Over the past two years, designers and fashion brands have been exploring the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to perform creative tasks. Among them, Norma Kamali, Hillary Taymour (Collina Strada), and Mango have openly embraced their experiments with AI, capitalising on the buzz around the innovative and intriguing possibilities of human-AI creative partnership. As generative AI continues to evolve, it has begun fulfilling a variety of creative and operational objectives within the demanding, if not straightforwardly peculiar fashion industry.
Norma Kamali, America’s fashion legend, is employing bespoke AI trained specifically to replicate her design style, therefore making sure that her namesake label retains her signature aesthetic (“downloading her brain“) while keeping up with the trends. If customers share Kamali’s “wild excitement” for this venture, AI might spark an intriguing debate about whether a brand will ever need to seek new creative directors at all. Upholding a brand’s identity while pushing it forward is one of fashion’s biggest challenge and art form in one, and often a fraught process that has both made and broken many careers. For fast fashion giant Mango, the use of AI is aimed at facilitating a business objective of speeding up the design process while maintaining the brand’s aesthetic. (“It’s about faster content creation,” in the words of Mango’s CEO Toni Ruiz). Hillary Taymour, the designer behind New York’s fashion marvel, Collina Strada, has used Midjourney to prompt designs for her Spring-Summer 2024 collection. While the process proved more challenging that she anticipated, Midjourney ultimately became an invaluable useful tool for testing bold, unconventional ideas.
Complex and bespoke AI tools, such as the one created for Norma Kamali, are trained specifically on a brand’s or designer’s data and are developed by specialised agencies such as Maison Meta, IMKI and Design Novel. These tools are typically available at premium, available-upon request pricing. For smaller brands and independent designers, tools are offered through affordable monthly plans, and leverage AI’s key features: machine learning, production optimisation, and trend analysis. It is essential, however, to make sure that a tool allows designers to retain ownership of their designs, and processes data securely in a controlled environment.
At Vegan Fashion Repository, we have selected five AI tools that are proving to meet the particular needs of fashion designers, brands, and professionals. Two of these have Ambassador programmes, which enable freelancers to access the tools free of charge in exchange for regular collaboration and social media engagement.
MERCER (previously: CALA)
One of the most renowned tools – Mercer – offers an all-in-one design platform that is highly valued for workflow optimisation, spanning from concept development to production and delivery of bespoke products. Mercer’s specific functionalities include transforming sketches into realistic images, and facilitating real-time collaboration with manufacturers through task management. Additionally, Mercer incorporates an automated supply chain system for optimised cost control, dynamic pricing, and logistics. This platform is ideal for designers and brands starting small, but looking to scale as they grow, with the ability to expand the functionalities over time. Mercer also connect users with a global network of designers and manufactures.
Designer plan starts at $19.00/month
REFABRIC
Intended as an AI fashion assistant, Refabric excels at effortlessly transforming ideas into designs and allows for easy editing of both general silhouettes and specific design sections. The tool is particularly user-friendly, and enables designs to be generated by selecting areas and providing text or visual instructions. It also supports full fabric integration and the creation of fabric designs. Refabric can digitise hand-drawn sketches, technical drawings, and other visual concepts. Refabric is an essential tool for brands looking to refine seasonal commercial collections with updates to specific proportions year after year. It even offers photo-shooting options for e-commerce presentations. Refabric is currently developing a feature to convert AI-generated designs into detailed technical packs for bulk production, complete with precise measurements. Notably, Refabric has joined the LVMH Startup Acceleration Program at La Maison des Startups.
Starter plan starts at $12.00/month.
Ambassador programme available.
SIX ATOMIC
Six Atomic’s standout feature lies in its ability to streamline the entire production process thanks to fully automated manufacturing tools and modular design libraries that enable both on-demand as well as scalable production. With capabilities such as trend analysis, design suggestions, and production-ready patterns, it is intuitive even for users without design or pattern-making skills. The tool also includes 3D pattern simulation, making it suitable for brands producing small capsule collections aligned with microtrends, as well as large-scale operations requiring quick turnaround times and tight deadlines.
Essential plan with body measurement prediction functionality starts at $35/month.
RASPBERRY
Raspberry, which secured $4.5 million earlier in 2024, is said to be the most thoroughly-trained fashion tool, with data collected from third-party providers and public fashion datasets specifically made for machine-learning training. Raspberry’s AI has analysed hundreds of thousands of fashion images captioned with over 300 fashion-specific keywords, making it exceptionally adept at visualising trends, fabrics, trims, prints, stitch details, and silhouettes. It also allows for the creation of professional technical drawings and fabric prints, producing outputs that are “much more readily manufacturable,” according to Cheryl Liu, Raspberry’s CEO.
Basic plan starts at $198.00/month.
Ambassador programme available.
MIDJOURNEY
Last but not least, Midjourney has become many designers’ and creative professionals’ first AI tool they engaged with, and many stayed loyal. However, as it is not a fashion-dedicated tool, Midjourney lacks functionalities for creating technical drawings or optimising designs for production. Still, Midjourney has proven invaluable for exploring bold and bizarre ideas that would otherwise take up much more time and resources.
Free user account available (limit of 25 images)
Basic plan starts at $10.00/month.