Vidali: The Future of Fashion and AI
By Nikki Bingë, Elizabeth Lotz, and David Chalashvili
In a historic apartment nestled within post-Soviet Tbilisi, an idea was born, igniting a discussion about AI and its impending presence within artistic industries. As two models lined themselves up, a window, framing their intuitive poses, photographer David Chalashvili plays masterfully with angles to capture the perfect shot.
As the images grace the illuminated canvas of the laptop screen, post-production becomes a flurry of artistic exploration, each frame presenting a myriad of possibilities. Art director Elizabeth Lotz gestures at the screen, pointing out the chosen shot, "We need to get rid of all this hair."
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An AI Illusion
Later, within the teal-lined corridors of Tserteli Metro, the team reconvenes, this time with an AI-inspired concept in mind, embracing the minimalistic aesthetics and lighting the venue provides, capturing an augmented reality within the diminished reality of their set. This creative endeavor serves as a testament to the simmering debate surrounding AI's role in various industries, including fashion, despite the insistence that OpenAI's ChatGPT and Dall.E.2 are hailing in an apocalyptic end to artistic creators.
Photographed by David Chalashvili
For years, photographers have toiled under the insistence of fashion houses to mold models into manikin’esque figures, carving out contours, erasing the signs of femininity, and removing texture from skin. And it’s this unsettling phenomenon that is captured in the final shots crafted by the founders of Vidali—depicting an AI illusion we have perpetually inhabited within the commercial fashion landscape, regardless of whether we’ve been aware of it or not.
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When we think about it, artists and fashion designers should increasingly embrace the power of AI, not to create but to solidify their creative processes, inspiring ideas, patterns, and concepts, but as with so many other revolutions, fear drives propaganda. AI has the ability to analyze existing art and trends, mimicking styles to recreate fashion but it certainly cannot reinvent it, and until the AI reckoning predicted by doomsday prophets comes, artists within the fashion industry have the opportunity to embrace this creativity enhancer.
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Beyond clothing, the influence of AI on the runway predates our expectations. From Photoshop's transformative capabilities to 3D printers, pattern generation, smart fabrics, and computer-aided design, the fusion of technology and fashion runs deep. AI emerges as a force that challenges the constraints of the current industry, pushing boundaries and reminding us that the time has come for a new kind of fashion to take center stage.
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The Intersection Where Art Meets AI
Upon closer examination of Vidali's groundbreaking work, a captivating medium emerges—an intersection where fashion, art, and AI converge. Here, human imagination seamlessly merges with technological prowess, as a way to defy the constraints of the current industry. It’s a boundary-pusher and a reminder that the industry is long overdue for a reckoning that both mocks conventional beauty standards and pushes the boundaries of our perceptions of what is real and what is not.
Nikki Bingë (Editor-in-Chief)