Wear It uses AI to democratize fashion, reduce waste, and allow anyone to virtually wear anything they want.
The project was inspired by a desire to fix a “vicious cycle” in the fashion industry where manufacturers push designers to order large quantities before they can see anyone try on their clothing. Economies of scale benefit clothing manufacturers and big labels but make it hard for smaller designers to compete. This also leads to more waste, which is already a major problem in the fashion industry. We learned that 30% of mass fashion you see in shops is never even sold.
This talk covers what inspired Wear It AI and where it’s going next. She also treats the audience to a live demo with Jen Schachter’s Marie Antionette costume from Make: Volume 86 — Cosplay!
During Maker Faire Bay Area, where wearable tech and maker-made outfits wander around everywhere, Wear It captured amazing fashion from creators around the Faire. And now these designs are featured on their website—letting everyone try them on digitally using computer vision and generative AI. Attendees were able to try out these looks onsite, and each participant received a photo of themselves in these unique creations.
Dr. Kitty Yeung is a physicist, engineer, and artist. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wear It and the Senior Director of AI at Browzwear. To drive integration between science and art, she also founded a sustainable and STEAM fashion brand, Art by Physicist.
According to Wear It, the team are “corporate drop-outs united by a shared belief: fashion, powered by AI, should be democratic, instantaneously gratifying, and utterly waste-free. [Their] collective expertise spans the entire spectrum of fashion technology—from machine learning and computer vision to personalization strategies and e-commerce solutions.”
Kitty Yeung’s inspiration
I began my journey in fashion design as a maker, creating handmade projects from scratch. As I developed my fashion brand, Art by Physicist, I learned to convert unique pieces to repeatable, manufacturable products. This experience opened my eyes to the significant challenges within the fashion industry. The supply chain is heavily skewed towards mass production, often to the detriment of independent designers. This model not only stifles creativity but also generates substantial upfront costs, waste, and pollution.
Driven by a desire to find a more sustainable and supportive approach, I became passionate about on-demand mass customization. This led me to explore digital fashion as a solution. With the advent of AI, we can now generate fashion design images and create individual pieces on demand. This technology allows consumers to visualize themselves in designs without the need for large inventories, reducing waste and making the fashion industry more accessible to independent creators.
This isn’t the first time Kitty Yeoung has worked on sustainable fashion production, and we hope it won’t be the last. And if you try Wear It, remember to share your photos on social media to amplify the makers’ work! If you try out a look from Maker Faire, don’t forget to ask the creator for their handle and tag #WearItMakerfaire to celebrate this next-gen fashion movement.
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