THE FIRST AI FASHION SHOW : YOONESQUE BY YOONA
Last Thursday marked the end of the Fashion Week in Berlin. As the city exhaled deeply, it was not uncommon to witness flocks of happy and relieved journalists, photographers, entrepreneurs and bloggers strolling along the Spree, stopping to take pictures in front of David Chipperfield’s newly built Museum Island Gallery. Some had already left for Paris where Fashion Week was about to kick-off while the rest stayed a few more hours, lasciviously crackling under the pleasant January sun, enjoying the climate of slight euphoria floating in the air of a post-fashion weeked city. There was one show however that hadn’t started yet, and it was probably the most intriguing and interesting of all shows that week.
I only knew three things before going : the title of the show “YOONA BY YOONESQUE », the time and the place. As I entered the gallery space in which the show was taking place, I was greeted by some members of the team. They explained to me that YOONA is actually a tech company specialising in developing a scalable Artificial Intelligence based B2B (Buyer to Buyer) software solution. In more digestible English, the software offers to designers a fully curated and guided digital creation process whereby they have to select options in a certain number of categories such as gender, type of clothing, material, inspiration, platform where the inspiration should be outsourced from, etc. After having entered their wishes, the designers can launch the AI program and after a few seconds, a whole collection of very unique clothes is presented to them.
Here are a few screenshots illustrating the operation of the software. Categories such as gender, type of garment, cut, material are not shown here but they make for a very personalised and rich experience handling the software.
Before the show started, founder and CEO of YOONA, Anna Franziska Michel, said a few words about the software solution for design and creation of which we were about to witness the result of in real life. The automation of design process, she said, is not only a very convenient tool for designers to experiment with their artistic visions; it is also a welcome and now crucial help to creatives overwhelmed by the ever faster turnover in the ruthless fashion world. Shortening the value chain of the fashion industry to one click while creating individual designs (you can import personal data to the software) leaves more time to a team to define fairer and better strategies promoting the durability of the clothes, the quality of their fabric and changing consumer mindsets in favour of environmentally- friendly fashion. Sustainability has become a huge issue in the last couple of years, Michel argues. Yoona Technology pursues the vision of a holistic digitization and is committed to encourage conscious consumption and drive sustainability through computerised and programmed design processes.
A human this time, modelling a futuristic jumpsuit created by the Yoona Artificial Intelligence software.
Founder and CEO Anna Franziska Michel with two models sporting the Yoona AI clothing line.
The colours and their disposition are very impressive and beautiful. Trompe l’oeil effects are delicate and startled the audience.
YOONA BY YOONESQUE was certainly the most unique, innovative and experimental fashion show I have ever been to. The software Yoona developed for designers is one to watch as it tackles many challenges and prospects of the fashion industry and adresses deep questions : what is the difference between human and machine creation and can we imbricate both together to create beautiful new designs ?
