Dive Brief: 

• The inaugural AI Fashion Week concludes Friday, with more than 130 designers showcasing their collections of 15 to 30 virtual looks created using AI software and digital tools like Photoshop. 
• The public event is being held at Spring Place in New York, where attendees will be able to see select collections played on screens. Online voting for the top 10 collections began Thursday. 
• The event has gotten buy-in from several fashion industry heavyweights. A panel of experts — including makeup artist Pat McGrath and Vogue Japan’s head of editorial content, Tiffany Godoy — will select their three favorite collections from the winners, who will then work with Revolve Group to bring their designs into the real world. 

Dive Insight: 

The event, hosted by creative agency Maison Meta, is meant to explore how emerging technologies can help designers innovate, as well as make consumers more open to purchasing clothes developed with the help of AI. The event drew more than 350 submissions from designers, according to its website. 

The three winners of the contest will have the opportunity to participate in Maison Meta’s fashion and technology incubator, developed with the help of Revolve Group. This will enable the designers to launch their own brands and produce real-world collections. The resulting clothes will be sold either on Revolve’s e-commerce channels or its luxury site, Fwrd, Vogue Business reported. 

The jury members who will select AI Fashion Week’s winners represent all corners of the industry. 

Other judges include Michael Mente, cofounder and co-CEO of Revolve Group; Matthew Drinkwater, head of Fashion Innovation Agency at the London College of Fashion; Erika Wykes-Sneyd, vice president of Adidas’ Three Stripes Studio; Alexander Gilkes, co-founder of venture capital firm Squared Circles; Veronique Halbrey, executive creative director at agency Spring Studios; and Natalie Hazzout, casting director at Celine. 

Maison Meta had been establishing its name in the fashion industry before it launched AI Fashion Week. For instance, the agency is behind Moncler Genius’ first AI campaign, which created images showcasing the Italian luxury house’s collaborations with brands and celebrities, including Adidas Original, Pharrell Williams and Alicia Keys. 

The fashion industry has had relatively little experience using AI to generate collections and campaigns. However, generative AI could add $150 billion to $275 billion to the sector’s bottom line, according to a recent report from McKinsey & Co. 

That doesn’t only include using AI software to create new ideas from past collections, the report said. AI could also be used to customize products for customers, improve marketing by predicting trends, personalize product descriptions based on consumer profiles and use AI-powered chatbots to assist customers.