There’s a new presence in the Department of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. AI software is being introduced as part of the design and making process, as it is in many departments at SAIC. Some students and professors have experimented with it, claiming it can save money, time, and effort in the making process. Others express concerns about how this affects creative integrity and feel uncertain about the increasing effects that the AI industry has on the environment.
SAIC’s Department of Fashion Design is split into two pathways: core and bodybuilder. Students in the core fashion pathway learn design and construction in fall semesters and execute those skills in the spring. Sophomores finalize one look, juniors three, and seniors five. The bodybuilder pathway is less focused; students take a variety of specific skill-based classes. Only core seniors are involved in the yearly spring fashion show.
Edgar X. Aguilera, an assistant professor in the department, is introducing Raspberry AI to his students in Fashion Construction and Design V — the final class in the fashion core pathway. Raspberry AI is a software that will convert a hand-drawn sketch into a realistic picture of a garment and can make a specific type of image, like a flat (a technical drawing of a garment). Fashion students use a variety of digital softwares through Adobe Creative Suite — like Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign — as well as computer-aided design (CAD) patternmaking softwares.
“The point is that we will use this platform for students to avoid taking five hours to do their flats, and they will do it hopefully in a couple of minutes,” Aguilera said.
When Raspberry AI was introduced to the Fashion Construction and Design V syllabus, Aguilera said he found that some of his students were receptive, while others were not as willing to use it.
“We make a lot of important design decisions when we make our flats, which is what we’ve been told for the past three years, so why do we suddenly decide that that’s not what we do with our flats?” said Izzy Lo (BFA 2027), a senior in the fashion core pathway.
For some students, concern lies in the effect the AI industry has on the environment and communities. Maggie Fan (BFA 2027), a senior in the fashion core pathway, said that they’ve heard of AI use in fashion for making tech packs (digital blueprints of garments including a flat), illustration renderings, and garment sketches, but she’s wary.
“I see its influence extending way beyond these processes,” Fan said. Fan referenced deforestation and housing displacement that develop AI data-centers, which tend to be water and energy inefficient.
“I’m missing how AI is just a cool new toy to be explored. The consequences of AI must be discussed,” Fan said.
Aguilera said students embracing AI have used it to accelerate the making of multiple iterations of a design.
Lo was shown a program that another student in the department had AI write to shuffle the collection of tops and bottoms they designed to see iterations. “I don’t know if it uses giant data centers to train its model or a more local model keeping ethics in mind,” Lo said. “Does it still contribute to the overall culture of AI and productivity? Yeah.”
On a department-wide scale, Aguilera said, teaching Raspberry AI to fashion seniors is a small step introducing AI; the department wants to be wary of what they ask students to do, making sure the production is still human.
“I think we are still trying to do it in baby steps and not be super-imposive with the students, and understand for us as professors, what are the real ways that we can adapt it?” Aguilera said.
Aguilera said that his previous students who are starting to work in the industry have told him that, though they didn’t embrace AI softwares as students, they are now seeing how the industry is applying those same programs.
“Definitely the earlier you learn it, I think it will be better,” Aguilera said.
There are entry-level fashion jobs that require or prefer candidates with knowledge of AI or openness to learn those tools. A Vans Designer Women’s Apparel position requires “experience in 3D and generative AI.” One of the role qualifications for an Urban Outfitters Assistant Designer role reads, “AI rendering experience is not required but is a plus!”
The fashion design and making process can involve many steps and processes, so the possibilities of the use of AI in the fashion world can take many forms.
As chair of the department, Abigail Glaum Lathbury said, sometimes AI in fashion is on a larger scale and looks like saving effort and money. She gave examples of the many expenses that AI could potentially eliminate from the process, including hiring and working with a lighting technician, photographer, model, stylist, makeup artist, and hairstylist; scouting and renting a location; renting a U-Haul; and paying for Ubers.
Aguilera and Glaum Lathbury said that there is no replacement for creative decision-making in the design process and the physical making of a garment; there are tools that speed up the making process in order to execute designs.
Of course, AI implementation is not unique to the fashion industry.
“From what I see, and this extends to other creative industries, AI is replacing creative cognitive labor, which I see as artistic judgement,” Fan said.
As the world changes with the increase of AI presence, so does SAIC. Stay on top of how students, faculty, and staff are grappling with new technologies and their implications with S(AI)C, a column by F Newsmagazine’s news editor Sivan Gilbert (BFA 2027).
