23 NEWS Fashion vs AI: who’s afraid of Artificial Intelligence? In April 2023, the first edition of AI Fashion Week took place in New York, an event dedicated to designer collections created entirely with artificial intelligence. It was news that globally inspired a multitude of reflections, both ethical and practical, but also perplexity and hope about the role that AI could play in the world of fashion from now on. To capture impressions and take part in the debate, Leather&Luxury asked two questions to three insiders with different ages, experience, and skills in the fashion industry: Francesca Giulia Tavanti, Director of Education at Istituto Marangoni Firenze, Diego Salerno, Fashion scouting and HR Consultant for Max Mara Fashion Group, and Lara Messarra, a student at the Accademia di Costume&Moda, currently an intern at Salvatore Ferragamo. Artificial intelligence and fashion: a reality to be feared or exploited? Francesca Giulia Tavanti: «For me, artificial intelligence is above all a tool. From an educational perspective, it is a delicate matter. There are students who use it naturally, while others are not yet familiar with it. Our role as teachers is to guide them critically towards its use. How can it help us? How can it improve certain processes? Our strategy is to apply it at every possible level, from the theoretical-conceptual and philosophical perspective with all its implications, to the practical level. Having said that, however, there is no risk of digital replacing the live experience. The key elements are always talent and creativity, and AI is not yet equipped with them». Diego Salerno: «Fashion, like art, needs physicality, it is a tactile and cultural process. For me, AI is a functional tool that can optimise many aspects of the process involved in creating a fashion collection, but is not exhaustive in terms of knowledge, expertise and research. The younger generations may get unaccustomed to using their cultural base for research. I appreciate the instantaneousness of the digital tool, but training needs a combination of actual practice and the phygital aspect, especially in the first years of experience, both study and professional». Lara Messarra: «I studied a lot to learn how the creative process works in fashion, so I think that AI is a fast but incomplete method because it doesn’t allow you to carry out the necessary training steps to become a designer. When we talk about creativity, we talk about the beauty of our work, which is research and development. With the use of AI, you don’t get involved because this process gets blocked. In a way, it’s also nice to be in difficulty because that is when you explore and get to the bottom of your skills, allowing you to feel alive and creative». So, AI as a tool for fashion: what are the possible applications? Francesca Giulia Tavanti: «Concurrently with the pandemic, Istituto Marangoni was one of the first schools to introduce an update of the teaching proposal in favour of digital fashion through the inclusion of CLO3D, a software for designing patterns in 3D. This concerned all the school sites (there are ten of them worldwide) where there is content related to CLO3D, Artificial Intelligence, technological implementation tout court, NFT, etc. Having the art and visual art department, which is very much linked to the digital part, the Florence branch plays in the home court». Diego Salerno: «Often, young novice designers have no idea of the costs involved in producing a piece. Certainly, in the product development phase, the use of digital tools such as AI or 3D graphics is useful to be able to simulate the prototype to be sent into production in an almost 100 per cent realistic manner. I have participated in the creation of many sales campaigns with collections realised only in 3D, which is very useful to reduce waste and production costs and therefore also for environmental sustainability». Lara Messarra: «In fashion, time is a perennial missing factor, so AI could be useful to gain some of it. But this raises another question: what if the creative inputs given to AI for my brand coincided with those of my competitors’ collections? A very complex problem to address would emerge».
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