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From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI

From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI - The Art of Artificial Photography

In the world of fashion, product photography is an art form. Capturing clothing, accessories and models in just the right light requires an artistic eye. But for many brands, excellent product photography comes at a high cost. Professional photographers, lighting equipment, studios, models, makeup artists and more quickly add up. And in today's fast-paced digital marketplace, brands need fresh content constantly, making endless photoshoots impractical. This is where artificial intelligence comes in. AI-powered image generation platforms allow fashion labels to create magazine-worthy product imagery with just a few clicks.

Gone are the days of complex studio setups and grueling 12-hour shoots. Now, brands can generate thousands of high-quality photos showing their items modeled in real world settings. For example, a swimwear company can showcase their suits on models posing on tropical beaches rather than in a studio. Not only does this allow for more dynamic scenes, it also enables virtual product sampling. Shoppers can get a sense of how an item would actually look being worn.

Los Angeles-based fashion brand Saint Luna has embraced AI photography to great success. As marketing director Jennie Kim explains, "We used to spend thousands hiring photographers, models, makeup artists and more for traditional photoshoots. Now we can generate endless high-quality product images on demand for a fraction of the cost. Our customers love being able to see pieces modeled in real world environments. We're able to give them a richer brand experience."

This technology allows Saint Luna to keep their site looking fresh without the constant demands of reshooting. As new items are added to their catalog, they can instantly generate complementary lifestyle imagery. "We love having full creative control," says Kim. "We can model our core products in diverse settings reflecting our natural, adventure-driven vibe. The technology has improved rapidly and the images are getting more photorealistic every day."

From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI - Virtually Trying On the Latest Trends

Online shopping poses a unique challenge for clothing retailers - customers can't try items on before buying. This leads to more returns, lowering margins. Virtual try-on technology offers a solution, letting shoppers see apparel modeled on their own body. For the consumer, it brings the fitting room experience online. For brands, it helps turn browsing into buying.

Virtual try-on uses augmented reality and AI to map clothing onto a person's image. Shoppers simply take a selfie or use an existing photo, then select items they want to preview. In seconds, they can see tops, dresses, pants and more realistically overlaid on themselves. By turning and moving, they can view an outfit from different angles.

Swedish fast fashion e-tailer HM is one brand utilizing virtual try-on. Their app lets customers see HM's latest styles modeled on their own body, or on a customizable model. Users can smoothly turn 360 degrees, getting a feel for how an item fits and drapes. HM also overlays clothing on video, so shoppers can see items move realistically. Early data shows it reduces returns.

Meanwhile, Gucci has partnered with tech firm MySizeID to offer shoppers virtual try-on of shoes. Using just a smartphone camera, Gucci's app maps a 3D model of selected shoes onto the user's feet. Shoppers get an instant preview of sizes and styles to aid buying decisions.

For shopper Lucy Ryan, virtual try-on has been a game changer. "I used to order tons of sizes and colors, then return most of it. Now with virtual try-on I can really get a sense of what works for me before I buy. I love being able to visualize an entire outfit on my body. It makes online shopping so much easier."

From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI - Moving at the Speed of Style

The accelerated pace of fashion is driving brands to leverage AI just to keep up. In the social media era, micro-trends come and go in the blink of an eye. Staying current requires constantly generating content showcasing the latest looks. For fashion labels, this means an endless cycle of photoshoots to style, shoot and promote new pieces. But short product cycles plus long content production times creates a lag. By the time brands finish photographing a new line, the styling already feels dated.

AI imaging bridges this gap, allowing brands to move at the speed of style. Instead of waiting days or weeks to schedule a photoshoot, new product photos can be generated instantly. As soon as a new item is added to the product catalog, AI systems can style, model and render it in scenes that feel fresh and current. This means brands can match the pace of trends instead of always feeling a step behind.

Los Angeles retailer Wildflower Boutique has experienced this firsthand. As marketing manager Amy Chu explains, “We used to style, photograph and edit new arrivals in batches. This meant customers would see items already a month old by the time we shot them. Now with AI we generate new product imagery daily, sometimes hourly. As soon as our buyers spot an emerging trend, we can photograph pieces in that style. It allows us to keep our site exciting instead of static.”

For Chu, AI photography has been a game changer operationally. “Our team used to spend all their time on photoshoots and editing. We’d always be backed up trying to catch up. Now we can focus on things that really matter like social media, marketing and merchandising. The time savings across our organization has been tremendous.”

But perhaps most importantly, reducing photoshoot lag time has allowed Wildflower to capitalize on micro-trends. As Chu explains, “Last season earth tones were suddenly in. We were seeing it all over social media. But we had just finished shooting pastels. Normally we’d have to wait to work earth tones into the next photoshoot. With AI we could generate fresh product images in earth tones immediately. Moving at the speed of style lets us maximize these opportunities.”

