Artificial intelligence will disrupt all sectors. But not at the same levels. The world of fashion will be affected in terms of creation, marketing, customer experience and the supply chain. French start-up Veesual is tackling the online experience with its image generation engine developed specifically for this sector.
Concretely, an e-commerce site sends him photos of its models and pieces from its collection, then Veesual generates all the looks on the different models. “Our technology has a very precise ‘fitting’, which sets us apart from 3D virtual try-on technologies which give a not very qualitative result,” explains Maxime Patte, co-founder of Veesual with Damien Meurisse. Four years after its creation (including two years of development), the young company has just completed a 5 million euro funding round from AXA Venture Partners and the Techstars accelerator.
Improve conversion rate
Behind the “wow” effect of technology, Veesual allows e-retailers to reduce the number of photo shoots, advocate more inclusive fashion, increase the time spent on their site and above all the conversion rate and the basket average (given the diversity of the models).
“At La Redoute, the conversion is 77% and the average basket of Internet users who have used the looks generated by Veesual has increased by 22%,” illustrates Maxime Patte, who also counts Sergent Major, Gémo, Claudie Pierlot in his portfolio. or even Eileen Fisher, a New York brand. Thanks to this new client and other still secret contracts, Veesual plans to open an office across the Atlantic.
The rise of generative artificial intelligence has significantly improved virtual try-on technologies that have existed for several years. In 2023, Google released a new tool that allows you to show clothes on a wide selection of mannequins of all sizes, shapes, colors and hair types.
“Our new generative AI model can take a single image of clothing and accurately reflect how it would drape, fold, hang, stretch, and form creases and shadows on a diverse set of real models in different poses”, boasts the American giant which is currently working with a few brands including H&M.
Generation of looks
Other start-ups have also made great progress, such as DressX, a digital fashion specialist which launched a look generation tool at the end of March. Just upload a photo of a person and write a prompt, like Midjourney or ChatGPT. “You can ask for brand inspirations or cultural references,” explains Julien Rosilio, head of growth and Web3 for the young company. In three weeks, 15,000 creations were generated by influencers, designers and artists. Available only through the Discord network, the tool will soon be accessible via a website that will include a paid version.
Following the launch, DressX was contacted by brands to train its model on their product images and descriptions. “It can become an AI assistant for their creative teams. This would also make it possible to maintain the DNA of brands which can be lost in all creative processes. Imagine that we could revive the career of Virgil Abloh (former artistic director of Louis Vuitton who died in 2021, Editor’s note),” observes Julien Rosilio.
Helping creative teams
Veesual also imagines putting its solution in the hands of creative teams and even consumers so that they can send their own photos. “According to a quantitative test that we carried out, between 20 and 30% of consumers would be comfortable sending their photos,” indicates Maxime Patte.
In Europe, other start-ups are positioning themselves in this niche, such as the Dutch Resleeve and Lalaland.ai. The latter, who boasts the creation of an avatar and its outfit in five minutes, works among others with the jeans manufacturer Levi’s. In the United States, the wholesale platform has also developed look generators, mood boards and logos.
All contribute to bringing clothing and accessories to market more quickly and selling them more efficiently. Enough to reduce brands’ costs but also increase their production. Fast fashion (even) more boosted by AI.
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