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Couture fashion in digital age

Balenciaga Couture 2022 When we talk about Couture in a traditional sense, it often means he practice of creating highly specific clothing orders for clients to their specifications. Haute Couture is a crucial, influential staple of the fashion world. (Evans, 2022) Couture fashion and Digital Fashion seemingly to be sitting on the opposite side of the market level, Couture is about the craftsmanship of the shape, silhouette and embellishments, however on the other side, digital fashion is not tangible, it's digitalised, simulated material and details with zeros and ones.

Mochic / Fashioning Masculinities

DOES COUTURE STILL EXIST IN DIGITAL WORLD? Dani Loftus, a digital fashion influencer who has funded Draup, a digital fashion platform told Vogue Business in November 2022, "Obviously, couture is based on its craftsmanship and opportunity cost. So this idea of,'This is valuable because it took one hundred million house to make and, like 300 people' And digital is not the same; it's scalable in a totally different way" However we see resemblance of some digital fashion designers creating their artwork with a "Couture mindset", they spent hours on crafting and simulating the shape and animations, innovating materials and details in different 3D softwares; created something that physical fashion/ couture that can never replicate.

IRIS VAN HERPEN I admire Iris Van Herpen's work ever since the first time I saw it, the expression of femininity through innovative material, shape and colour ways. Her latest digital fashion film campaign "EARTHRISE SKYDIVING" showcased a delicate couture wear but we are all amazed of how durable and practical it could be. It's something we would never imagine to do when you wear a piece of couture gown. Iris Van Herpen and her 3D printing materials often gets me confused of wether her garment is physical or digital; with digital fashion, we are able to create this intricate shape and details. I think all digital fashion designers should have a mind of craftsmanship when creating their artwork, as digital fashion tools are not limit to physical fabric and materials, we should consider to take the advantage of digital tools to create out-of-earth, surreal fashion that can not be easily duplicated in the physical world. Reference Evans, J. (2022) What is couture? the guide to high fashion, The Evans Group (TEG). The Evans Group (TEG). Available at: https://tegintl.com/what-is-couture/ (Accessed: November 18, 2022).

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Fashion with built-in chips.

We have seen luxury fashion brands are adding NFC chip into their product lines, clothing, handbags and leather goods. The technology of NFC chip allows customers to tap their supported device and NFC will direct them to authentication of the product. With this wearable technology, it offers many more possibilities of how we can engage with customers - wether to verify the production information of this item, direct consumer to brand's socials to stay connected or just simply have fun. Upgrade from NFC chip, with the concept of Digital Fashion and Crypto, there is a new type of wearable/ physical NFT technology emerging - HALO Chip.

Halo chip

HALO Chip - Hardware Lock Contracts, offers few unique traits compare with traditional NFC chip, while NFC provide a temporary and easy to modify messages, HALO Chip works on Blockchain, which means all data is permanently stored.

The ability to self-generate an asymmetric key-pair and sign messages

Reasonable security guarantees with respect to key extraction

Consistent chip supply

Halo chip application

Metafactory is one of the first company adapting this technology in their Metaphysical Collections. Users are able to scan and view the NFT, accept Airdrop gift from the brand, and so much more. With this in mind, I'm thinking if I will be able to implement the NFC chip into my work, combine my physical collection with Digital assets. eg. When users tap phone on the sleeve, it will pop up an instagram filter, allow users to over lay digital assets on the physical garment, or maybe the picture printed on the garment become alive. This it's a great way for engagement marketing.

These are some filters I created for Instagram, however combining with real physical garment, extend another layer of reality on top. I think it will be a great idea to explore for PG 2 project. Ambassador, T. (2022) Eternal physical crypto, Medium. KONG Land Embassy. Available at: https://medium.com/kong-land-embassy/eternal-physical-crypto-b487ee8a1553 (Accessed: December 3, 2022).

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Will AI kill Fashion designer's job?

Cycle of Self by Paul Trillo AI has been evolving for the past decades, from assisting simple uncreative tasks such as automatic workflow to replacing boring unskilled jobs. We always thought as artist or designers, AI would never replace our jobs, only humans are capable of creative workflow. However, DALL・E 2 has proven us we are wrong. DALL・E 2 by OPEN AI is a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.

