Hello fashion tech enthusiasts!

We're excited to share the top 8 key insights that came out of the recent DigiFashion Forum that happened on the 17th May 2024. Our very own Beatrice Newman, Head of Education & Research, was a featured panelist at the event bringing her wealth of expertise to the discussion on how Generative AI (GenAI) is revolutionising the world of fashion. The talk entitled “Generative AI’s Superpower: Evolution in Digital Product Creation, Now and Beyond” looked at everything from fashion education to manufacturing, and beyond. 

So, here are the top 8 key insights from the DigiFashion Forum:

1. Customisation Driven by AI: Using GenAI and wearable technology can provide tailored experiences for fashion consumers. According to McKinsey (2022), fashion brands have access to a growing arsenal of GenAI personalization tools over the last few years to upgrade how they customize and personalize customer relationships. 

2. "Design and Sell Before Produce": Using GenAI to help fashion businesses conceptualize and sell things before they are manufactured, can help eliminate waste. Since customers can virtually try them on and see how they would look before making a purchase (Clear Object, 2023), it allows fashion businesses to gauge demand for products before actually manufacturing them.  

3. Inspiration Driven by AI: Using GenAI to generate inspirational design content, digital avatars and 3D models can help improve the product creation process. In addition to eliminating waste, Euromonitor (2024) has also stated that GenAI-generated design concepts and 3D models can help "shorten the product development cycle" for fashion brands by 25-30%, which helps to enable faster time-to-market. This indicates that GenAI can really help designers to generate more inspirational design content, digital avatars and 3D models since the product creation process has been shortened.

4. “On-Demand Production”: GenAI can also enable on-demand manufacturing and regional production hubs, which helps to reduce expenses and make the fashion industry more sustainable, and it is especially beneficial to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to McKinsey (2024), it stated that manufacturing and supply chains alone, GenAI could help reduce expenses by up to half a trillion dollars since GenAI could enable on-demand manufacturing. And it is also beneficial to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

5. The Importance of Digitalization: Fashion firms must streamline their operations and embrace digital transformation in order to remain competitive. With the help of technology, fashion companies can streamline their supply chain, thus having a great impact on the customer experience. Ultimately it means that fashion companies will improve their operational efficiencies across the board. (Digital Transformation Skills)

6. Evolving Fashion Education: Modernizing fashion design curricula can also help the next generation of designers remain competitive in a digitally driven industry. For example, new focuses such as "decentering whiteness; decolonising curricula; fostering design for people who are plus-sized or disabled; and embedding social justice in curriculum and culture." are key to ensuring the development of new perspectives on how the fashion system should be. (Vogue Business, 2021)

7. Ethical AI Considerations: Addressing ethical considerations around data and automation are important. There are two reasons that could explain why businesses should take data ethics seriously. First, prioritizing data ethics can help businesses to build customer trust, ensure its legality and regulatory compliance. Moreover, it could also safeguard their reputation and brand image, which helps businesses gain a competitive advantage. (ISBA, 2023).

8. "Screen Wear" and Self-Expression: Digital fashion and virtual wardrobes are becoming increasingly popular as a way for younger customers to show their personal style. This gives users opportunities to "wear" items that they might not be able to afford in the real world. GenAI could allow the "rendering of digital clothing items onto a photo of a person, or an avatar in a game" (cosmosmagazine, 2022), which can enable "digital first" designers to focus on developing "skins" or clothing styles for computer game and Metaverse avatars on the screen, rather than physical fashion.

What happens next with GenAI and fashion?

The insights from DigiFashion Forum panel discussion with Beatrice and other guests provided us with lots of invaluable insights as to how Generative AI is poised to profoundly impact the future of fashion.  At Beyond Form we think that such technologies will only get better and get incorporated into fashion operations at a quicker pace as more individuals understand the space. We firmly believe that embracing GenAI will be absolutely crucial for fashion brands and designers who want to stay competitive to the evolving needs of their customers. You can watch the replay of the panel discussion here:

Check out our portfolio companies that are exploring the genAI and generative design space: T-Fashion, Mercury Dasha, AiiD and Drippy.

As always if you’re an ambitious fashion tech founder then we’d like to hear from you. Get in contact with us here: