Co-creating the future of fashion with Google
Independent fashion designers often spend their time on administrative tasks, factory logistics, and vendor coordination rather than designing clothes. Ahead of New York Fashion Week, Google's Envisioning Studio, with support from Google Labs, set out to streamline the creative workflow and help designers realize ambitious runway visions with less friction. Google engineers worked side by side with designers Jane Wade and Sergio Hudson, using Google Flow, Google's AI creative studio, to build two specialized tools for their specific challenges.
The Google Flow tool co-created with Jane, Styling Suite, mapped every facet of her runway model looks. In-person casting and fittings typically consume up to three full days for a design team. The tool allowed her to curate hair, makeup, accessories, shoes, and garments on digital models, then play with the styling virtually. She could balance each look and identify missing elements before cutting and sewing additional pieces.
Sergio's main challenge was staging his show without breaking his budget. In the past, asking his production crew to change lighting and props added to overall costs, since a new 3D rendering was needed for every design revision. The co-developed Google Flow tool, Runway Visualization, eliminated the back-and-forth by simulating his runway. It let him adjust the setup of his venue and swap lighting and props with options that worked within his budget. He could also refine which paths models would walk, allowing him to harmonize the show and viewer experience.
The results of these collaborations were visible on the runways at New York Fashion Week, and Google says there is room for more innovation. While there is plenty of excitement around AI in fashion, many projects remain stuck in theoretical testing. AI can make the production process smoother for designers by co-developing tools that work within their existing processes and keep designers firmly in the driver's seat. Google also notes that users can build bespoke tools in Google Flow using natural language to describe the tool or workflow they want to create, with no coding experience required.