I have been experimenting this new AI tool for about 6 months, from their early beta to public launch, the possibility of creation by AI is endless - it's because AI has a wide range data base that can think what normal person would not think of, then creating a fusion with the images by inputing an simple natural phrase.

It made me wonder if we can input some fashion phrase that can generate fashion designs for me? I started trying out some seed phrases

"Maxi Dress with floral prints on a female model"

"70s flare pants with star prints on a male model full body"

"80s punk leather jacket with silver spikes on a female model"

"Blue tracksuit set with red and green stripe on the sleeves"

With few experiment with imputing Fashion phrase, I discovered that AI does understand what I'm looking for, however under current technology and limitation, AI will only understand the basic keywords in phrase. Instead working about AI taking over the jobs of fashion designers, AI can be a useful tool to quickly gather ideas and inspirations for the initial stage of designing. This especially will work well with Fast fashion companies which produces multiple seasons and collections per year. However from a fashion designer point of view, AI will not takeover the responsibility of creating something new - the fundamental logic of searching elements on internet and creating a fusion of the images, which determents that AI (at least in current development) will not be able to innovate new ideas in fashion. In creative files, human touch is something we always talk about, adding the layer of personal emotion and storytelling, is something that machine learning can not do (at the moment)

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Metaphysical Fashion - Solutions To Sustainability

9dcc Luxury Physical NFT fashion brand by Gmoney WHAT IS METAPHYSICAL/ PHYGITAL? Metaphysical, or we call it Phygital is an intresting word, means a blend of physical and the digital, which was widely used in marketing for an experience that combines physical and digital activities. When comes to fashion, Phygital or Metaphysical means a fashion item or collection that offers physical tangible item as well as matching digitalised assets. Ever since the takeover of Digital NFT's, we are now able to link digital assets to the owner(s), with traceable data and financial value. Fashion, as one of the most polluting industry, we are able to implement this technology into the production, making and sales aspects. NEW BUSINESS MODELS Thank to realistic fabric simulation and texture that comes with digital fashion, we can now use this technology for sampling, communicating and even launching a pre-order without mass production. As a start-up fashion brand with limited resources and financial backup, instead investing into a minimum SKU of stocks (Which is risky in fashion business to new start-up brands) they can choose to produce a collection of NFTs of digital fashion - almost free of cost, allowing people to preview the collection and purchase the digital version of it in a limit of time. Then brands will have data of how many digital pieces was sold and go ahead producing the physical version to fulfil the orders. From environment sustainability point of view, it helps to reduce overproduction and overconsumption, for brand sustainability, it minimise the risk of dead stock and helping start-up fashion brands to grow organically.

Prada Time Capsule Collection WHAT DOES PHYGITAL MEAN FOR LUXURY BRANDS? Prada launched Time Capsule collection drop since 2019, it's a monthly drop in collaboration with different artists. Now Prada added NFT digital assets to the Time Capsule drops. For luxury brand, it's a marketing strategy to onboard their clientele with novel, fun and financial-worthy NFT as a gift when they purchase the physical garment. Compare with Digital First Metaphysical collection, Prada's approach is rather Physical First. This decision I believe is because Prada sits in an luxury market with established reputation. They instead see NFT as an additional bonus to their clientele rather focusing on Digital Native costumers. WILL PHIGITAL BE THE FUTURE OF FASHION? We all love tangible things, wether it's a piece of painting, ticket, or fashion, we love the feel of it, we love to collect them and flip through them over time. Same for digital fashion, of course digital fashion offers designers alternative options for them to start building their brand. However, we can not expect in the 5 or 10 years time everyone will erase their identity and fully cover ourselves in black, white and grey morph suit expecting people to "overlay" a digital garment in real life. Therefore phygital became an idea solution to slow fashion, fund raising for start-up brand and so much more possibilities will be unlocked with improvement of technology over years.

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In-game Fashion skin and Metaverse Fashion

PRADA x RIDERS REPUBLIC

73% Millennials indicates technology including for teleworking, improves work-life balance. Gen Z spends 50 minutes longer on smartphones everyday than other generations. 56% of Gen Alpha plays video games, including to connect with others, 44% consider mobile devices their favourite toy. (Norton, 2022) More and more luxury fashion brands starts to creating digital fashion in-game skin for games and Metaverse. In February, Prada has created a in-game skin collection in collaboration with video game Riders Republic. The concept of Digital Fashion wearable is not new, ever since the game "Second Life" or "Sims" providing options for users to customise their avatars with a range of digital fashion wardrobes, people has been obsessed with creating their "Alternative" identity in the virtual world.

