In previous posts we wondered if the algorithm can be a designer and have an impact on our personal style and fashion choices.
So far there have been various experiments in fashion design along these lines and, while the first ones revolving around code design were rather appalling, as further researches developed, things seemed to improve a little bit, especially when algorithms were applied to provide functional solutions for new products.
Start up company Glitch has for example launched a line of dresses (while working on researches in perfumes, shoes and jewellery) created with the help of machine learning algorithms developed by two graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Pinar Yanardag, PhD in Computer Science with post-doc studied at MIT Media Lab where she specializes in AI x creativity, and Emily Salvador, BA from EECS at MIT (with a double major in music) with a master's degree at MIT Media Lab (both are members of the How to Generate (Almost) Anything Team).
During an intriguing course they took at MIT entitled "How to Make (Almost) Anything" and focused on developing deep learning software for creative projects, Yanardag and Salvador tried to work on AI-generated art, perfume and jewelry, then they decided to work at the intersection of artificial intelligence and fashion and launched Glitch.
Glitch generates designs based on pieces that already exist and the creative AI tools behind it are conceived as systems that could help the work of a fashion designer.
One of the first designs Yanardag and Salvador played with was the iconic and timeless "Little Black Dress", but they tried their hands at a couple of cocktail dresses as well. The results are not so flattering, unless you like awkward asymmetries (we're definitely not in front of Vionnet's bias cutting techniques…) that may give a heart attack to classically trained couture artisans (see the asymmetric dress with a normal sleeve and a bell sleeve or a sequined cocktail dress with fuchsia feathers erupting from one sleeve, has the algorithm been fed trendy and avant-garde yet at times awkwardly cut designs by J.W. Anderson or Jacquemus maybe combined with high street copies? the dilemma remains).
There is a very honourable aim behind some of the products: 50% of Glitch's sales for the "little black dress" will be donated to AnitaB.org, an organization that supports women entering STEM fields.
Glitch explains on its site that AI is a highly male dominated field and that only 12% of the researchers who contributed work to three leading machine learning conferences in 2017 are women. In this way the tech-design duo hopes to encourage women to work in computer science with a focus on artificial intelligence, while they also try to democratise things as high-end CPUs (very expensive and not so accessible to most ordinary people).
The imperfect cut of the dresses reveal that while creative-focused AI tools have developed pretty quickly in the last few years, human intervention is still needed in the case of fashion design.
The creators of Glitch actually know this and encourage a human/AI interaction, highlighting how AI can inspire us to create things that wouldn't have existed otherwise (on the site there is a Generate button that allows visitors to generate a dress they like and then recommend it to the Glitch team).
Yet while AI can quickly elaborate several details and trends from various designs in a very short time and suggest a solution to combine them together, this experiment proves that designing perfect dresses or even an entire collection is definitely not an easy thing for AI at the moment.
It would be intriguing to match a famous Haute Couture or Ready-To-Wear historical brand with AI and come up with an experimental design, as combining the best designs ever created with the best algorithms available to us at the moment would maybe produce something genuinely unique (or just incredibly bizarre...). So, for the time being, the best thing is to go on experimenting and encouraging women in AI, while keeping AI locked out of our wardrobes at least until we make sure artificial intelligence learns more about pattern cutting, creating flattering silhouettes and empowering our bodies. In the meantime let's allow AI to keep on dreaming about dressing up in expensive fashion designs or even Haute Couture - who knows, maybe by imagining luxury, one day artificial intelligence will be able to create it.
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