Launching later this month, AI Fashion Week promotes AI as a tool for fashion and supports emerging designers working with the technology. Three winners’ garments will be produced physically and sold by Revolve Group.
BY MADELEINE SCHULZ

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A new fashion week is coming to New York – and, as interest in the potential of AI reaches fever pitch, it couldn’t be better timed. The first AI Fashion Week (20-21 April), held at Soho’s Spring Studios, is showcasing collections from emerging AI designers.

Backed by Spring Studios and e-commerce retailer Revolve Group, the event is making the case for AI as a tool for fashion design, supporting new designers working with the still-nascent technology. An opening event on the evening of 20 April is for media, VIPs and participants, while the space is open all day on 21 April to the public.

Participants have until 15 April to submit a collection of 15 to 30 looks, which will be judged by the public via online and in-person voting, promoted on the social media channels of AI Fashion Week (AIFW), Spring Studios and Revolve, as well as through Revolve’s expansive influencer network. More than 350 submissions have been received to date. Ten finalists proceed to round two in May, with three winners selected by a panel including Tiffany Godoy, Vogue Japan’s head of editorial content; Natalie Hazzout, Celine head of men’s casting; Erika Wykes-Sneyd, VP of Adidas’s Three Stripes Studio; Matthew Drinkwater, head of London College of Fashion’s Fashion Innovation Agency; and Michael Mente, Revolve CEO and co-founder.

The winners will receive support from AIFW’s fashion-tech incubator in partnership with Revolve. A key requirement is that the garments must be possible to produce physically, and the winning collections will be made and sold online, either via Revolve or Fwrd, Revolve’s luxury site, depending on the garments. Designers will receive support throughout the launch process, including with pattern making, sample development and marketing and communications.

“The idea is to come back to the real world,” says Cyril Foiret, founder of digital publication Trendland and AI creative studio Maison Meta, which is producing AIFW. Maison Meta previously worked with Moncler on the AI-generated Genius campaign. The event is specifically designed to bridge the physical and the digital. “It’s about mixing both worlds together,” Foiret says.

This bridging is reflected in the creative process as well. Despite worries that AI could preclude human creativity and, in turn, designers’ jobs, the AIFW guidelines dictate that creatives must step in, revise and amend their input and creations to ensure the output is eligible. This is where expertise comes in. “Translating the design into a production process will be needed,” says McKinsey senior partner Holger Harreis. “Right now, human intelligence will still be needed in this step. Parts might be generative AI-supported, but it will stay human-centric for a while.”

“It’s a new type of designer,” Mente says. “It’s not like the computer is designing and replacing jobs. It’s a different type of creator that’s using different types of technologies to create different types of outputs that can be produced physically. It’s a fresh perspective.”

Nigerian-American creator and digital artist Walé Oyerinde, for instance, credits his physical fashion background with his ability to input “the right information to get the right results”. He adds, “It’s words that a normal person who is not a designer might not know — the more experience and knowledge you have in the field, the better the results.”

Consultancy McKinsey predicts that generative AI could add $150 to $275 billion to the operating profits of the fashion and luxury sectors within the next three to five years. “These are early days, but we do see a very high potential [for fashion],” Harreis says.

Luxury brands are testing the waters. At Metaverse Fashion Week in March, Tommy Hilfiger and DressX held an AI design competition. The industry is watching the first AIFW from the sidelines but Foiret notes plenty of expressions of interest. He hopes to bring on board brands including L’Oréal for season two.

Revolve’s Mente wants to empower people to leverage the toolset that AI provides. “I think this is a big opportunity for designers of the future,” he says. Fellow jury member Godoy, of Vogue Japan, has long been focused on innovation. “I like to jump on things early,” she says, noting her intrigue in AI’s potential to shape how people communicate — especially via fashion imagery.

The creative process

This first AI Fashion Week has drawn an interesting mix of participants, including many not involved in fashion full time. Around 60 per cent of creators have used the AI platform Midjourney to create their pieces. 

