The solution was showcased at Shanghai Fashion Week
Alibaba presented its AI-powered clothing simulator. Source: alizila.com
Alibaba Group’s e-commerce platform Tmall has brought Shanghai Fashion Week runways online, while also using the event to reveal its new AI-powered clothing-simulation technologies. Four Chinese fashion brands were invited to experience the new software that could visualize how a garment drapes in motion or fits different body types.
Tmall said it plans to open its 3D modeling solutions to clothing brands in the near future through a digital platform that provides tools to designers to create their own virtual samples. When all of a fabric’s properties are known — including computational attributes, such as color, and how the fabric reacts to various levels of compression, friction and lighting — each piece of clothing would need just five minutes to an hour to be recreated virtually. Click here to watch how it works.
The tools will help merchants save time and money, cutting expenses incurred in the product-development cycle by up to 80%, including from sample-making and prototyping to procuring materials and production. Meanwhile, the consumer insights retrieved through the interactive technology can help brands engage consumers, as well as more accurately forecast market demand and inform consumer-driven manufacturing in the future.
Aside from the virtual-runway showcase, Tmall installed smart technologies across the Shanghai Fashion Week, including “showroom robots” that allow buyers to remotely view products, speak to designers and place orders in real-time. Tmall technology also provided foot-traffic heat maps across dozens of showrooms that analyzed which brands, items, clothing styles, colors and fabrics have garnered the most attention.
