How the Fashion Institute of Technology is Preparing the Next Generation of Designers for Advances in Tech
Seemingly overnight, artificial intelligence (AI) has disrupted the fashion industry—think Shudu (dubbed ‘”the world’s first digital supermodel”) fronting Balmain’s AW18 campaign or the machines that scan your body to create perfect-fitting clothing. But when it comes to AI playing a role in fashion design, this is something most brands haven’t explored yet. What about the upcoming generation of designers, though? By the time current students graduate, there will likely have been giant leaps in the capabilities of AI in regards to design that will be hard to ignore.
At the Fashion Institute of Technology, this is a question that Michael Ferraro, executive director of the college’s Infor Design and Tech Lab, wants to answer. The Lab is a space created specifically for providing students with access to new and upcoming technologies they can implement in their design process. “The Lab is an important part of one of the key strategic goals for the college—particularly focusing on innovation,” Ferraro explains. “We wanted to create a neutral territory to encourage collaborations from across the entire school.”
This freedom means that, because the Lab is separate to the other departments in the school and therefore not bound to the curriculum, the Lab can put on a number of projects over the school year, bringing on a different team of students who work alongside scientists and experts for a hands-on approach to future-thinking tech and fashion design for each project. AI can be used to process millions of images to help focus the students’ designs, or to predict trends. “It’s remarkable how quickly the students adapt, and how quickly they find ways to innovate their designs to create outstanding results,” Ferraro notes.
Students recently finished a project where they worked with Neue, which just developed a chip that includes various sensors and processors that allows the wearer to control electro-luminescent fabric, to design two innovative products—a garment and an accessory. One of the products was even shown at the Harper’s Bazaar Icon event on the red carpet. For another project, students designed a backpack for a high-end bicycle from POC Sports. It was an extensive deep dive into programming and electronics, and fashion students, who usually spend most of their time at a sewing machine, instead were soldering.
Other projects have been more analytical. Some students worked on understanding social media trends, and how they could mine social media information to identify where opportunities lie to provide products and designs that are responsive to marketplaces. This meant they could design retail experiences that were responsive to trends, and recognize where they could use AI to leverage logistics and supply product to areas where needed, rather than the whole range.
Students also used a voice recognition conversational agent to create a dialogue that understood what’s happening in social media. For example, students discussed the evolution of smart mirrors and the idea that you could talk to a smart mirror and say: ‘Hey I’m going to a concert tonight, what should I wear?’ Then by mentioning a band name, the smart mirror knows there’s a connection between the lead singer who was spotted wearing the newest Off-White T-shirt, and can suggest things that are close in the store right now.
“Being agile and able to adapt and integrate change is the single most important skill you need to develop in confronting emerging technology,” Ferraro comments. “You have to be able to find a way of integrating it into your thought and creative processing so that you continue to add the value as the sense of being that you are and the creative force that you are. It’s all about leverage and making sure that you’re in control of it, rather than being a victim of it.”
For more information on the Infor Design and Tech Lab at FIT, visit www.infor.com/indstries/retail/icons.
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