AI Fashion Show in New York. Credit: Gabriel Hutchinson/Wikimedia Commons
AI needs no introduction but what does it mean for the future of fashion marketing?
By Aliyah Difia Rahma
Fashion, an industry as creative as it can get, is now facing a serious question about its future in the wake of the AI hype.
An industry that championed itself to become one of kind is now facing the reality that an algorithm can just generate all the creative ideas fashion craves – in just a fraction of the original times.
Recently the Business of Fashion interviewed Sybille de saint Louvent about her fake fashion campaigns created by AI for luxury brands such as Miu Miu, Gucci and Loro Piana. De saint Louvent said that this would help fashion brands to visualize the creative aspects for brands newest campaign. The generated images might look suspiciously realistic, and the campaign looks true enough to believe.
Yet, these fashion campaigns are not real, the props are not real, the models are not real. AI has been used to express how a fashion campaign could look like. For fashion brands, AI is a tool to create a hyper-targeted fashion campaign whilst predicting new trends.
Daniel Felstead, a lecturer in MA Fashion Media and Communication at London College of Fashion, believes that instead of looking this generated image with a creativity lens, people should start looking it from another perspective.
Have a listen to what Daniel had to say at a recent fashion and AI panel at London Metropolitan University:
It is not only fashion individuals’ various brands that have been using AI models to both leverage their production and elevate their customer shopping experience. The fast-fashion brand ZARA has been using AI to track down their consumers purchasing habits and predict the next trendy aesthetic for them to sell.
Fashion startups True Fit are also relying on 3D AI models to create precise models of customers’ bodies for fashion retailers to use, eliminating extra time to make a purchase decision.
Fashion brands have been using generative AI through creators, allowing them to invite creators and use their products and edit them to the generated images. Loewe and Versace are using AI more curiously and adapting to what it’s capable of. Brands are playing with AI tools to be part of the conversation what’s hot and relevant, which keeps the buzz around the brand alive.
A speculative generative AI image for a Burberry campaign. Credit: Freepik
AI has been used in a myriad of ways by brands to seamlessly integrate the brand and customers interaction beyond the brick-and-mortar setting. This setting allows the consumers to interact with the company even without real human interaction, and without having to physically visit a shop or showroom.
Creating a fashion campaign is a creative process and there has been a heated debate amongst creatives about how AI is taking over their jobs, which begs the question if there are any space for AI in fashion marketing?
Fashion marketing and AI
Fashion marketing, just like any other kind of marketing, is all about putting the product out at the right time and in the right place, a combination of research, data analysis, consumer insights and crafting a story that resonates with their audiences.
Nastaran Richards-Carpenter, lecturer in Fashion Marketing and Business Management at London Metropolitan University, said that fashion companies use AI to aid their production.
“At the start you always want to do everything traditionally,” said Richards-Carpenter.
“We have to adopt it, we have to say it’s coming, it is the future. How can we use it in a way that is helpful.”
Generated computer images or writings can be detected in recent years, especially with those who have hawk eyes. Yet, it’s possible for users to generate a hyper realistic image that could fool you in the first place.
A speculative AI generated image of a YSL sunglasses campaign. Credit: Freepik
According to a McKinsey report on AI, technological improvements are part how a brand can evolve further in 2025, showing their adaptability in the business. In a WGSN report, AI usage in fashion design is welcomed to speed the sampling process. Hugo Boss uses Adobe AI-driven 3D design into their production, which they claimed helped the brand to cut their sampling time by 85%.
Richards-Carpenter said: “For customers, things like picking up a style in a virtual fitting room, augmented reality, virtual reality. So artificial intelligence is quite everywhere in the fashion industry right now…I mean it’s quite helpful.”
Fashion marketing still requires some degree of creativity to create campaigns and sell the products to the consumers. With AI taking over production, AI is also helping brands and companies in creating creative campaigns as well.
Richards-Carpenter expresses her dislike about the AI images that was created by Sybille de Saint Louvent. “It can be perceived as misleading and that is not what fashion is in the heart,” she commented.
“But the new generation is going to be very open to this kind of ideas…my logical reaction was ‘this is the future’.”
According to Richards-Carpenter, finding the balance between the rules of where machine and humans operate will occur naturally for the fashion industry. She added: “I think there’s a human element that we should keep.” It’s still a work in progress but fashion are marching to find that middleground between the two.
What does this mean for young future marketers?
Students and young professionals are at a very interesting position where AI models are still crude and elementary. But, entering the workplace, they are expected to master the art of AI.
As an educator Richards-Carpenter is constantly opening up conversations about how fashion and AI intersects with her students.
Nastaran Richards-Carpenter wrote a chapter in a book called ‘Illustrating Digital Innovations Towards Intelligent Fashion’ about AI in the fashion industry. Credit: Aliyah Difia Rahma
“Fashion students should be prepare for those kind of stuff … it’s a tough market and I think universities are a bit behind, changes are happening faster than what we teach you at universities.”
Fashion is a fast-paced industry and adapting to a new system is part of fashion professionals’ day-to-day job, but how can university better prepare their students to thrive in this environment?
“I think a few things you can do for you is be prepared, go to extra classes, do things with your lecturers,” she said.
Richards-Carpenter stresses out the importance of talking to people within the industry that are able to provide insights about what is currently happening there.
“They (the students) are the one that needs to take the opportunity.”
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