Last year scientists found out that the Earth rotation is changing speed and setting on a faster rhythm. Many experts believe that this change of rhythm is due to the glaciers melting as a result of climate change.
Who knows, maybe this is the reason why we get the impression that our lives are on a super-fast track and sometimes we feel time is slipping from our hands. Technology also contributes to suck us into this relentlessly fast vortex, with innovative applications, tools, systems and gadgets being released on a constant basis.
In the show notes to his S/S 24 menswear collection, Walter Van Beirendonck invited his guests to consider the fast rhythms we are living in, but also the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
"Where are the machines taking us?" he wondered. "The world around us is transforming at breakneck speed and it feels like we're being used as crash test dummies."
Equally attracted and worried about this acceleration in our lives, the Belgian designer expressed this dichotomy in his clothes via protective gear such as cocooning padded designs, see-through hazmat suits and red and white or yellow and black hazard stripes indicating danger and reminding the wearer to stay safe.
Crash dummy symbols also appeared in some of the garments, creating alarming contrasts with more romantic moods conjured up via see-through dresses and shirts characterized by relaxed silhouettes. The symbols hinted at a metaphor: we are like crash test dummies and our existences are constantly challenged by a variety of threats, by a state of permanent crisis, by wars and viruses.
Hazard stripes were also transformed into graphic motifs, almost an alien alphabet, as indicated in the show notes, revealing the inspiration behind the collection - Dawleetoo.
The alleged golden city situated in the Sumatra rainforest, was believed to be visited by explorer Alfred Isaac Middleton in the late 1800s. According to the tale, Middleton buried his excavated treasures from the city in a casket before mysteriously vanishing. However, this is a hoax, a story told via sepia-toned AI fabricated images that continue to circulate online. Through this tale, Van Beirendonck tackled the daily struggle to distinguish reality from fiction, telling us that navigating the present is increasingly challenging.
Overwhelmed and deeply disturbed by the worlds generated by AI, Van Beirendonck tried to envision a world where machines and humans can still coexist, but the show closed with his models wearing spray-painted dry-cleaning bags adorned with skeletons, evoking a sense of concern, maybe hinting at the suffocating impact of violence, wars, ongoing crises, racism, and murders on our lives.
The designer wasn't the only one pondering about speed, humans, machines and AI this season.
On Monday at the New York Public Library, Marc Jacobs, whose shows were never terribly short nor on time, dramatically reduced his A/W 23 runway to a super-fast show presenting just 29 looks in roughly three minutes.
Fashion is relentless, so the metaphor worked, but there was also another message here. Jacobs looked at the '80s, a decade he explored in previous collections (A/W 2018 and 2019), with mini-dresses matched with black stockings to the calf, white ankles socks and flat pointy-toed shoes.
Variations were provided by draped looks with strong shoulders at times evoking the costumes in William Cameron Menzies's black-and-white science fiction film "Things To Come" (1936).
A gold blouse with harem pants filtered Poiret through the '80s, while geometries inspired circular bras and boxy mannish jackets. The models' chopped hairstyle conjured up visions of Daryl Hannah as Pris in "Blade Runner" and maybe that's where the second metaphor came from.
In the movie, Pris is portrayed as a "basic pleasure model" Nexus-6 replicant who joins a group of escaped replicants seeking extended lifespans from the Tyrell Corporation.
Pris is actually human, but, following an injury, she is revived using spare replicant components, resulting in her becoming mute and exhibiting animalistic behavior.
Pris’ metaphor works well for the collection and for fashion as well: like her group of replicants, Jacobs was maybe asking for a longer lifespan for collections.
Nowadays, the thrill surrounding a show only lasts indeed for a few hours and the collection showcased becomes immediately old the moment Instagram gets flooded by the next event, the next celebrity in the front row, the next It bag, and the next content posted by an eager influencer.
Everything gets consumed, chewed and spat in a matter of a few hours rather than weeks and months. It's obvious that this is frustrating for creative minds working in all sorts of industries, and Jacobs is probably not the only designer feeling like a pleasure model replicant being considered obsolete.
Pris also reunites in herself the human and the replicant nature and Jacobs played with these two aspects letting ChatGPT writing the notes for his show.
"The Marc Jacobs fashion show captivated audiences with its innovative approach to blending menswear-inspired tailoring with feminine aesthetics," ChatGPT wrote.