Godoy is keen to see the reference points, including photography, that designers look to. “Is it all [Steven] Meisel? Is it all Norbert Schoerner from 1990s/2000s Prada campaigns? What are they looking at?” 

Ukrainian designer Irina Perivy has been inspired by her home country. “In the neural network request, I wrote such words as: spikelet, Ukrainian traditions, field and embroidery. I created the clothes, mood and atmosphere as in a Ukrainian field so that the viewer could be transported for a second to my country.” 

Designer Oyerinde has come up with a collection titled Haute Futur that plays on concepts of high and low, appealing to the consumer with familiar shapes and lines while looking forward with futuristic fabrics. The creator says his experience working with physical textiles has helped him to input the words to generate what he calls “data fabrics”.

Fledgling fashion houses are also opting in. Ilona Song, founder of the eponymous phygital fashion house, has submitted a collection titled Futuristic Fauna, inspired by camellias. Nastaran Hashemi, founder of digital fashion platform Orbyline, is entering collections both personally and under the Orbyline name. For both, she and her team translated the mood board to define silhouettes, primary shapes, colours and materials. Using blending techniques and remix tools, they perfected seam lines, cuts and proportions, adding a “personal touch”, Hashemi says.

A new generation of creatives
While excitement about the potential of AI is rising fast, there’s also a degree of hesitancy. LCF’s Drinkwater argues for a more balanced perspective. “The discourse around AI has for too long been ‘utopia or dystopia’,” he says. “There are immediate use cases for the technology to improve efficiency across design, marketing, logistics, supply chain and store operations. Fashion must improve its knowledge, skill sets, understanding and application of these technologies to deliver more sustainable business models.”

Revolve’s Mente agrees. “As a company, it’s important for us to stay at the cutting edge of what’s going on. It’s going to be incredible to show the world that the technology — with a human element — is a big opportunity for a new generation of creatives.”

For Godoy, the potential extends beyond digital design. “It’s about image making and world building,” she says. Designer Oyerinde adds: “It’s not just the finished garment. It can also tell a brand story — what we strive for in editorials. Now, we have this tool to create that aspirational element through AI.”

AI tools also increase accessibility for younger people without resources. Godoy recalls a conversation with Marjorie Hernandez, co-founder of digital fashion platform The Dematerialised, about how AI tools will support creatives from just about anywhere. “It opens up doors to even more people to create images, to create fashion,” she says.

Walking the line
That at least some of the garments must be physically possible to produce might seem counter-intuitive. LCF’s Drinkwater is of two minds. “It’s important for the industry to see how these tools can be used to improve efficiency and to help in the design process. But, I’m more excited to see the designs that are freed from the limitations of the physical world [when] we let creativity — and computing — run wild.”

To fit within the guidelines, designers had to temper their more exuberant instincts. “There was some limitation, because the creative flow of AI cannot be stopped — it knows no boundaries. So, many moments had to be controlled,” says designer Perivy.

The physical guidelines were helpful for Orbyline’s Hashemi, who comes from what might be deemed a “traditional” fashion background. Producing more expressive, extravagant pieces and reworking them to be wearable was an enjoyable process, she says.

Designer Oyerinde agrees. “It helped me narrow down my process,” he says. “It’s such a powerful tool that makes you realise your imagination is just the beginning. So, you can easily get carried away.”

Looking forward, Maison Meta plans to continue to blend physical and digital. For season two, Foiret says, a physical runway show derived from AI-generated designs will be introduced. He would like to expand the concept to events in Paris, London and Milan.

Godoy believes the blended approach of physical and digital is likely to be the key to the success of the concept. “This fashion week is so interesting to me because it is very considered. There’s a real awareness of the two worlds not always connecting [but] in the end, we all have digital identities. There’s a TPO — time, place, occasion — for both sides.”