The arrival of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into the fashion industry was as rapid as it was provocative. First there was astonishment, then experimenting. Finally, a more critical phase followed in which many brands ask: What role do we want to play in a creative ecosystem that is increasingly shaped by this technology?
A hybrid logic prevails in this new scenario. Human and artificial elements do not compete with each other, but complement each other. This is a sensitive balance, especially in an industry in which aesthetics, emotion and innovation make the difference. The key question is no longer whether AI should be used, but how without losing the soul of the brand.
Fashionunited spoke to co-founder Roser Bagó and expert Minerva García of the creative start-up Neural Fashion and to Sergio González, AI manager at Desigual.
The Desigual company based in Barcelona has been in an ambitious rebranding process since 2019. Artificial intelligence is not only a creative tool for design, but also a way to consolidate its market positioning.
A pillar of this integration is the ‘Awesome Lab’. With this program for open innovation, Desigual has been working with technology start-ups for years. The aim is to accelerate digital transformation. In the last edition, which focused exclusively on generative AI, the company researched applications from product design to personalized marketing.
One of the most outstanding projects is the partnership with neural fashion. With the start-up design, designed his first fully generated advertising campaign that staged real clothing. With the combination of tools such as flux, models from Openaai and upscaling systems, the brand achieved an interesting visual result.
In addition to the result, the approach is relevant. Desigual does not use AI as a mere aesthetic means, but as a coherent expansion of his visual language: a tool that reinforces, not replaced.
Creativity and fearless experimentation
Desigual sees AI not as a selective solution, but as a structural tool that penetrates several corporate areas. Although the brand has only been working with this technology for a little more than a year, it has already left the exploration phase behind and is in application mode.
The operation goes far beyond marketing. In marketing, for example, AI is used to generate visual concepts, to write creative suggestions and to experiment with new narratives, explains Sergio González. In the product area, AI enriches the design phase. Other departments such as IT and finance benefit from the automation of repetitive tasks and the optimization of work processes.
“We were asked to be as creative as possible and not to be afraid of mistakes,” reports González. He emphasizes that brand founder Thomas Meyer promoted this philosophy of fearless experimentation.
There are human decisions behind each generated picture: careful guidelines, kind of direction, studio management, retouching. “AI is just another tool for our imagination. It helps us release resources for larger traditional campaigns. We don’t want to replace anyone, but expand opportunities,” explains González.
The limits of technology
The way to complete AI integration is not without obstacles. During design, other brands have had more complex experiences. After four seasons, the Dutch company Labfesh has decided not to use AI in its campaigns. The reasons: low performance in social networks and technical difficulties such as inconsistencies in the appearance of the generated models.
The creative and technology team of Neural Fashion supported designs in the implementation of its last AI generated campaign. The start-up recognizes these technical challenges, but offers an alternative and constructive view of such obstacles.
Neural Fashion does not deny the challenges, such as the inconsistency mentioned in the generated faces, but openly recognizes it as one of the most demanding aspects of the generative AI in fashion. However, the approach is not to avoid the problem, but to redefine the rules of the creative game.
Redefine the rules of creative game
The secret is not to force the AI to replicate traditional processes exactly. It is about building campaigns based on the limits and strengths of the technology, explains the company.
It is not about expecting a perfect photo session from AI, how a human team would carry out under ideal conditions. It is about using it to create something else, maybe even unexpected, which appeals to the target group in a different way. This philosophy directed the collaboration with design: Since the brand knew that the generation of ten identical images of the same face would become technically unstable, it chose visual narratives that did not depend on this precision.
Minerva Garcia, an expert in the Neural Fashion team, also emphasizes that we are dealing with a change in the change. What seems to be a restriction today can already be solved with a new tool or a new technology tomorrow. Your work model is therefore not based on a single platform or AI engine, but on a dynamic integration of different models and resources that are adapted to the specific needs of each campaign. This ability to move agile in a changing environment enables the company to continue to achieve results that combine the best of technology and a deeply creative vision.
Where other brands see frustration or a performance below expectations, co -founder Roser Bagó sees unused potential. For them, AI is not there to replicate the familiar, but to open up new ways, to imagine, tell and present fashion. Always with a warning: Anyone who approaches the AI with the expectation of an exact, closed and final solution will probably be disappointed. However, if you approach the matter with openness and curiosity, you will find a fertile field for fearless experimentation.
One of the current projects is the generation of pictures for product pages with consistent models. The possibility is examined to use digital twins to ensure the visual coherence between several pictures of the same face.
For example, H&M has already started to implement this technology. The Swedish Moderiese creates digital replicas of real models for its marketing campaigns and social media posts, always with the consent and financial compensation of the models involved.
In this context, the brand emphasizes how important transparency towards the user is: Inside: All realistic images created with AI must be presented to consumers: Characterized accordingly in order to avoid misunderstandings and to gain the public’s trust. Desigual does not obscure the technological origin, but makes it part of the creative discourse.
The Desigual case shows that the future of visual communication will neither be exclusively human nor completely artificial; It will be hybrid. An ecosystem in which technology increases creativity, releases time and resources and enables brands to tell more stories without losing their essence.
In this interaction, the key is not to ask artificial intelligence what only a person can offer: sensitivity, intuition, emotion. At the same time, you should use your potential to expand the limits of the possible.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
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