AIFW: Designer's Perspective

Written by Tirsa Parrish

The first Artificial Intelligence Fashion Week (AIFW), was held April 20 - 21 in Spring Place, New York City. The show was set up in the 6th story location of Spring Studio, a space that has been used for NYFW and the Tribeca Film Festival. This event was produced by Maison Meta. Over 400 designers from around the world submitted digitally created collections including up to thirty full outfits with accessories, images from backstage, the fitting process, and a front row packed with A-listers and press.

The submissions went through an initial screening process to yield 133 collections selected to be showcased on FashionWeek.AI. 50 collections were then curated and displayed at the event across the two days. There was a lack of transparency in how the collections were chosen to be showcased, however. The official explanation was that the collections had to look ‘Vogue Runway ready’ but there was speculation about the choices from the organizers and what they liked. 

Behind The Scenes: Did It Work?

Fashion Index actively participated in the event Discord channel and connected with competitors from many different countries. We asked for their feedback on the first AIFW and about their hopes for events of this type going forward. Many of the entrantants, including some of the designers we interviewed, do not come from the world of fashion but rather from a digital design background.

Several collections came from AI people dipping their digital toes in the fashion space for the first time. Some people from other backgrounds just heard about this event, saw an opportunity to interact with AI in a fun way, and decided to try their hand at it.

Most of the participants saw AIFW as a ‘proof-of-concept’ with a lot of active learning from both the entrants and organizers. An event of this size with the inclusion of the public being able to participate including voting is a logistical challenge, but overall it was a success.

Entrants were able to produce collections that met the AIFW criteria including that they were physical producibility and that the public would support. The virtual aspect of AIFW opened up the event to a whole world of entrants. Designers didn’t need to be present in New York City with an entourage finishing physical garments and sets at the last minute.

Anyone could work from their home using AI software and come up with a series of images for their collections. As is human nature, creatives kept working right up until the submission deadline. 60% were received on the last day so the staff had a lot to review in a narrow window.

Image courtesy Gaby Rosés

Collaborating With AI

Uruguayan fashion and costume designer Gaby Rosés, who is a top 10 finalist, found that “the benefits of using AI in fashion design, such as increased efficiency and precision, make it worthwhile.” For her, one of the biggest differences between creating an AI collection versus a traditional collection was the vast amount of data that is generated and needs to be analyzed.

Because the technology is so new, there was a learning curve for everyone involved. Fashion designers had to learn the software and how to best engineer their prompts to get a desired result. People from the digital world already familiar with AI had to learn about fashion and most found it helpful to learn about how garments are constructed.

Metamorphix is a fashion designer and active participant in the Web3 world for the past 1.5 years. She is constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the digital age. Even with this background, she found that collaborating with AI could be a challenging experience, as it can be tough to create a cohesive collection while ensuring that the designs met the contest guidelines.

At its heart, AIFW is a competition where the winning collections will be made with support from AIFW’s fashion-tech incubator and sold online, either via Revolve or Fwrd, Revolve’s luxury site, depending on the garments. Designers will receive support throughout the launch process, including with patternmaking, sample development, marketing, and communications. 

Images courtesy Metamorphix

How were the finalists chosen?

The curated collections on display at AIFW were seen in person by over 1,000 people at AIFW and with more than 10,000 people voting online. Results of the top 10 finalists by public vote were announced May 8th. Now, a jury panel of industry experts will select 3 collections to win the collaboration with Revolve/Fwrd. This is a prize that can change the designer's entire career!

Creatives with a strong following on social media, i.e. digital designers, benefited in the public voting phase as they were able to share AIFW with their followers to potentially garner more votes. However, without a fashion production background, their designs may not be easily mass produced in the physical world. If they are able to be produced, would the public buy them?

All of the designs are able to be produced in some form as a one-of-a-kind that a celebrity might wear to the Met Gala. However, as much as this is a competition for the designers to earn support from Revolve, the online clothing store wants to make money from the collections they help produce. These are concerns many think the organizers and jury panel may take into account when choosing the top three winners. 

Most designers opted to use Midjourney software to make their collections. Until recently it was free to use, and even now it is a relatively small investment with their premium package available for $60 per month. There is other software available that is still free to use.

For this competition it meant that creating designs and submitting to AIFW had a very low cost, opening the idea of AI design and the competition to many who could not afford to produce a physical collection.

However, the time commitment and cost of travel prevented many participants from physically attending the event in New York. Several designers we interviewed who could not be in attendance for the 2-day AIFW in person attended virtually by following along on Discord.

Maltese designer Krystie Gerada felt a ‘palpable sense of anticipation’ tracking the event online and finding out who was chosen for display. Gerada was one of many not with a fashion background. By trade, she is an interior designer using photorealistic 3D visuals to help communicate projects effectively. Her passion for integrating AI technology with design led her to AIFW.  