Why fashion wearable is the future? Most definitely, we all have multiple identities across different social platforms, for example, your presence and tune of voice on LinkedIn will be different compare to Snapchat Story. That's when digital fashion becoming essential for users to express themselves with relative freedom. From my observations, I noticed a lot of male gamers will use female avatars/ outfits in a game. Digital Fashion provides a "Fantasy" for users to wear the outfit that DOES NOT EXIST in real world, I would never wear a gown to watch a actual real life football match, however in the Metaverse, I can wear a pair of wings today, maybe have the horn of the devil tomorrow without being judges.

Metaverse and game experience allows me invent a brand new identity with digital fashion. For luxury fashion brands, I might not be able to afford a £500 Balenciaga T-shirt, but in the Metaverse, I can purchase a £10 Balenciaga Digital replica but still be apart of the Luxury fashion community. In the current day, we are spending 76% of our time online, wether is to work, connect and communicate with others, especially after Covid-19, which has completely changed the way we connect with each other. I believe in the future with the rise of Gen Alpha and technology, we are able to fully express ourselves through digital fashion in Metaverse and game.

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AR and Fashion virtual try on

Dressx Digital Fashion boosted up fashion market since COVID-19, we see more and more new emerging fashion brands, magazines and platforms. In this blog, I want to talk about the first digital fashion brand, who use AR and virtual try on as the key identity within the brand. While we exploring the new possibility of digital fashion, fashion house Zero10 and DressX has already exploring their new territory of AR fashion. WHAT IS AR AR- Augmented reality, allows us to over lay digital assets on top of physical reality. AR technology has been evolving for the past decades, from AR headset- which looks like a heavy version of glasses, to iPhone from 2018, and LiDar technology, AR experience in current days has becoming accessible and easy to use. Both of the brands has developed their AR fashion through Snapchat Lens, Snapchat Lens can create realistic fabric movement on a body. Compare with Zero10, Dressx offers a slightly different approach, Dressx provides a Virtual Try on services, you are able to purchase digital fashion garments and they will apply high quality digital render to your photo. This is a great way to showcase unique digital fashion garments with better quality renders.

ZERO10

Digital fashion should be an alternative way of consuming fashion, AR technology allows us to share experience on social media, especially when we are in a social environment that our online presents/ identity matters equals as real life identity. In the near future, with Apple Launching it's AR headset in 2023, we will see more augmented fashion overlay on top of physical garments, maybe when you scan a prints on the t-shirt and a robotic arm pops out to wrap you around, maybe we will be wearing morph suit and wear digital fashion daily. It will be a revolutionary innovation in fashion industry as a whole.

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Fast(er) Fashion

BEFORE WE START With constantly evolving technology, the way we see and create fashion has changed - from traditional pattern cutting, sketching and draping, to everything can be replaced with digital software tools. More and more fashion brand start to adapting digital fashion as a tool to speed up the sampling and production process. LOOK BACK Just to look back at the traditional fashion sampling critical path, it requires teams collaboration in person, buyers/ designers have to visit manufactory across the half globe. If at any stage goes wrong it will delay the whole progress. Covid-19 is a perfect example of how external disruption effects different industries, especially fashion. IN THE NEAR FUTURE I have talked a a lot about digital fashion and NFTs, but despite all the crypto value, digital fashion is a very useful tool to Fashion brands and manufactories. 1. Reduce the amount of samples needed - Designers and garment developers are able work together even remotely to drape fashion on a virtual avatar, test out different fabric and prints, experiment with trims, components of a garment spontaneously and collaboratively. 2. Working remotely has never been easier - Clo3D has a unique feature called CLOSET, where you are able to form a fashion team, upload designs and communicate with latest changes in your garment with 3D model. This will improve fashion team communication as well as manufactory. 3. One click Tech Pack Production - Tech pack in fashion production is essential, it's the bible of a garment, from size chart to material and trims, it is the ultimate guide for manufactory to understand the design to create the accurate and perfect fit. Digital fashion tool are able to create a 3D model of the design, which allows manufactory to visually understand how the garment is constructed, eliminate simple mistake from sample production. With Software like Clo3D and Alvanon enable designers to reduce lead times from 37 days to 27 hours when using CLO, with software offering a 55% sample adoption rate as compared to 15% without it. (Fashion, 2020)

