The alluring world of the global fashion industry is facing disruption from an unexpected source. Models, editors, and photographers are getting their world shaken by tech teams armed with servers, code, and powerful neural networks. With surprising effects.
Fashion is currently a multi-million dollar industry, with a strong presence and branding all around the world. Global revenue is expected to reach $770.9 billion in 2024, with a predicted growth to $1,183 billion by 2029. Fashion industry user penetration is expected to reach 33.3% in 2024 and grow further to 37.8% by 2029. But the fact that only one in three people are actively interested in fashion doesn’t mean that the industry has no impact. In fact, it is directly opposite, with billions of jobs represented by every cerulean sweater worn by those uninterested in fashion.
Devil Wears Prada – Cerulean Top
Fashion is all about colors, fabrics, patterns, and combinations. These need to be unique enough to show off distinctive style, while still keeping to the latest trends. The elusive concepts of style and class may be hard to grasp by AI. But it doesn’t mean that this industry is completely resistant to the AI revolution.
Apparel product photography challenges
The colors, fabrics, and patterns mentioned above result in fashion being an image-reliant industry. Photographing clothing is art in itself, with photographers becoming stars and celebrities in their own rights. A professional fashion photo session requires a great deal of skill and resources to be engaged. The challenges to overcome include:
Lighting control
Photographers need to fine-tune lighting conditions. This includes not only managing studio lights, but also capturing as much natural light as possible. The term “photography,” which basically means “painting with light,” was well and truly earned.
Model cooperation
Cooperation with models can be surprisingly challenging. Apart from the need to find those with desired features (skin complexion, body type, style, etc.) it also requires one to manage all the logistic complexities that are involved in a photo session. Not to mention the fact that modern fashion may require finding a model that could turn out to be super challenging to find. Also, the company needs to find a balance between hiring renowned (and expensive) models who have experience and fresh faces who need more tutoring and guidance.
Time
The images found in magazines or online need to be ready for publication when the company aims to promote the seasonal collection. This means that the company needs to run shooting sessions and book product photography services earlier, to the point of doing summer shots in the preceding winter. This poses significant challenges, as the team either needs to face unfit conditions (like doing summer dress shots while being cold) or to move to more convenient locations. Yet the latter comes with serious costs.
Client expectations
Last but not least, the organization running the photoshoot needs to meet client expectations. And these can be tough – starting with time restraints to meeting the budget, to avoiding any unexpected situations.
As with every challenge in businesses, those listed above also generate the costs that businesses need to deal with.
Fashion product photography costs
The costs generated by the challenges above come from multiple sources. These include:
Logistic costs – hotels, transport
Obviously, the photoshoot needs to be taken somewhere, either in a studio or in some outdoor locations. And each solution has its pros and cons. The studio needs to be rented, decorated, lighted, and arranged to meet expectations. The outdoor location also needs lighting and preparations, yet the photographer benefits from the natural beauty of the spot. If the apparel photography takes place in a studio session, the company needs to cover all costs, including media, rent, and maintenance of the object.
Stylists and Models
Models, stylists, makeup artists and all the rest of the staff also need to be paid, but that’s not all – if the shooting session takes place in a more remote location, it is also necessary to provide accommodation. Also, the company needs to go through the complicated process of finding and hiring the right crew to run the shooting process.
Post-production
After the photoshoot, the company needs to pay to prepare the images for publications – all the retouching, photo editing, and photo manipulation necessary before the image will be viable for publication.
Due to the high complexity of the process, it is popular to outsource fashion and apparel photography services to companies with more experience and background. Yet in this case, there are product photography fees that may stack up to significant amounts of the budget.
Many of these costs can be significantly reduced, or even totally eliminated by applying AI in fashion photography.
How AI impacts image edition and post-processing
The use of computers in image processing was an earthquake for the industry, enabling publishers to be as creative as they needed, reducing the boundaries in photomanipulation and adding new possibilities. The introduction of generative AI is the next earthshaking event.
Text to image processing
Modern AI solutions like Stable Diffusion enable users to produce images from text, called a prompt. The user may just request a particular background image, model, or anything else, and enjoy the effects. These may be convincing and high-quality, yet with all the shortcomings of AI-generated image content, including odd hands, unrealistic hair, or comparable tech-related challenges.
Image to image processing
AI-powered solutions are also capable of modifying existing images by changing their content. In the fashion context, this can be seen when an AI system is used to modify the clothes of a model, or even one’s background or body type, to improve a photoshoot for clothing.
Examples of AI in clothing product photography
The examples shown above are highly ambiguous and non-precise. And that’s nothing to be surprised about. AI technology is flexible enough to be applied in multiple ways, depending on the context and use case. Modern examples of AI in apparel photography include:
eBay shop the look
One of the world’s leading marketplaces, eBay, uses generative AI to sell apparel and clothing in a more effective way, new and second-hand alike. The company scrapes the photography of clothing available throughout eBay and composes an ecommerce product photography-level artificial image of a model wearing the available clothes as an outfit in different styles, be it fitness, casual, or smart-casual. The feature is called Shop the look.
The presented outfit is based not only on the general “style,” but also one’s purchasing habits and history, analyzed by the AI system, to make each suggestion even more fitting.
Tooploox proudly contributed to the system’s development, supporting eBay in building the full feature.
Mango AI models
The Spanish fashion retailer Mango decided to use AI-generated models in its first of kind testing campaign in July 2024. The campaign was used to promote a special collection aimed at teenage girls. The aim was creating advertisements faster and with lower costs. According to this Businessoffashion story, the AI is used not only in the generation of fashion photographs, but also in design and ideation.
The AI is also used to generate new product photography ideas.
Summary
Generative AI is an inspiring field where creativity crosses roads with artificial intelligence. Fashion photography services, no matter if it is studio fashion photography or an outdoor photoshoot for clothing, is the next field where this technology can be used to reduce costs, boost productivity, and improve ROI.
