The State of Fashion 2024: The Disruptive Power of AI Fashion

The latest campaign of Etro takes us to “Nowhere”– the apex of human imagination, as the Fashion House like us to see it, for their Spring/Summer 2024 campaign.

Creative Director of Etro, Marco de Vincenzo, in collaboration with “prompt designer”, Silvia Badalotti, depicts Etro’s latest collection – grounded in nature-like prints– through a series of hazy and ethereal scenes, where technology and humanity collide.

“Together, we embarked on a journey to a parallel universe where infinite possibilities lie and learned that, time and time again, only the heart can take you far”, wrote De Vincenzo.

AI continues to carve its niche within haute-couture, following the inaugural AI Fashion Week in New York City in 2023. Designers were encouraged to use heavily researched prompts to create unique ideas. It saw designers like José Sobral of Paatiff and Rayshaun Smith of Chu delve fully into futurism. Chu’s designs were inspired by the bioluminesence of jellyfish.

“If we’re stuck seeing it as either the saviour or the destroyer of worlds then we’re screwed. It’s just something that happens to us, and we’re at its mercy. But, if we view it as a mirror reflecting our current state of affairs, we can, at least, claim some say in what it reflects, how we look at it, and what we do with its reflection”, suggests Dr Daniel Felstead, an experential designer and educator at the London College of Fashion (UAL).

Balengiaga’s most recent SS24 collection adroitly incorporates AI, following their SS22 “Clones” collection that generated a runway entirely using AI. The brand’s use of experimental, and almost controversial mediums, has become a source of controversy.

Under the guise of familiarity, the graphic work on Look 66 in SS2324 is entirely AI, although subtle and not noticeable unless pointed out. It is a great display of the multi-faceted use of AI. With the hooded shirt and overshirt both including an AI iteration of a Balenciaga logo, this exclusive photo shows us fashion’s first use of AI printed onto a garment. This non-destructive use of AI is a stark example of Balenciaga’s continued ingenuity.

Balenciaga’s spring-summer 2024 collection provides a glimpse of how AI could be implemented into fashion so adeptly that only the informed will notice.  “Some high fashion brands will make AI, and more broadly advances tech, an explicit dimension of their brand, we might think of brands like Balenciaga or Boss or Mugler. Here AI is not only used as part of the creative process but also used as a signifier of the brand’s positioning as forward thinking, innovative,” Felstead suggests.

Generative AI tools are increasingly used by fashion brands in one-off creative and marketing projects. For example, luxury label Casablanca created a campaign for its Spring/Summer 2023 collection by partnering with an AI artist and using image generator Midjourney. 

“These brands will become increasingly like haute couture or have to find ever more inventive ways to demonstrate how non-AI they are in response to AI being increasingly integrated into every aspect of contemporary life,” Felstead suggests.

“Some high fashion brands will explicitly resist AI by publicly pivoting towards the celebration of notions of authenticity, craftsmanship, and the human touch.”