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The Fashion That Does Not Exist

I first get into Digital Fashion was in March 2020, I started my brand Mochic not long after I graduate from University Of Hertfordshire fashion and fashion business undergraduate degree. It's every fashion student's dream to start their own fashion label, including me, especially after I have won University Enterprise Award - Flare Ignite, Scalable business award and People's Choice award. With the £9,000 award prize money, I soon started my label. I created a fashion label that blurs gender boundary. In the late 2019, Covid-19 hits the world, my manufactories in China were shut down due to restrictions. The world seems to stopped, we were required to stay at home. Therefore as a business director, I need to consider a new way to create samples and visualise my design without the help of manufactory.

Image from Clo3D official website

This was the first time I heard about Clo3D, a digital software allows me to virtually create, sew and simulate realistic fashion garment prototype. This has opened a new world to me, a complete digital world where fashion can be created without any physical practice. During Self-isolation from 2020-2021, I have been learning Clo3d on YouTube, where Clo3D provided a whole series of short tutorials. I soon mastered the software and started using it as a tool to help me create my collection samples.

I am able to use the software to prototype my collection then print out the patterns on paper at home, and produce the whole collection on my own from home. Here is a collection I created purely on Clo3D:

In the late 2021, I heard about Non-fungible token (NFT) Fashion, NFT is a form of crypto-asset which uses blockchain to record the ownership status of digital objects, such as images, videos, and text. Wang, D. et al. (2022) The first Digital Fashion NFT marketplace I researched is called ARTISANT, on it's platform, there are more than 50 Digital fashion designers showcasing and selling their Digital Only Collection. Because of the uniqueness of NFT, fashion designers can create a brand that selling digital clothes only which hold extremely high value.

ARTISANT Marketplace Why are people paying for virtual fashion? In-game Digital Fashion Digital Fashion did not appear from nothing, luxury fashion has been utilise digital fashion in gaming - Balenciaga launched their Collaboration in collaboration with game Fortnite. (Epic Games, 2021)

Fortnite x Balenciaga This is one of the first of many brands that integrating high fashion with games to appear to Generation Z. Fashion skin for in-game avatar / Metaverse is one of the many utilities that Digital fashion can offer. “For those who want to use digital fashion to express who they are, platforms like Fortnite (80.4 million MAU), Instagram (2.2 billion MAU) and Roblox (220 million MAU) give consumers the ability to interact with masses of others, yearning to self-define,” Dani Loftus says in a recent mirror.xyz post. Digital Social Sharing Experience Founder & CEO at DRAUP, the first Digital Fashion influencer @thisoutfitdoesnotexist

Dani in my Red Snake Armour She is one of the first fashion influencer focus on sharing digital fashion contents on Instagram, it's not hard to guess from her username: This Outfit Does Not Exist. As Dani told Brytehall: "This Outfit Does Not Exist began as a blog aiming to bring digital fashion to life by sharing awareness of not only its aesthetic potentials, but also its ability to revolutionise the fashion business" (Brytehall, 2022) Social sharing has became one of the most important activity in our "Digital Life", we all seemed to have a separate identity on social media. With digital fashion, we are allowed to express our identity and creativity without physical limitation. Reference Brytehall (2022) Dani Loftus: Digital Fashion Steps into its future, Brytehall. Available at: https://editorial.brytehall.com/dani-loftus-digital-fashion-steps-into-its-future/ (Accessed: October 10, 2022). Cash, D. (2022) Red Dao: A 1st anniversary retrospective, NFTS.WTF. Available at: https://nfts.wtf/red-dao-a-1st-anniversary-retrospective/?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social (Accessed: October 10, 2022). Fortnite (2021) High digital fashion drops into Fortnite with balenciaga, Epic Games' Fortnite. Available at: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/high-digital-fashion-drops-into-fortnite-with-balenciaga (Accessed: October 9, 2022). Wang, D. et al. (2022) “Defining consumers’ interest and future of NFT Fashion,” Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220401.111.