From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI - No More Endless Reshoots

Endless photoshoots have long been a necessary evil for fashion brands. The high cost in both time and resources often hinders creative expression. Yet in a visually-driven industry, compelling product imagery is a must. This tension has led many labels to simply reuse the same tired product photos season after season. But for today's consumers, nothing kills interest faster than static, outdated ecommerce visuals.

AI-generated fashion photography eliminates the need for endless photoshoots by automating image creation. Instead of costly physical production, brands can now generate thousands of high-quality photos with endless variations – all from a computer. This allows brands to refresh their photography as often as needed to stay current.

For LA-based Anne Klein, AI photography has been a gamechanger. As creative director James Wu explains, “We used to reshoot our core products once a year, tops. This meant we’d end up using the same outdated photos across multiple seasons. It was expensive to continuously produce new shoots, but we had no other way to capture different stylings. Now with AI, we can generate endless fresh imagery on demand. Our site photography always feels current.”

This sea change has enabled Anne Klein’s creative team to focus on innovation rather than constant reproduction. Says Wu, “My team used to spend all their time on logistics - booking studios, coordinating models, securing permits, managing production. We had limited bandwidth left for actual creativity. Now we can focus purely on establishing our brand vision and aesthetics. The AI handles the busywork.”

Wu has been stunned by the exponential volume of new imagery AI enables. “Previously if we wanted photos of our core leather tote in 20 different colors, we’d have to shoot each one individually. With AI we can generate all 20 colors in minutes by simply changing the inputs. The speed and flexibility is unbelievable.”

Portuguese handbag brand Coracao has uncovered similar benefits. As marketing manager Sofia Chen explains, “We are a small company, so reshooting all our products every season was draining, both financially and creatively. Using the same shots felt tired, but we had no choice. With AI-generated product photography, we can showcase our bags fresh every single day if we want. It has completely changed the face of our ecommerce site.”

Chen says AI imagery helps Coracao make the most of their physical photoshoots as well. “When we do photoshoots now, we try to capture our core styles in timeless scenarios. Then we use AI to generate endless variations – different colors, fabrics, backgrounds, models – that breathe new life into those hero shots.”

From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI - Look Hot with Some Help from AI

For retailers, product attractiveness is everything. Items that look hot catch the customer's eye, drive desire, and get added to carts. Yet fashion photography has traditionally required enormous effort - hiring models, stylists, photographers, lighting techs, production crews, and more. The process is slow, manual, and costly. But now, AI is changing the game.

With artificial intelligence, brands can make every product in their catalog look hot with minimal effort. Cutting edge neural networks are able to add studio-quality lighting, interesting angles, and lively models to existing product images. This makes items pop on the web or in ads. For Dynamite Clothing, a Montreal-based retailer, AI product enhancement has been a magic bullet. As marketing manager Henri Dubois shares, "In the past, we'd style and carefully photograph only our hero pieces each season. The rest of the catalog was treated as an afterthought. But now with AI, we can make every item look like a must-have. Even our basic t-shirts and camisoles get the full photoshoot treatment."

According to Dubois, Dynamite uses AI in two key ways - automatically removing backgrounds from product shots to isolate items, and intelligently adding models to help merchandise pieces. He explains, "For background removal, we just feed our original studio images into the platform. The AI erases the background cleanly and beautifully, leaving just the apparel floating in white space. Then we add various lifestyle backdrops - city streets, coffee shops, beaches, etc. This makes even our most basic product shots feel vibrant."

Dubois continues, "The model addition feature has been huge too. We're able to dropped our apparel onto a variety of diverse, natural looking models - showing fits on different body types and skin tones. And the models are all clothed in undergarments, avoiding any appearance of nudity. This helps our customers better visualize pieces on themselves."

Early results show AI-enhanced product photography leads to a 7-15% uptick in sales. But beyond revenue, Dynamite finds it changes the very way they design collections. Dubois elaborates, "We now think about how pieces will look merchandised when we're sketching collections. It gives us freedom to take more design risks, knowing we can showcase pieces attractively no matter what. AI has enhanced not just our photography, but our creative process."

Other brands are taking AI product enhancement even further. Los Angeles-based fashion house Nirav Modi uses generative AI to actually create original product imagery from scratch. Chief Design Officer Priya Bahadur explains, "We provide the AI with a few cues - a description of the apparel, suggested poses, accessories, lighting, etc. It generates hundreds of unique product photos."

