In this digital workshop, the user becomes a designer, and generative artificial intelligence becomes an indispensable tool. The textile sector, together with Desigual and MWCapital, opens the door here to a new field of possibilities and challenges. “We wanted to convey in a simple way what artificial intelligence can contribute to the creation and design process,” explains Eva Sirera, head of technological innovation at Desigual. Visitors will be able to design their own dress, a bag, a coat or sneakers in this MWC Barcelona space, and at the same time, and based on the data generated, the firm will be able to get to know its potential clients better. What do they seek?
The workshop consists of a screen and a piece of furniture with different buttons and interaction systems to generate the garments. The creation process has five stages. In the first, a button to choose the piece (a dress, a bag, a coat or sneakers). Secondly, the color, which can be determined with a rotating color wheel with greens, reds, yellows, blues and grays. At this point, it's time to choose the fabric: denim, leather effect, satin or wool, and then apply a print: newspaper, galactic, floral, letters, collage or plain.
The last decision: the style of the piece. If it is to be worn at night or if you prefer an artistic, bohemian, informal or even avant-garde air. “As the user chooses, reinforcement messages appear on the screen for their selection,” details Sirera.
Once the process is finished, the image generated by artificial intelligence appears. The piece does not have to breathe the Desigual style, “perhaps the prints are where the brand can be most identified, but what interests us is the variability, incorporating the vision of potential customers, seeing what type of garments motivate them the most.” , adds Sirera.
While the demo is in stand-by mode, the virtual collection of garments created at the MWCapital stand will appear on the screen and the firm will hold a raffle among the people who explore and design their pieces in the workshop. “For us, being here – in the last edition, and also in this one, they were present at 4YFN – is an opportunity to show where we believe the sector is going; Designers use many artificial intelligence tools, they are levers on which they rely because there always has to be someone who sets the parameters that interest us and on which we want to work,” says Eva Sirera.
Desigual's commitment to innovation was formalized four years ago with the open platform Awesome Lab, created with Wayra precisely to promote new processes within the fashion sector. During this time, the firm has contacted and analyzed around 500 startup projects. Of these, some type of commercial agreement has been reached with 25 proposals and three have ended up being implemented at some point in the production and creation process. “Innovative solutions can be applied throughout the chain, from transportation to inventories, product, design, stores... and another fundamental aspect is understanding consumers well. We have a lot of information, but we must convert data into information; “Artificial intelligence can help optimize all these processes,” maintains Sirera.
The workshop that Desigual and MWCapital have designed especially for this edition of the MWC is just a small sample of how artificial intelligence can be used. “We must not forget that it is a tool that can help, but it must be modeled and parameters set,” adds the head of technological innovation at Desigual.
A year ago, the firm promoted a pilot project with the Fermat platform to help in the creative process and efficiency of designers.
