AI in fashion, friend or foe?

7

October

2025

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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

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The ‘Gamification’ of digital fashion.

8

October

2021

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Digital fashion has been established since 2018, where companies use VR and AR to show off their new collections in a virtual space. The Fabricant, a virtual fashion designer firm, has made it clear that designing clothing online allows for more creativity, less required resources, and less-risk when designing clothes, and necessary to battle the restrictions of Covid-19 (The Fabricant, n.d.). But lately, a new development has emerged in the fashion industry: using games to advertise and sell clothes, the “gamification of fashion”.

Gamification is defined as the process of adding game elements to non-game activities (Fitz-Walter, n.d.). For fashion brands, such as Burberry, who partnered with Tencent Games and their game “Honor of Kings”, justified their partnership: “Interactive digital content is increasingly become a source of inspiration in (luxury) fashion, games offer another opportunity for consumers to connect with our products online” (Key, 2020). Some brands go as far to create their own free-to-play virtual gaming space, such as Balenciaga, to show off their new collection in virtual dressing rooms. (Key, 2020).

The partnerships with game publishers have become a prominent way for fashion brands to show and sell collections, yet other brands, such as H&M, take it even one step further: selling digital fashion in games. H&M has partnered with Nintendo and their game “Animal Crossing”, which saw major influx of sales due to Covid-19 (Orland, 2021), to recycle their in-game clothes and receive H&M catalogue for their virtual avatars. In addition, H&M created a virtual avatar in the gaming space, which will act as a brand ambassador across games (Scandinavian Mind, n.d.)

Lastly, to illustrate the significance of the emergence of the virtual space of fashion, Digital fashion courses have also been integrated into Bachelor and Master programs in Fashion (Digital Fashion Communication, n.d.). The fashion industry has adapted to the limitations of covid-19, and it is expected to stay.

What do you think about digital fashion? Is it an effective way to showcase collections, or do you still prefer to visit stores and see tangible clothing?

References

Digital Fashion Communication. (n.d.). Master programmes in (digital) fashion communication. Retrieved 8 October 2021, from https://digitalfashion.ch/list-of-masters/

Fitz-Walter, Z. (n.d.). What is Gamification? Gamify. Retrieved 8 October 2021, from https://www.gamify.com/what-is-gamification

Key, M. (2020, December 9). Fashion Gamification: Why high-end brands like Balenciaga are turning to virtual gaming. Reydar. https://www.reydar.com/fashion-gamification-balenciaga/

Orland, K. (2021, February 1). Why Animal Crossing: New Horizons ’ 31 million sales are so incredible. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/02/putting-31-million-animal-crossing-new-horizons-sales-in-context/

Scandinavian Mind. (n.d.). 6 brands that are leading the way for virtual fashion. Retrieved 8 October 2021, from https://scandinavianmind.com/news/6-brands-that-are-leading-the-way-for-virtual-fashion

The Fabricant. (n.d.). The Fabricant | A Digital Fashion House. Retrieved 8 October 2021, from https://www.thefabricant.com/

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Would you want to print your own cloths at home?

16

October

2017

No ratings yet. “The Future of Fashion is 3D Printing Clothes at Home” is the title of the article that James Tarmy wrote in 2016 for Bloomberg. Currently, 3D printed clothes are only displayed at specific exhibitions like the Met Costume Institute’s Spring exhibition in New York and worn by models in exclusive fashion shows (Tarmy, 2016). 3D printed cloths are still hard to wear as 3D printed materials have not come close to fabric yet and in addition they are expensive. However, as 3D technology is already recognized as a disruptive technology in many industries, the fashion industry is no exception. The question that arises is whether we could print our own cloths at home in the future.

3D printing is widely seen as one of the emerging technologies of the current era. The technology for 3D printing has existed since the 1980s, but has not been capable and cost effective yet for high volume production. It is expected that this will change within the upcoming years as technology is improving. The 3D printing technique works as follows: solids parts are built by printing one layer at a time. One of the advantages of the 3D printing technique is the speed of production (Redwood, 2015). Specific parts can be produced in just a few hours, compared to several days to weeks in normal manufacturing Another advantage is the accuracy of production, since components are created one layer at the time. These advantages are very useful in the manufacturing industry as new designs are often developed. However, the above-mentioned advantages are not as significant in the fashion industry.

But on the other hand, there would be other advantages of 3D printing that are more relevant to the fashion industry. Wouldn’t it be ideal if you could print your own clothes that have your exact measurements? In today’s world, clothing that perfectly fits your body is often expensive and difficult to obtain. With the use of a 3D printer this could become a possibility. Additionally, the use of a 3D printer would be environmental friendly as there’s no waste of textile. Though, it is important to address that 3D printing within the fashion industry is still in its early stages. Companies have printed some clothing; however, these clothes were extremely stiff and hard to wear. Slowly the design has become more flexible, but it’s still far away from regular clothing, since the combination of 3D printing with fabric has not experienced a lot of growth. As a result, current use of 3D printing within the fashion industry is more focused on hardware like jewelry and footwear.

So, even if you would like to print your own cloths at home, you would still have to wait several years before this could become reality.

References:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-15/3d-printing-is-poised-to-bring-haute-couture-into-the-home

https://www.3dhubs.com/knowledge-base/advantages-3d-printing

https://www.mbtmag.com/article/2016/01/how-3d-printing-will-impact-manufacturing-industry

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‘See Now – Buy Now’ model: another shift in the Fashion Industry

9

September

2016

5/5 (7) New York Fashion Week just hit off, and with the new ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, fashion lovers will be able to immediately order their products – straight of the runway (Saxon, 2016). While some designers are reluctant to implement this model (Hunt, 2016), major fashion icons such as Tommy Hilfiger, Prada and Burberry have made the switch.

The ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model allows customers to buy their items as they are shown on the runway.

This isn’t the first time the Fashion Industry has been affected by technology: e-commerce has been trending, 3D printing has been introduced to make clothes, and social media has been used extensively to promote, rate and share fashion brands.

Traditionally, fashion shows presented in the fall reflect the next spring’s styles (Wallace, 2016). Thus, once an item you adored would be shown during a fashion show, you most likely had to wait until the next season to wear it. With the new ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, fashion show outfits are transformed into more season appropriate and ready-to-wear styles (Wallace, 2016). Next to that, fashion shows have also become more accessible. Where one needed a ticket in the past to attend a show, live streams now make it possible to see a show from any place (Wolfe, 2016). Thus, new trends are within reach – and anyone can give their opinion on them straight away.

Fast fashion has and will continue to affect to fashion industry (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). With the new ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, fashion seems to be faster than ever. It is only a matter of time before we find out what the impact of the ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model is on the fashion industry.

What do you think? Should the entire fashion industry shift to a ‘See Now – Buy Now’ model, or do you believe its effect will be minimal?


– Hunt, R. (2016). “See Now Buy Now” Or How Digital Is Changing Fashion. [online] Wtvox.com. Available at: https://wtvox.com/fashion-tech/see-now-buy-now-fashiontech/
– Saxon, K. (2016). Digital Revolution Is Changing The Fashion Industry. [online] Wtvox.com. Available at: https://wtvox.com/fashion-tech/digital-revolution-fashion-industry/
– Wallace, T. (2016). Fast Fashion Spurs Need for Change in Fashion Industry. [online] The BigCommerce Blog. Available at: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/new-report-proves-unanimous-agreement-time-ripe-change-fashion-industry/
– Wolfe, N. (2016). Will the See Now/Buy Now Fashion Model Really Work?. [online] Harper’s BAZAAR. Available at: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/fashion-week/a14343/fashion-industry-changes/

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