How AI Is Powering On-demand Fashion

Artificial intelligence’s takeover of fashion seems undeniable, with algorithms and bots driving supply chains, demand forecasting, product design, marketing, customer service chats and more.

And yet, one of the most exciting aspects of AI isn’t what it can do, but how it elevates other technologies and experiences.

Like finally making on-demand fashion feasible.

In fact, the new Resonance One platform, which just debuted this month, couldn’t have happened without AI, cofounders Lawrence Lenihan and Christian Gheorghe told WWD.

Previously, the system — which creates and customizes apparel, then sends the designs into manufacturing to produce a finished garment — largely worked as a white glove service operated by Resonance on behalf of clients. The company would walk brands through the process, helping them choose from a set of options and “bodies,” or design forms, and manufacture the item.

Now, thanks to AI and the deployment of a new user-friendly interface, brands can work the features themselves, turning it into more of a subscription-based self-service platform.

“The entirety of the AI that’s weaved through the entire platform is now being used to help the brand,” Gheorghe explained. “The tutorial now allows them to ask the One AI to walk them through the various things that they can do in the platform.

“It exposes things, like ‘create your first style’ or the new products, integrate your Shopify store. You can also use the interactive aspect to ask questions and be guided on what you can do next.”

The other stand-out aspect of Resonance One is its blend of advanced technology in the design process with a novel production method that can print textures, colors and more directly onto the fabrics.

But make no mistake: This is no T-shirt screen-printing situation.

In a demonstration shown to WWD, Resonance One’s technology created a car coat. From the sewing and trims to the print quality, the physical item accurately reflected the colors and textures chosen. Whether that’s true for all pieces remains to be seen, but if it can maintain that level of quality, it’s easy to see how brands may flock to this type of tool.

Naturally, the work plays into the circular fashion imperative, since on-demand fashion results in less waste than typical order volumes, which are prone to overruns.

More than 30 brands have been trying out this new iteration of the platform in a closed testing phase that included Rebecca Minkoff, The Kit., JCRT, Tucker, MaisonPrivee, Freedom Ecowear, Nothing2Wear and others, including several designers from the company’s Amplify accelerator program.

Their feedback appears evident in the initial design and editing feature itself. The interface wasn’t geared for engineers, but real-world designers, with a step-by-step process similar to a WYSIWYG — or “what you see is what you get” — interface. This allows the user to see their creation as it takes shape. The AI factors in here too, accurately reflecting the impact of the choices, as well as helping brands understand how well their designs do in the marketplace and how each design decision impacts cost, offering a heightened level of transparency.

The visibility also extends to ownership.

While anyone can try out the platform, brands must sign up for a subscription and revenue sharing, at $100 per month and a 10 percent cut based on the wholesale price. However, rights aren’t part of the package. In fact, the company is very clear about provenance, even going as far as setting up a structure of Resonance libraries for brands, so they can track their intellectual property. Think of it as a type of register that records details such as color, designs, patterns, date, time and more.

This setup suggests that AI isn’t the only cutting-edge innovation to influence Resonance One. The founders’ language of provenance and tracing ownership through a library, or ledger, should sound very familiar to proponents of blockchain technology.

This is no accident, according to Lenihan.

“We were basing this system on emerging learning and blockchain,” he said. “If the emergence of [blockchain] technology had been two years delayed, we wouldn’t be able to do this.

“This is why we couldn’t open it up, like we’re opening it up right now.” For the cofounder, provenance is the critical aspect of Resonance One’s architecture.

Now with the platform’s grand debut, anyone from brands to independent creatives to consumers can sign up to customize and produce their own designs — showing that the much sought-after, but elusive concept of fashion on demand is finally in view.

This was the world that 3D printing was supposed to bring forth once upon a time. Now it looks like two of today’s most influential emerging technologies are stepping in to fill in the gap.