First AI Fashion Week comes to NYC: ‘A new realm of creation’

It’s “Project Runway” meets “Ex Machina”.

The future of fashion is artificial intelligence and trendsetters get programmed for New York’s first AI fashion weekwhich will showcase digitally created works from emerging designers in the tech space.

Designers familiar with buzzy AI software like Midjourney have created extensive collections from 15 to 30 views, designed 100% virtually, which will be displayed on the “models” walking the runway. Creatives also have “carte blanche” with production designs. Immersive experiences range from traditional catwalk settings complete with chaotic backstages and A-list front rows to fantasy worlds featuring everything from beaches to dinosaurs.

Held April 20 and 21 at Soho’s Spring Studios, the same location as New York Fashion Week, select collections will be shown on display at the venue, which opens to the public on Friday.

Voting will takes place online starting Thursday while a jury including legendary makeup artist Pat McGrath will help select the winner, announced in May.

But their designs won’t just exist virtually: With support through a fashion/tech incubator in partnership with Revolve Group, the winning physical garments will be available for purchase IRL at trendsetting e-commerce giant Revolve.

Cyril Foiret, founder of creative studio AI Maison Meta which produces AIFW, told The Post that more than 400 people from around the world, as far away as Israel and a few local designers in New York, have entered the competition.

“AI fashion week hopes to pave the way for a new world of creation,” he said. “We really think the AIFW platform is going to make a big splash in the fashion industry and show what you can do and how creative you can be when it comes to AI and fashion.”

While mostly women, Foiret says the most surprising statistic of tech-savvy newcomers all experienced in cutting-edge AI software is the wide age range from “18 to 65 years”.

Fran, a 57-year-old civil rights attorney in New York, is participating after teaching herself how to use an AI art generator when it became available last summer in her free time. Now, he is proficient with Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Night Cafe and owns it amassed nearly 9,000 followers on Instagram where he shares his creations over the past eight months.

Although he never plans to leave his job as a lawyer, AI has become a fun and “easy” hobby for Fran, who requests to use an assumed name and the name withheld for professional reasons.

“I did it simply because it seemed like a great creative outlet,” he told The Post. “I really don’t look at it much more than experimenting with new technology and using it as a creative outlet.”

The digital creator, who learned about AIFW through a group of fashion designers, art directors and AI artists on Instagram, said he knows it’s unusual for Gen Xers especially to have little free time as civil defense attorneys for parents of children with disabilities. to engage with new technologies that seem complex to outsiders.

“It’s a bit unusual because I’m older than most people who are in space now,” he said.

But it was a natural development for Fran, who was a photographer for several years, shooting for NYFW and other editorials, before giving up in 2016 to focus on her law practice.

“As a former photographer, I am very interested in exploring the power of AI to create photorealistic and inspiring images,” he explains. “I am interested in fashion photography, but I am a sweatpants person.”

One of the most AI generated pictures with hundreds of likes on it @ai_fashion_photos page a woman in bath with flowers starting from the original photo that Fran took. Sometimes his process involved using his own drawings to design more “complicated” editorials, either blending images together or tweaking certain details, while other times he worked with Midjourney’s text prompt software to generate scenes from scratch.

While she acknowledges that AI presents serious risks and should not replace human creativity, a much-discussed topic these days with the growing popularity of ChatGPT and the fear of a looming dystopia, Fran believes it is also a wonderful tool.

“AI has already impacted the world and, like every time with any new technology, we will see a big impact on the world,” said Foiret. “We don’t think it will end some jobs, but it will provide new opportunities and introduce new tools for creatives and companies.”

Plus, Fran says that dreaming up an editorial mode “that would be very difficult and challenging to make” is much more efficient with AI.

“It’s definitely much faster to produce AI art than it is to coordinate fashion shoots, shoots and post-production,” he says.

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Foiret says that’s the inspiration behind AI fashion week: to provide a platform for creatives who have access to technology, but perhaps not the millions of dollars needed to create a complete collection.

“We are excited to have created this strong AI fashion community, and this is just the beginning,” he said. “We really want to give anyone who uses this tool the opportunity to become a great fashion designer in the future.”