“From creation to customer relations, brand organization, manufacturing and advertising images, the entire fashion value chain is being disrupted by artificial intelligence (AI). quickly and those who refuse change will clearly put themselves in danger!” announces bluntly Yann Rivoallan, president of the French Federation of women’s ready-to-wear. If 2022 was the year of metaverses, 2023 is that of generative AI with the advent of ChatGPT, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion or Dall-E, capable of responding to requests formulated in natural language by creating texts, images, videos or sounds completely new. An industrial revolution that affects all economic sectors. “For fashion, the AI market will increase from 228 million dollars in 2019 to 1.26 billion in 2024”, projects Romain Chaumais, CEO of Fashion Data, a start-up which supports the transformation of fashion players. towards a “zero waste” market.
Changing one of the most polluting sectors in the world
One of the main challenges of AI applied to fashion is indeed to develop the second most polluting sector in the world, textiles, towards a clean industry. “His responsibility for global warming is heavy. Until then, all the actors preferred to remain ignorant; today, by doing nothing, they would be guilty of negligence”, continues Romain Chaumais. Concretely, the AI analyzes millions of photos on social networks, determines the colors, materials, sizes and styles that will be trendy. It makes it possible to quantify these forecasts and to draw life curves, depending on the type of brand and distribution network. The execution process – from manufacturing to delivery via storage – is thereby optimized with, as a result, a significant reduction in waste. “When we improve the sales forecast of a brand like Auchan by 1%, this is equivalent to saving the water consumption of all humanity for a day”, summarizes Romain Chaumais.
Zara, H&M or Shein are already AI champions. The Maison Méta agency of Cyril Foiret, a Frenchman living in New York, organized the first AI Fashion Week in May: “400 competitors presented their virtual collection generated by AI, and the three winners are manufactured and marketed by Revolve”, he details. In Paris, Undiz, a brand of lingerie, swimwear and indoor clothing, displayed an unprecedented advertising campaign created with AI in the spring. “We represent a modern brand and it was logical to turn to new technologies that interest young generations, explains its president Isolde Andouard. But whether it’s images or the creation of clothes, AI remains a new tool that comes in addition to traditional techniques, without replacing them.” Finally, for those who fear that the machine will soon take precedence over the human, Yann Rivoallan wants to be reassuring: “The stylist will always keep control. Taste cannot be defined by an algorithm; the machine does not understand what which is beautiful or ugly, which arouses an emotion.” But she can know what is selling or not selling!