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Traditional Fashion is Corrupted

I came from a traditional fashion background, I really enjoy fashion creative process, from fashion illustration to drafting patterns on paper, from cutting fabric to sewing the pieces together.  Creating fashion outfits from scratch is a lot of fun, but it's also a very complicated process requires different stages and supply chains to cohesively work together. The more I study and work in the fashion industry, the more I realised that fashion is been overlooked and corrupted for a long time. What is fashion? I believe fashion is about self-expression, though colours, textiles and silhouettes. Historically, fashion has also functioned in a way to construct gender identities, specially for female. Women's body features have always been emphasised in different dress, for centuries, women's legs have been hidden, however men's legs are been emphasised as their erotic zone. (Sveva,M 2015) Coming to the 20th century, women through Coco Chanel can truly show their supremacy, autonomy and masculinity by wearing trousers. Fashion and Sustainability? Comes to 21st Century, fashion becomes necessary and important part of our lives. The needs of self-expression in fashion generated more and more fashion brands. Fast fashion for sure feeds the need of the mass market of fashion lovers, with it's low cost and constant new arrivals, fast fashion without a doubt has it's advantage in the fashion game. However, fast fashion business model creates serious problem- appeal waste. According to Circular, Fast fashion produces over 92 million tonnes of waste a year. (Circular, 2020). Not only the wasted apparel, but also fashion consumes over 79 trillion litres of water each year, while underdeveloped country suffer to survive from lack of water. I believe fashion indeed is important to our daily life, however it should not be in condition of consuming our planet. It's important to make a change now, as designers, artist and changemaker. Reference: Moore, D. (2020) Fast fashion produces over 92 million tonnes of waste a year, study finds, Circular Online. Available at: https://www.circularonline.co.uk/news/fast-fashion-produces-over-92-million-tonnes-of-waste-a-year-study-finds/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4omaBhDqARIsADXULuWHNpXQqkkZHWzDx62FD9ayrPCyBmPNbmdlfSQzzWAZ9uXgJnZZRqQaAjLaEALw_wcB (Accessed: October 9, 2022).

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Annotated Bibliography

Andrew Taylor , Ertu Unver & Graham Worth (2003) Innovative potential of 3D software applications in fashion and textile design, Digital Creativity, 14:4, 211-218 This paper examines in detail experimentation in 3D fabric and physical dynamic simulation. The author demonstrated the potential of 3D digital tools to simulate fashion and textile design, by applying Reactor Plug-in and software such as 3DS MAX and Poser 4. The author's experiment has provided a solid foundation with cutting edge technology at the time, which offers valuable reference to today’s digital fashion tools such as Clo3D or Marvellous Designer. I particularly like the experimental plug-in feature the author mentioned in the paper. It provides a very good insight into the future exploration of realistic fabric simulation development. Read Article

Ge Lei, Xiaohui Li, (2022) A new approach to 3D pattern-making for the apparel industry: Graphic coding-based localization,Computers in Industry Volume 136, 2022, 103587 This research explored a new experimental way to create digital patterns for the fashion apparel industry, the researchers used Artificial Neural Network and computer coding to digitalise 3D patterns to improve the efficiency in pattern adjustment and 3D fitting for product development process. I enjoy reading this research as this new method proposed in the research shows a great potential in different areas: it’s much less dependent on specialised 2D pattern drafting knowledge and software such as Gerber, allows us to adjust and modify the garment in real-time and get the corresponding pattern at the same time. Read Article

Istook, C.L. and Hwang, S.J. (2001) 3D body scanning systems with application to the apparel industry, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal 5(2), pp. 120–132. This study discussed the current 3D body scanning technology for a comprehensive and accurate set of measurements through different types of technologies and scanning systems, such as White light Scanning systems, Light emitting diodes, Laser-based systems and more. The study provided sets of data to explain the fundamental logic on how each system works and pros and cons of each system. I particularly like when the author mentions capturing accurate human body data for virtual try-on, integration between captured data and apparel CAD systems, in today’s development, this study sets the foundation to digitalise human body forms for the Metaverse. Read Article

Farahi, B. (2017) Material behaviours in 3D-printed fashion items,” Architectural Design 87(6), pp. 84–91. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.2242. 