"The collection showcased impeccably tailored suits designed exclusively for women, accompanied by flat shoes, black tights and stunning altered gowns. The predominantly black and white palette created a striking visual impact, emphasizing the timeless elegance and versatility of monochrome fashion."
The prompt given must have been purposefully bland, as the notes contained repetitions that the bot may have avoided if somebody had engaged with it in a better way.
The tone was also grand and bombastic and lacked emotion, but maybe it reminded us that this is where we're heading with show reviews becoming useless, fashion critics becoming extinct and journalism being under pressure by the cost-cutting drive that is killing staff at a variety of publications.
Jacobs wasn't the only one that opted for show notes written by ChatGPT: also Guram Gvasalia turned to Artificial Intelligence for his S/S 24 Vêtements collection.
For Bruno Munari imagination was a tool to visualize things and Gvasalia, who directs the label since his brother Demna stepped down in 2019 to focus on his collections at Balenciaga, interpreted AI as a tool that allows people to envision previously unimaginable things.
The designs in Vêtements' S/S 24 collection were therefore intended as IRL garments that emulate the appearance and sensation of an AI-generated image.
Margiela came (obviously) into the equation: the Belgian designer S/S 1997 iconic canvas mannequin waistcoat that looked like the body of a tailor's dummy (Stockmans) (and that Margiela used to transform the foundation into the outerwear and the body into the dress and to question the logic and techniques of tailoring and pattern cutting) was reinvented in this collection.
In one instance it was turned into a body suit, or was transformed into gigantic gowns (besides, the models wearing beige masks and body stockings resembled dress-fitting mannequins).
According to Gvasalia, though, there are differences between that original design and these ones (why does he sound like Odie Cologne telling King Leonardo in that '60s cartoon series "But this is a special one" as the king gets the umpteenth television set?).
The dummy looking designs in this collection feature indeed a high-tech 3D scan of a tailor's dummy printed on sustainable double stretch fabric. The gowns made with this technique were also partially remixed with the massive stretch panné velvet ball gown designed by Demna for Balenciaga's S/S 20 collection.
Guram transformed the latter making them bigger: this adjective actually turned into the keyword for the entire collection that also included oversized sweatshirts, hoodies, bombers, coats, pantsuits, jeans, necklaces with huge pendants and even high visibility safety clothing, in an attempt to imitate the proportions of virtual and digital garments.
Gvasalia also collaborated with Elie Saab for sequined mermaid dresses and T-shirt gowns with skirts characterized by an exaggerated six-meter circumference.
Despite Gvasalia seemed more interested in proving the artisanal skills of the collection, a hoodie featuring the words "Wikipedia Editor" reshifted the attention onto digital media, and was used to point at the designer's desire to alter the label’s history and contribute something new to fashion.
This may actually be rather difficult when you think that other designers, Margiela included, created oversized collections.
In more recent years Anrealage came up with a collection (A/W 19) that played on proportions in a clever way, but, in this case Gvasalia simply moved from the popular 2018-2019 memes of celebrities in gargantuan puffer jackets, an idea then lifted by Jeremy Scott in Moschino's Pre-Fall 2020 and Fall 2020 menswear collections (the massive puffer jackets in this S/S 24 collection seem very similar to the ones in Moschino's collections that were in turn inspired by the memes).
In the end, Vêtements' collection wasn’t desperately new nor innovative, but it actually felt like Gvasalia had fun using the "/blend" function on Midjourney, haphazardly collaging different inspirations from previous collections by other designers together.
The three designers featured in this post all acknowledged the arrival of AI on the scene in their own ways. Maybe Van Beirendonck provided a more poignant observation, shedding light on how AI-generated images can create fake worlds and deceive us, but also using red/white and yellow/black stripes to warn us about the perils of the digital world. Jacobs’ metaphors about replicants wanting to extend their lifespans and the fast-paced nature of the industry also proved to be intriguing concepts, perhaps more so than the actual garments.
As for the press releases using ChatGPT, well, none of the designers fully explored the potential of AI (it is possible that they intentionally limited the capabilities of ChatGPT to demonstrate its inability to generate original fashion texts effectively).
As AI rapidly evolves it will be interesting to track its influence in future collections and to see if it will be employed to some extent also in Haute Couture designs. For the time being, the future of AI in the fashion industry remains uncertain, but its presence and potential are undeniable as it is already making an impact beyond the mere generation of images for prints, patterns and advertisements.
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