Promptness on the podium: how AI is changing clothing production
Artificial intelligence is becoming one of the key factors in the transformation of the fashion industry. Neural networks are already being used to develop collections, create advertising content, analyze consumer preferences, and personalize offers for customers. Technologies are changing not only the production and promotion processes, but also the requirements for specialists working in the industry. About how AI affects the creation of clothing and what the future of professions in this field will be, see the Izvestia article.
How AI is Changing Clothing Design
Artificial intelligence is gradually changing the economics of the fashion industry, helping brands reduce costs, accelerate the development of collections and solve one of the key problems of the industry — the growth of textile waste. Every year, the industry accumulates more than 84 billion kg of textile waste, about 87% of which ends up in landfills. Digital technologies allow up to 70% of textile waste to be recycled, supporting the development of a circular economy.
However, the main impact of AI is related not only to environmental challenges, but also to changes in the very process of creating clothes. Previously, the journey from an idea to a finished product took weeks — from developing a concept and patterns to sewing a sample and fittings — but today some of these stages are gradually being automated. This allows brands to bring products to market faster and reduce production costs.
One of the first stages of AI implementation was the development of patterns. Modern CAD systems with artificial intelligence elements are capable of performing tasks that previously required considerable time from the designer. According to Maria Shevchenko, a fashion designer and teacher of the Neural Networks in Fashion and Fashion Design educational program at the British Graduate School of Design, automation of these processes has its limitations.
— Without human intervention, everything that is described by clear rules is confidently performed, including the construction of patterns according to specified sizes, gradation, optimization of layout and the formation of technical specifications. However, creating a high—quality pattern is not only about calculating the size, but also taking into account many factors: fabric properties, sewing technology, figure features and the requirements of a specific audience. AI cannot create a high—quality template from scratch on its own," the expert explains.
At the same time, the influence of artificial intelligence goes beyond the work of the designer. Neural networks are already used in the development of collections: they help to create visual concepts, generate sketches and check design ideas faster. The next stage is the development of 3D modeling, which allows you to evaluate the fit of the product before creating a physical sample.
Gulnaz Safonova, a lecturer in the course "Designing Clothes" at the HSE School of Design and designer of the INSHADE brand, notes that these technologies are changing the very approach to clothing design.
"In programs like CLO 3D or Style3D, you can overlay a clothing model or print onto a realistic 3D shape, which eliminates the need to create physical samples manually," she says.
Digital prototypes help brands reduce the number of test samples, bring models to market faster, and reduce material consumption. In addition, algorithms analyze sales and customer reviews, identify problems with landing, and help adjust dimensional grids.
— Optimization of the layout directly reduces the consumption of fabric and the amount of waste. And the review analysis helps to make the patterns more accurate and adapt them to real customers," explains Maria Shevchenko.
Thus, AI becomes not just a tool for automating individual processes, but part of a broader transformation of the fashion industry.
How professions are changing in the fashion industry
The development of artificial intelligence is changing not only key tools, but also the requirements for their competencies. According to experts, this is not about replacing professions, but about their transformation.
Maria Shevchenko notes that digital tools do not reduce the importance of professional training. On the contrary, the more tasks the AI takes on, the higher the requirements for a specialist. He must understand the product's design, material properties, and manufacturing technology in order to correctly assign tasks to algorithms and evaluate the result.
— A specialist who knows how to design and clearly describe the process itself becomes the most valuable. It is necessary to understand which processes can be automated, how to formulate a request and how to verify the result, — says Maria Shevchenko.
At the same time, new technologies are changing the work of not only designers, but also specialists involved in visual development and brand promotion. Anton Soshnikov, Head of the Department of Digital and Additive Technologies at St. Petersburg State University of Applied Sciences, notes that artificial intelligence is becoming a tool that significantly reduces time costs and expands the capabilities of specialists.
According to him, AI is already being used to create and edit sketches, develop visual concepts, and prepare content for brand promotion. Technology allows you to create high—quality images and videos faster, reducing the cost of producing content, from filming with models and photographers to studio rentals and organizational costs.
However, according to the expert, the main skill of working with AI is not in using the technology itself, but in understanding the basic principles.
— The most difficult thing in working with AI is to get as close to the desired option as possible, since its algorithms are hidden. This is the main task of specialists: to understand the logic and formulate the query (prompt) as correctly as possible in order to get a predictable result," explains Anton Soshnikov.
That is why industrial engineering is gradually becoming a new professional competence in the fashion industry. The ability to formulate tasks for neural networks and select the most effective solutions is becoming as important a skill as it is today with graphic editors or professional design software.
Alexandra Levitina, an international style and image expert, founder of ALFS and lecturer at MGIMO, supports this trend in an interview with Izvestia. According to her, artificial intelligence is not changing the professions themselves, but the value of individual skills within them.
— AI does not replace specialists, but changes the very value of their work. Previously, the competitive advantage was the speed of completing technical tasks, but today it is the ability to make strategic decisions," says the expert.
According to Levitina, neural networks are able to quickly generate design options, analyze trends, and offer solutions based on large amounts of data. However, only a person can still determine whether the idea of a brand's DNA meets the expectations of the audience and the company's commercial strategy. Therefore, specialists who are able to combine creative thinking, business understanding and mastery of digital tools are becoming the most in demand.
These changes are also affecting the education system. Previously, training programs were focused on individual professions — designers, designers, or marketers — but today the industry needs specialists who understand the entire life cycle of a product: from idea development and production to promotion and sales.
What's next
According to experts, the current stage of artificial intelligence development is only the beginning of the technological transformation of the fashion industry. In the coming years, changes will affect not only digital tools for designers and designers, but also the processes of clothing development, production and personalization.
One of the key areas will be the development of three-dimensional modeling and digital product design. As Gulnaz Safonova notes, at the same time, the robotization of production will be accelerated, primarily at stages that are still difficult to automate due to the peculiarities of textile materials.
— New robots are still being introduced into production due to the complexity of working with light fabrics, and this particular part will be actively developed. At the same time, the clothing manufacturing technologies themselves will be improved. Seamless production methods, gluing, fusing parts and laser cutting, as well as intelligent materials that can change their properties depending on the environment, will become increasingly widespread, says the expert.
Maria Shevchenko considers personalization to be another important area. If today clothes are created according to standard size grids, then in the future artificial intelligence can make an individual fit mass.
— AI will continue to develop primarily as a tool that helps specialists. Already today, algorithms are able to speed up the layout of patterns, size gradation and preparation of technical documentation, and in the future they will be able to create small specialized applications for the tasks of a particular designer, reducing dependence on expensive professional software, explains the clothing designer.
However, experts urge not to overestimate the possibilities of technology. Despite the active development of the market, many solutions positioned as based on artificial intelligence remain marketing promises rather than ready-made tools.
— There will be a lot of noise and outright marketing on the market for some time - services that promise "AI patterns", but do not give a working result. Whether it will be possible to digitize the expert experience of the designer at all, I do not have a clear answer yet. This, in my opinion, is a key issue for the coming years," said Maria Shevchenko.
Therefore, according to experts, the future of the industry is not connected with the replacement of humans with artificial intelligence, but with their joint work. Algorithms will take on routine and computational tasks, while human decision-making, creative interpretation, and professional expertise will remain.
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