This study featured 5 unique fashion projects that used 3D printing technology, from creating a combination of soft and rigid materials with a 3D printer, to linking 3D material with a Neuro control system and interactive lighting under the material.  The authors showcased how we can bridge fashion, art, technology and design to embrace our body and be aware of our environment and surroundings. I particularly like when the author takes 3D printing technology to open new approaches to design fields, the possibility of dynamic systems and experimenting with different material properties from a micro (16-micron resolution) to a macro perspective. Read Article

Guo, S., Sun, X. and Lam, H.K. (2022) “Applications of blockchain technology in Sustainable Fashion Supply Chains: Operational Transparency and environmental efforts,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management pp. 1–17. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2020.3034216. 

This research is one of the first to conduct a deep investigation on how the application disclosure plays over the environmental efforts in the fashion industry, with the rise of popularity of environmentally friendly fashion products in the market, from raw material to final product, consumers expecting a transparent and sustainable supply chain within a fashion brand. This newly developed research indicates how blockchain technology can be implied in the Fashion apparel supply chain from raw material sourcing, production and retailers- with a sustainable, transparent and easily accessible Blockchain data.  Read Article

Gustafsson, E., Jonsson, P. and Holmström, J. (2021) “Reducing retail supply chain costs of product returns using digital product fitting,” International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 51(8), pp. 877–896. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm-10-2020-0334. This paper shows how fit uncertainty impacts product return costs in online retailing and how pre-sale digital product fitting technology can reduce fit uncertainty in order to reduce the return rate for fashion ecommerce. This study researched specifically on fashion footwear, the data gathered is valuable in current days on how AI digital try-on can change consumer pre-sale behaviours and have opportunities to reduce carbon footprint from retailer to consumer. 

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Silvestri, B. (2022) “How virtual and augmented reality are reshaping the fashion industry during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Intelligent Systems Reference Library, pp. 39–54. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91394-6_3. This paper analysed the digital technology influence after Covid-19, from AR, VR and AI perspective. The author discussed how fashion brands can adapt digital technology from Design, production supply chain, and fashion presentation in a completely new approach. The paper mentioned using AI, artificial intelligence and big data to analyse and predict trends. It sets a foundation for our practice to consider adapting digital technology when we create, promote, market and showcase fashion product in the post-pandemic era. 

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Cho, M., Yun, H. and Ko, E. (2022) “Contactless marketing management of fashion brands in the Digital age,” European Management Journal [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.12.005. This research detailed reviewed contactless marketing methods for fashion brands after the impact of Covid-19, from entertainment, interaction, trendiness and customization point of view. In the new era of social distancing, digital technologies created a flood of opportunities for fashion brands to engage, elevate customer experience services without physically interacting with them in person. To imply the theories in my practice, it’s important to think about adapting AR, VR technology, to create a meaningful, engaging contents for marketing purposes. Read Article Luce, L. (2019) Artificial Intelligence for fashion: How AI is revolutionizing the fashion industry. New York: Apress Media.

This book is a guide book on AI’s impact in fashion industry, it detailed explained how AI works, the basics of Artificial intelligence, and explored Machine learning in different fields of fashion, including shopping and product discovery, sales, designing and supply chain. The author’s offered basic knowledge of adapting AI within fashion industry, also predicted future on democratisation and impacts of AI. This book has helped me understood AI in fashion and provided me with ideas for me on going study and practice. Read Article Vicini, D., Speierer, S. and Jakob, W. (2022) “Differentiable signed distance function rendering,” ACM Transactions on Graphics, 41(4), pp. 1–18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3528223.3530139.  This paper developed a new method of AI machine learning model to generative 3D object. With this new AI model, it allows us to input a basic 3D object (a sphere ball ) and reference images to generate extremely high detailed 3D object mesh and texture mapping by differentiable rendering to jointly optimise a signed distance representation of geometry and texture. This method will improve the workflow for digitising real life objects for metaverse, shorten the time of modelling by hand, eliminate errors of previous methods which will only be able to generate basic shapes and lack of details.

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Critical Analysis

Luce, L. (2019)

Artificial Intelligence for fashion: How AI is revolutionizing the fashion industry.