Images courtesy Krystie Gerada

Challenges of a First-Of-It’s-Kind Event

Being part of this first AIFW meant everyone involved needed to be open to adjustment and change. Some entrants found the changes and lack of initial specificity a challenge. The Discord channel for AIFW gave entrants and organizers a space to give feedback on what was working and what could be tweaked. Thus, guidelines were amended and refined to be more specific over time. The period for open voting and how the public could vote was also modified to make it as fair as possible.

The creatives we talked to were impressed by many of their competitors' collections. Our cohort’s favorite collections came from designers including Eleanor Tennant, Jillian Hobbs, Tami Gupta, Verena King, Anya Klyueva, Morchen Liu, Ipek Kumtepe, Nixon Craft, Wildy Martinez, Matilde Mariano and many more. With such diverse collections across many categories, it was hard for our designers to select their favorites!

Some popular suggestions for the AIFW season 2 include more precise and concise rules, additional elimination rounds before public voting, more uniformity in PR for collections chosen for display, differentiation in categories, and better communication from the organizers.

Collections displayed on the first day had QR codes next to their work to allow spectators to easily vote on the AIFW app. This was not in practice on the second day. Some designers, therefore, had a level of exposure to the voters that others did not. This disparity was not seen as intentional by any means, but as part of the learning curve in organizing a first-of-its-kind event.

There was also a lack of uniformity to how the collections were displayed at the event. Some designers had their entire collection displayed with backstage and accessory images all included while others had looks from their collection edited out. The types of images that were shown, the speed, and the number of images per collection were not uniform and there was no explanation for how the editing was decided.

This could have been a technical issue or a critique by the organizers on the collections, but there was no way for the designers to know. Additionally, every collection was presented together which some creative and voters found hard to judge. Perhaps in Season 2 there will be different categories (Men’s, Women’s, and Unisex, or Haute Couture and Prêt-a-porter)?

Images courtesy Jena Nesbitt

Learning Curves And Limitations

As Midjourney and like software are able to take images as prompts, there were pieces within some collections that felt very derivative. They were more of a modern remake of an existing idea rather than just being inspired by someone else’s work. 

The fashion industry often pays homage to designs from yesteryear. Creativity and uniqueness intersect with inspiration from the past. This conversation about the line between taking inspiration versus simply being a derivative of someone’s work is not new. However, with AI design, it is an ethical question the industry must really face.

With AI, the designer can program the models to be literally any body type or color. The guidelines for the event said that the models could be aliens if that was the designer’s choice. However, most models were still thin caucasian women.

Across the original 400 collections, however, there were models of many sizes, ethnicities, and ages. It’s important to remember that the models used were all AI generated. In a world where AI generated people are becoming more popular - from film to fashion - this can lead to a diversity illusion.

Anyone can program a model to meet diversity guidelines, but this doesn’t help if all the real people doing the work, and getting paid, are a homogeneous cross-section. Designers and others behind the scenes for AI Fashion Week need to come from diverse backgrounds to be truly inclusive.

Images courtesy 3pointzero

Bringing People and Ideas Together

AIFW became a great networking event for the global competitors. Many of our cohort have made interesting connections and collaboration possibilities. While the in-person event on April 20 had press in attendance, they mainly spoke with the organizers. 

Most of the designers we spoke to were contacted by the press after the event. French designer 3pointzero is going to have her work published in a print magazine. Indian-American digital fashion designer and native New Yorker, Ravieshwar Singh, is in the early stages of exploring a potential AI-generated exhibition for Bollywood. Connecting with favorite designers has been a joy for many involved as everyone was so open-minded and supportive.

Meeting the other competitors working in the AI Fashion space was the highlight of the event for trend forecaster Jena Nesbitt from Pine Crest Fabrics as well as for Gaby Rosés. Nesbitt has also been approached by several publications for quotes and perspective on what the event was like as a competitor. 

Images courtesy Sree Lakshmy

As a new experience, the designers we spoke to learned much in the design process and during the event itself. Dubai based Sree Lakshmy is Creative Director, Fashion Content Producer & Editorial Contributor. She only started using Midjourney 3 months prior to AIFW. She would plan her collection much more in advance and consider. Lakshmy is not alone in this. 

Several designers found out about AIFW or decided to enter with little notice. Knowing there will be a Season 2 for AIFW will give this years’ designers and others more time to work with the software, do post-production editing, and even become more familiar with the production requirements for a collection to make their entry more likely to meet the standards for consideration.  

And The Winners Are

The collections chosen for the AIFW Top 10 have been announced! They are:

• Winter 24/25 by Alves Knop
• MagicalMysteryCore by Anna Leighton
• Intertwined by Anya Klyueva
• IPANEMA RESORT COLLECTION by Aria Phoenix 
• Atlantis Luminescence by Chu / Rayshaun Smith
• The Convergence by Gaby Rosés
• Samarkand by Gianluca Traina
• Matilda Mariano
• Emergence by Opé StyleStar
• Futuristic Old Soul by José Sobral

Congratulations to all the finalists!