything to the next level in my career.

Tell me, what’s your long term ambition? What’s your dream?

It’s such a hard question. Well, definitely. I do think that. I love what I’m doing in the digital space. And so just making that really my business central and like all. And there was a discussion. I definitely think I have not left standing on my own ground. But I guess it would be known that it’s a citizen of the place. It’s kind of hard to call it a brand, but I guess my artwork and just continuing what I’m doing on a bigger scale.

What would you tell your younger self right now?

I think I wish I had been more. What’s the word? Like I wish I was more thoughtful. I had two jobs at school, so I don’t feel like I had the time to be intentional about my future. I wish I used the space of education to help design my business plan and work on that and through that at school with all the amazing resources that were available to us. Also, there was times where it was so intense and I was so anxious. I think freshman year especially, I was so freaked out all the time and I realized we are really lucky to be able to pursue our passions and go to an art school, even though it’s very hard. And so I remember my mom telling me, enjoy the process. And I told myself I should actually enjoy the fact that it’s hard. Appreciate that we have the chance to do this because sometimes we kind of take it for granted, or I did. Sometimes I was just like anxious and overwhelmed, but actually just sitting down and realizing like, Oh, I’m lucky that I can pursue my passions and I need to take it all in.

What about now? What are your challenges at work today?

Well, I guess I touched on it a little bit, but I guess the key challenges are creating stability as a freelancer, which I do find is somewhat easier in California than in France, because the French systems are really set up for freelancers. I think having been a freelancer there for a couple of years now, I find the bureaucratic side of things harder there. But I guess keeping the clients and managing all sides, since I’m alone!

I also often wonder sometimes, like, should I be in a company at this time of my life to broaden my skill set and also to have my own security? If all goes wrong, it’s not on you.

Thanks for being so vulnerable. Another question for people, what would you tell people that want to get into digital fashion?

I think it’s it’s be. But I think it’s really a really great field for the fashion industry and art, and a lot of people are behind it. Really inspiring space because I think. It’s a really amazing tool for a lot of the issues that are there.There’s so many different parts of it and you can really take them into a lot of spaces. And I think if someone want to go into digital fashion they should definitely go to events, talk about, meet the people into it, to learn about it more and find the right people in the industry to have these meaningful discussions because it’s a new space and it’s ready to be explored!

Tell me, do you ever feel like digital will replace humans and the work that we do in fashion?

I don’t think so, you’ll always need a human and an eye and a sensibility behind the work done. These are just tools. Great tools that just enhance my work. It doesn’t lead me to believe that they will ever replace human creativity and expertise. For instance, in May, I noticed a significant improvement in my work process; Photoshop, for example, has introduced some incredibly beneficial features. Furthermore, I’ve heard rumors about a new version of a tool for clothing design, which should assist in pattern making and more. and that’s great, it means I can be more creative and do more and expand further. This evolving business landscape demands continuous skill development, fostering excitement for innovation. I don’t feel apprehensive; rather, I view it as an opportunity to learn and adapt. It’s an exciting journey ahead.

Thanks Nile, it was really great speaking to you.