STUDIOOFNEW goes international through teaching at HOWEST

Holly New, Founder and CEO of STUDIOOFNEW, has recently taken the studio’s work international through teaching at HOWEST Multimedia and Creative Technologies in Belgium.

The visit forms part of STUDIOOFNEW’s growing focus on international education and knowledge-sharing around advanced digital fashion and immersive workflows.

HOWEST is widely recognised for its strength in immersive technologies, real-time graphics and interactive media, and is often referred to as one of Europe’s leading institutions for VR-focused education. Its Multimedia and Creative Technologies programme attracts students working across game design, XR, digital production and emerging creative pipelines.

During the session, Holly spoke in depth with students about how STUDIOOFNEW approaches digital fashion and 3D production at an industry level. Rather than focusing on individual tools, the teaching centred on understanding how professional workflows are structured, how different pipelines operate depending on context and how inefficiencies commonly appear within traditional digital fashion processes.

Using real studio examples, Holly broke down how standard digital fashion pipelines can often take three weeks or more, largely due to late-stage revisions, over-refinement and unclear decision-making early in the process. In contrast, she demonstrated how STUDIOOFNEW restructures its workflows to prioritise early spatial decisions, allowing timelines to be reduced from weeks to days without sacrificing quality.

As part of the session, Holly delivered a live demonstration of creating clothing in VR using the STUDIOOFNEW method. The demonstration focused on using immersive space to explore silhouette, proportion and volume quickly, showing how VR can support early-stage design thinking rather than functioning as a final visualisation tool. Students were guided through how these early explorations inform later stages of development, helping teams decide which ideas are worth refining before committing to more technical processes.

Alongside VR workflows, the session explored how STUDIOOFNEW uses AI and ChatGPT within its practice. Holly introduced students to repeatable, advanced prompting structures used within the studio to support ideation, planning and clarity across projects. The emphasis remained on professional application, showing how AI can assist creative work when used intentionally, rather than as a shortcut or replacement for design thinking.

Industry professionalism formed a key part of the discussion. Holly spoke openly about what it is really like to work within creative and fashion technology industries, covering communication within mixed-discipline teams, managing expectations, presenting work clearly and understanding the realities of studio and freelance environments. This context helped students connect technical skills with the professional behaviours expected in industry.

Teaching these workflows live allowed students to engage directly with current studio practice rather than retrospective case studies. The session highlighted the importance of workflow literacy, adaptability and decision-making, skills that extend beyond any single piece of software.

Following the visit to HOWEST, STUDIOOFNEW is now looking to expand its teaching further across Europe, working with institutions interested in contemporary digital fashion, immersive design and hybrid creative pipelines. Through international teaching, the studio continues to position itself as both a practitioner and an educational voice within the evolving landscape of digital fashion and immersive design.