New York: Apress Media. Introduction The book that I have selected is written by Leanne Luce, she’s currently Product Manager at Google who has more than six years experience in technology development. She's motivated by developing products users love and building a diverse and equitable product culture. This book which was published in 2018 seeks to establish the interrelationship of Artificial Intelligence (AI) application in the field of fashion. The book is based on the author's explanation and discussion on the current Artificial intelligence (AI) technology and algorithm development with detailed examples of applications. The author separated the discussion into five parts based on key areas of the fashion industry, including “Shopping and product discovery”, “Sales”, “Designing”, “Supply Chain”, and “Democratisation and impacts of AI”. The topics under discussion were expansive, by separating them will provide better clarity and easier access if readers are only interested in a particular area of Artificial intelligence implementation in the fashion industry. Analysis and Reflection In the Part one “Shopping And Product Discovery”, Author has separated the sections to four specific cases, including “Natural Language Processing And Conversational Shopping”, “Computer Vision and Smart Mirrors”, “Neural Networks and Image Search”, Virtual Style Assistants” The author conducted the case studies to explain the application of Artificial Intelligence in Fashion retail and online commerce for a better consumer experience.  This makes me associate it with Engagement Marketing (Pansari & Kumar, 2017), which is defined as a brand's deliberate effort to motivate, empower and measure customers' engagement behaviours. With AI Chatbots, consumers can communicate with virtual assistants in a natural language to receive personalised shopping experience and also to save time and labour expenses from the brands perspective. With computer vision and smart mirrors installed in physical retail, powered by AI and digital fashion, it creates a more engaging shopping experience and virtual try-on, which is beneficial for the younger generation. I believe this AI technology can be implemented both in physical retail and online boutique, even on social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram in the form of a filter, to further engage with audiences to enhance the social sharing experience.

In the Part two “Sales”, Author discussed Data science and subscription services and predictive analytics and size recommendations powered by Artificial Intelligence. The author discussed collecting data from different subscription business models, taking the gathered data: liked items/ purchased items/ returned items to form an AI algorithm to further predict and assist consumers with product recommendations. However, the author only mentioned the technology which was implemented in the practice but did not state the ethics of data collection. In the current environment, companies lack transparency of which data has been collected and it will need to be clear of how they will use our personal data. I believe this discussion can be extended to include Ethics on data collection. It's the same with the second section “Predictive analytics and size recommendations”. The author showed examples of users’ feedback on the fitting and size of the purchased products. However the limitation of AI size prediction is that it can not fully understand diverse body shapes. Perhaps by implementing 3D scanning technology, it will enhance the accuracy of size predictions. (Istook & Hwang, 2001)

In Part Three “Designing”, which is the part I’m most interested in as a fashion designer, the author discussed the possibility of “Generative Fashion designers”. Studying and working in a creative field, fashion can be identified as a repetition of ideas. Author’s experiment on Generative fashion with AI has provided an outcome with a combination of two images. Algorithms can collect data and understand the garment, however the personal style, human touch is inimitable. I’m glad the author identified the limitation of this technology and also has provided potential solutions for improving the results.

In Part Four “Supply Chain”, the author provided methods and theory on Deep learning and Demand forecasting. In the fashion industry, demand forecasting is a long-standing challenge. Author mentioned two main issues currently standing in the fashion supply chain which are Overproduction and consumer behaviours. The author explained deep learning forecasting models such as ARIMA and Prophet, and analysed each pros and cons while traditional methods often rely on Linear regression. The figure in this chapter has helped me understand more of each method, however the author did not provide real life examples of any brands adapting these methods.

In comparison to the chapter “Robotics and Manufacturing” we see more live examples on some Robotic companies creation such as Ava from Hanson Robotics and sewing robotics. I particularly like the fact that the author questioned the ethics of next generation technology on responsible automation: "What will employers do to train the workers they are currently employing for new jobs rather than displacing them? Will robotic automation support a movement toward made-to-order manufacturing rather than mass manufacturing?" I believe Mass production has always been an issue for overproduction and overconsumption in Fashion industry where I have wrote a detailed blog on for this assignment Read Here Conclusion

In summary, the author has shown the importance of implementing Artificial Intelligence in the fashion industry from Design, production, supply chain and retail perspectives. With data collection and robotic automotive it will reduce unnecessary waste during production, with AI based engagement marketing tools, it will enhance consumer’s shopping and sharing experience. From brand and consumer point of view, AI will act as a bridge to connect both parties and be a beneficial game changer. Although this book only covers the basics and foundation for understanding AI, it has demonstrated that Artificial intelligence can positively influence the fashion industry from all perspectives. 

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