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Gucci and auction firm Christie’s have collaborated on a collection of NFT artworks that explore how generative artificial intelligence might help shape the future of fashion and art. It’s the first time that Gucci has introduced a generative AI project, keeping with the brand’s theme of exploring new technologies through artwork.
Called ‘Future frequencies: Explorations in generative art and fashion’, Gucci has tapped digital artists including Claire Silver, Emi Kusano, Emily Xie, Minne Atairu, William Mapan, Zach Lieberman, Botto, Helena Sarin and the Draup platform (founded by digital fashion influencer Dani Loftus) to create works for the project that will be sold as NFTs. The goal was to explore how new design technologies, tools and skills might influence the future of fashion. Artists were given the option to utilise Gucci’s intellectual property, with the results spanning generative textiles to algorithmic interpretations of the Gucci Bamboo handle bag, first created in 1947.
The resulting work — 21 NFTs in total — will be auctioned starting 18 July and running for one week on Christie’s 3.0, the blockchain-based auction platform launched in 2022. The works will also be shown on Gucci’s online gallery called Gucci Vault Art Space.
Some of the pieces are more reminiscent of digital art, others more directly reference fashion and beauty. Atairu created a two-dimensional piece depicting a woman with beaded braids and dark sunglasses. Lieberman created a geometric, colourful video of overlapping and evolving circles.
Silver and Kusano collaborated on a high-definition, 3D dress made in part with text-to-image-based generative AI. References include Japan’s Harajuku style, global tapestries, cyber punks and Gucci’s round sunglasses, replete with metallic threads and transparency layers. The final work encompasses a video file of an avatar wearing the dress; the full 3D file for the digital wearable, which can be worn in metaverse spaces or via augmented reality; and, notably, 50 yards of physical fabric that is embroidered and printed with the pattern.
Silver says that she was honoured that Gucci was interested in her work and exploring the future of AI in fashion. “AI is sort of on a cultural fence right now in terms of mainstream perception, and so it’s a big deal when these bastions of taste and art, like Gucci, are willing to explore it,” she says. “I have high hopes that AI fashion will make a big splash soon.”
That splash might be imminent. Already, a range of brands have been testing the generative AI waters. Recent fragrance campaigns for Prada and Chanel have used generative AI, while Kering has begun testing a shopping assistant that uses generative AI to provide human-sounding shopping recommendations. Revolve has participated in the inaugural AI Fashion Week, and independent artists have made waves by digitally dressing the Pope in reimagined Balenciaga.
Gucci’s exploration of generative AI is perhaps the most significant endorsement of the technology by a major luxury brand. By curating artists who already have following and success for exploring the intersection of art, fashion and technology, it is creating buzz and value, while learning about what succeeds in this new sphere.
Gucci has been deepening its relationship with Web3 since June of 2021 when it became the first luxury brand to create an NFT, which was also part of a partnership with Christie’s. The four-minute long art film, called Aria, ultimately sold for the equivalent of $24,000, and led to an ongoing series of Web3 and metaverse projects. More recently, Gucci has opened an art gallery in its virtual real estate space in The Sandbox, and has used its separate business unit, called Gucci Vault, to test new concepts including art curation, partnering with emerging brands and future technologies. Its Vault Art Space opened in 2022 with an inaugural exhibition called ‘The Next 100 Years of Gucci’, which commissioned artists to create future-focused NFT artworks inspired by Gucci’s heritage.
By testing the use of generative AI in fashion via commissioned artworks, the brand is endorsing the technology in a way that is consistent with its ethos, and relatively safer than directly designing with generative art tools.
“The outputs they’ve created range from abstract to literal and are completely fascinating, changing the way we can think about using algorithms and data to advance human creativity across fields,” says Sebastian Sanchez, manager of digital art sales at Christie’s. He notes that the artists are heavily inspired by the design and production of garments, textiles and the fashion industry at large.
The works and auction will debut during Christie’s annual Art + Tech Summit in New York next week. Now in its seventh iteration, the invitation-only summit will devote a half day of talks and programming specifically to luxury fashion, with speakers including Gucci VP of Metaverse Ventures Micael Barilaro, Syky founder and CEO Alice Delahunt and digital fashion artists Loftus, of Draup, and Damara Inglês, among others.
Key topics under discussion will include how technologies such as AI and mixed reality are reshaping fashion and luxury, and explore the emergence of digitally native brands and a new generation of creators and designers, says Lexy Schmertz, senior advisor of Christie’s Ventures.
“Fashion and art are both important means of self-expression, and historically, they’ve had a close relationship,” Schmertz says. “With the rise of virtual worlds, blockchain technology and new creator tools, we are seeing technology reshape the relationship between art and fashion, taking it beyond ‘imagery for products’ to creating something much deeper around community, identity and self- expression.”
Silver says that generative AI stands to upend artistic fields, including fashion, because it removes the barrier of traditional skill sets. “We have celebrated [traditional skills] for millennia, and I’m interested in what people without that are able to say.” She adds that in the absence of that barrier, the new “skill” is taste. To that end, luxury brands are very well positioned for success. “All the major fashion houses would do well to [use AI] because they have the taste, they have the experience and the sophistication. The idea of what their vision is is so good for expanding on that vision.”
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