7 Fashion System 2025-2026: Beyond Reality - Gen AI

Overview of Beyond Reality in the Fashion System

  • Module Focus: Fashion System 2025–2026 — 7. Beyond Reality: Business Thinking and Management.

  • Core Focus: Exploring the operational, creative, and commercial integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) across fashion design, marketing campaigns, digital modeling, and strategic management.

Generative AI Definition and Technological Hierarchy

  • Verbatim Definition: Generative AI is defined as "a type of artificial intelligence that describes machine learning algorithms capable of generating text, images or other forms of media."

  • Technological Classification & Sub-Branches:

    • Generative AI exists as a specialized sub-branch within deep learning.

    • Deep learning is a sub-field located within the overarching domain of artificial intelligence.

  • Citation Source: BoF (Business of Fashion), McKinsey & Company, "Glossary", The State of Fashion 2024, London, 2024, p. 116.

Case Study: Casablanca SS23 Campaign

  • Campaign Identification: Casablanca Spring/Summer 2023 (SS23) Campaign.

  • Key Creative Personnel:

    • Photographer (PH): Luke Nugent

    • Stylist (ST): Helena Tejedor

  • Aesthetic and Conceptual Strategy:

    • Combines high-fashion tailoring with AI-generated visual elements to produce surreal, retro-futuristic imagery.

    • Integrates contrasting thematic elements such as space travel, retro-Western wear, and classic architectural forms.

  • Visual Analysis of Key Campaign Imagery:

    • Surreal Interior Architecture: Features models posed on pastel spiral staircases framed by geometric architectural cutouts. Styling includes western-inspired cut-outs on denim and light tailoring with fringed lapels.

    • Space-Western Motif: Depicts a model wearing a straw cowboy hat and western shirt with bolo tie, positioned inside a red futuristic spacecraft cabin looking through an oval window into outer space containing flying saucers (UFOs).

    • Architectural Settings: Visuals incorporate models set against monumental backdrop structures including Mayan/Aztec-inspired step pyramids and white curved modernist villas.

Casablanca SS23 Campaign featuring surreal interior and western fringe tailoringCasablanca SS23 Campaign featuring space western motif inside spacecraft

Case Study: H&M Digital Twin Campaign

  • Campaign Concept: Implementation of synthetic 3D avatars, or "digital twins," modeled after physical high-fashion models to enable virtual modeling and multi-market visual presence.

  • Featured Models, Agencies, and Statements:

    • Mathilda Gvarliani (Agency: NEXT New York):

    • Paired directly with her hyper-realistic Digital Twin.

    • Statement: "She's like me, without the jetlag" — Mathilda.

    • Yar Aguer (Agency: NEXT New York):

    • Visualized alongside her Digital Twin in split studio and outdoor compositions.

    • Statement: "Finally a way for me to be in New York and Tokyo on the same day" — Yar.

    • Vilma Sjöberg (Agency: MIKAs Stockholm):

    • Displayed side-by-side with her Digital Twin in urban and studio contexts.

    • Statement: "My Digital Twin is proof that technology can enhance our profession, not replace it" — Vilma.

Mathilda Gvarliani and her Digital Twin for H&MVilma Sjöberg and her Digital Twin for H&M

  • Associated Personalities: Saskia De Brauw (@SaskiaDeBrauw) referenced within the context of Generative AI implementations.

Strategic Risks of Generative AI in Fashion

  • Primary Industry Risk Factors:

    • Job loss: Risk of replacing human professionals (models, photographers, stylists, copywriters, graphic designers) with automated synthetic pipelines.

    • Audience backlash: Potential pushback or moral rejection from consumers regarding fake, non-human, or uncredited synthetic media.

    • Biased data: Risk of AI algorithms reproducing cultural, racial, gender, or body-type biases inherited from training datasets.

    • Creativity inhibition: Threat that algorithmic generation reliant on historical data could stifle human innovation and creative risk-taking.

    • Intellectual property: Complex legal liabilities regarding copyright ownership of AI outputs, unauthorized training on artists' work, and asset licensing.

    • AI-generated content management: Challenges in regulating authenticity, managing deepfakes, and maintaining brand integrity across public channels.

  • Citation Source: BoF, McKinsey & Company, The State of Fashion 2024, London, 2024.

Required Study Materials

  • Mandatory Readings:

    • Bain M., "H&M Knows Its AI Models Will Be Controversial", BoF, 23/03/2025.

    • Roberts R., Te K., "Driving Growth Through Generative AI: An Executive Playbook", The State of Fashion 2024, London, 2024.

    • Sylvers E., "Why Some AI Ads Flourish and Others Fail", BoF, 14/04/2026.

  • Resource Access: All listed course PDFs are available on Google Drive.