Bahadur says completely AI-generated product photos allow Nirav Modi to respond faster to trends. "When cowl necklines trending on social media last season, we were able to generate compelling photos of our cowl neck sweaters in minutes. No photoshoot required."

She concludes, "AI gives us a level of speed, experimentation, and hyper-relevance we never could have achieved otherwise. Our ability to make apparel look hot and current whenever needed has improved exponentially."

From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI - Algorithms Are the New Stylists

For decades, fashion labels relied on human stylists to artfully dress and merchandise their clothing in photoshoots. A stylist's taste and talent was critical to making apparel look appealing and lifestyle-ready. But now, artificial intelligence is stepping in as the new styling expert.

Brands are turning to machine learning algorithms to style product images algorithmically. This automated approach assembles complementary outfits, suggests on-trend accessories, and recommends attractive posing. The AI stylists analyze millions of fashion photos to learn what makes a compelling ensemble. From color palettes to pattern mixing, proportion play to layering, the technology builds an immense bank of styling knowledge in seconds. It then applies this data to dress products in photogenic, enticing ways beyond what any human could study in a lifetime.

The results are product images with uniquely captivating, magazine-quality presentation entirely styled by AI. For contemporary womenswear brand Alice McCall, automated styling has proven faster, more cost-effective, and surprisingly visionary. Chief Merchandiser Giselle Chang explains, “We used to rely solely on our in-house stylists to artfully dress models for shoots. But now we let algorithms handle about 70% of the styling. The AI suggests on-trend outfit pairings, accessories, and contexts personalized to our brand aesthetic – things we never would have thought of. Giving creative control to the machines has elevated our visuals.”

Chang says AI delivers significant time and cost savings as well. “Styling used to be extremely manual and slow. Now algorithmic styling handles hundreds of product images instantly. We've been able to reallocate stylists to more strategic work like designing photoshoots. And we save tremendously on photoshoot costs with shorter production times.”

But perhaps most surprisingly, Chang finds AI often outstyles its human counterparts. “The machine styling is so unexpected yet delightful. The pairings feel effortlessly chic and fashion forward. We constantly find ourselves saying ‘why didn’t we think of that?’ It’s a peek into the future of fashion.”

Other brands echo Alice McCall’s experience of algorithms having an unexpected knack for the art of styling. For UK-based footwear retailer Shoe Mint, over 80% of product imagery is now styled automatically with AI. “The machine styling frees our human creatives from the drudgery of pulling basic looks. They can focus on developing inspiration shoots and styling hero pieces instead,” shares Marketing Director Oliver Shaw.

He continues, “What amazes us is the AI styling often surpasses what our team would create. The machine asks questions we never would - like what if we paired those strappy heels with hyper feminine ruffles and an edgy moto-jacket? The juxtapositions feel so fresh yet so right. AI is pushing styling into uncharted territory, and we love it.”

From Runway to Webway: How This Clothing Brand is Strutting into AI - Get the Look without the Models

For apparel brands, models bring clothing to life but also burden budgets. Photoshoot costs can skyrocket paying for models, makeup artists, hairstylists, and more. Yet without models, product images fall flat. This leaves brands stuck choosing between breaking budgets or showing subpar images. But AI offers an enticing third option - generating product visuals modeled on lifelike virtual avatars.

This solution lets brands showcase items worn on realistic human forms without actual humans. Advanced generative algorithms create diverse figures of any ethnicity, body type and pose. Brands simply select or customize an avatar, then drape 3D apparel models onto them. Within minutes, they have product images with polished modeling sans models.

Outdoor outfitter REI has embraced virtual avatars to showcase gear. As CMO Jessica Thalacker explains, "Shooting real models hiking, camping, climbing and more was incredibly challenging. We'd have to close parks and scale mountains just for a photoshoot. Virtual avatars let us model products easily in those real world environments."

Thalacker says REI's diverse cast of AI-generated avatars matches their commitment to inclusion. "We can model apparel on figures of any body size, age and ethnicity without the constraints of casting real people. Every customer can envision themselves wearing our products."

Meanwhile, digital fashion house The Fabricant, has built their entire business on virtual avatars. They create hyperrealistic 3D clothing modeled on AI bodies. As Creative Director Kerry Murphy explains, "Physical apparel requires models for scaling. But virtual fashion liberates you to dress avatars of limitless shapes and sizes. Our collections exist purely as data."

The Fabricant sees AI avatars as the future. "There are no racial limitations. No modeling fees. You aren't confined to small sample sizes. And there's no fashion waste from mass production. This is the sustainable, inclusive future of fashion we envision."

Even heritage brands like Dior and Prada have styled virtual avatars in digital couture as experiments. And virtual influencers like Lil Miquela routinely model the latest looks on their AI personas for millions of followers.