AI tools in art are described as software that uses artificial intelligence to assist with or generate creative works. Popular text-to-image generators are Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion. In this blog I will discuss a few components of generated art. I will discuss if the art, generated by AI, show originality, skill, commercial purposes and a poetic meaning and. These are characteristics which I look for in art, and am curious to discover and discuss if AI can create such art. If so, what does this mean for artists and the fashion industry.
To answer this question, I first need to do my research on the AI tools. The website of AIArtists.org shows 41 creative tools to generate AI art such as Runway ML. Runway ML is capable of creating images, videos, transformations, virtual stages, virtual try-on etc. It offers a wide array of possibilities. If an artist would want to create a new design for his winter collection, he/she would start a conversation with AI and tell it his/her preferences. I explored the possibilities and limits of this tool and received some inspiration from it. To give the reader a clearer view I’d like to share my experiment.
As input, I asked AI to create an image of a rose and a ballerina. These are two things I want to reflect in my new design. The tool created an image of a ballerina balancing on two legs with a big white rose behind her, few times the size of the ballerina. It wasn’t quite what I imagined so I asked AI to make it more original, skilled, with commercial purpose and a poetic meaning. I had to elaborate on what commercial purpose and what poetic meaning, so the next image had to depict the beauty of a white rose reflected on the ballerina. The commercial purpose entailed the possibilty of using this design in a ballet show. The output gave an image of a ballerina with a long flowing skirt, balancing on one leg with a picture of a rose on her had. I realised, my inputs had to be more specific for AI. I didn’t know yet if I wanted it to be a skirt or a dress or something else. The second output gave me new inspiration, the skirt started looking like a rose and I asked AI to make the skirt more distinctly rose-like in its appearance. The thirds output gave me a new goal for creation. My experience with this AI tool was very positive. Although AI didn’t always understand what I wanted it to create, the last result depicted an image of what I was imagining in my head. It felt like a collaboration.
AI is giving the fashion industry a lot of beneficial tools to new creations. It is described as a powerful tool that is amplifying creativity. According to The Guardian (2024), people fear jobs losses and death of imagination and with that the world of fashion. The 40th anniversary of London fashion week hosted an AI-generated fashion show where people, who can’t entry the industry through traditional pathways, can show their designs created by AI to an audience. So, AI offers artists opportunities to entry the market. The fear of job loss is also quickly being debunked, meaning that AI only works if someone is using it, meaning we still need people to operate it. An article by Vogue (2025) shows concerns for the intensive energy use by fashion brands. AI is now mostly used for streamlining supply chains of fashion brands to become more sustainable. But people show concerns if it doens’t beat it’s purpose for being sustainable.
In conclusion, the AI tool is offering opportunities for artists to enter new markets and for the fashion industry a more efficient supply-chain. By using the tool in the right way, users will receive new inspirations and ideas and even designs. Improvements can always be made and according to my experience the perfect design tool should leave as much room for creativity as possible and at the same time completely understand what the user is looking for. So eventually improvements for text-to-image translation. Even though AI needs a lot of energy to operate, it is still forecasted to become a big part of the fashion industry.
References:
Jobe, N. (2024, 8 februari). How AI is ‘amplifying creativity’ in the fashion world. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2024/feb/08/ai-london-fashion-week Doyle, M. (2025, 6 maart).
Why fashion should think carefully about using generative AI. Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/sustainability/why-fashion-should-think-carefully-about-using-generative-ai
Dear Roosdams,
I appreciate the effort you put into writing this article, though I do have some concerns.
You speak of orginality, though GenAI as it is, is trained upon millions of other pictures and images, often without the creator’s consent. It would be unwise to call that which is generated fully original, it is rather an amalgamation of all that came before it. Secondly, what is the skill that is being shown when creating an AI image? I find it hard to see anything in it which a human could not do if not better. I often wonder if the designs created by AI would even be feasible to make in real life.
To call the people who use AI artists, is a devaluation of art and the human experience in general? You also never seem to have truly elaborted on your the poetic meaning behind your piece. Poetry is up to interpretation, though author intent is important too? What if I told you that what I see in front of me is an imitation of purity and perfection rather than the real thing?
You do not seem to show much empathy towards artists who put in the work and truly dedicate themselves. Yes AI must be used by a person, however who says that the company will not just downsize their creative teams or just leave it all to one person?
Finally, you show a very pro-AI stance. This in itself is fine, but we are speaking about the fashion industry here. An industry which I adore but is known to greenwash HEAVILY. It would be unwise to trust outlets such as Vogue and not look up true scientific journal articles on the topic.
I am curious to hear your response, whatever that maybe and am open to discussion.
Hi Ian, the reason why I call the fashion designers, who used AI to create their designs, artists. Is based on the assumption that if the design is liked by its viewers, the design can be considered art. Art is a very complex and subjective topic in general.. According to London’s fashion week the pieces were loved by the audience and awarded with production. I will agree with you the poetic meaning was eloborated very little, but I did state the poetic meaning of my AI output, which entailed the comparison of the beauty of a white rose with a ballerina, that was the message behind the art I tried to create myself. Now, i would never call myself an artist after this little experiment, but i do agree with the fact that these amateur designers who didn’t seem to have a chance of entering the fashion industry before, can be called artists after they used an AI tool to create their designa and receive an applaud from the audience.
I appreciate the concern you have for my blog and the sources I used. I totally agree with the fact that I used Vogue as my source for the determination of the sustainability of the fashion industry, although my focus wasn’t sustainablity but the hypothese that AI is a great tool for artists in the Fashion industry. It has already been used widely and will continue to do so. That’s why it would be interesting for you to read this book:https://books.google.nl/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=ZRF-DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=AI+tool+in+fashion+industry&ots=rLumX1EXc0&sig=J7P_8mHVu3b0T1P8bUL8xatbqs0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=AI%20tool%20in%20fashion%20industry&f=false, it says that AI tools are not only for large fashion houses; the tools are becoming more accessible to smaller brands, enabling more people to leverage AI for designing, forecasting, etc. This lowers barriers to entry and allows more experimentation.The vision is not that AI replaces designers or creatives but that it augments human capabilities—enabling creativity, faster iteration, better decision-making, etc.