On Saturday, designer Kate Barton will unveil her latest collection at New York Fashion Week \u2014 with a twist, of course. Barton teamed up with Fiducia AI to create a multilingual AI agent (built with IBM watsonx on IBM Cloud) to help guests identify pieces of the collection and try them on virtually.<\/p>\n
TechCrunch caught up with Barton and Ganesh Harinath, the founder and CEO of Fiducia AI, before the show to learn more about the presentation.<\/p>\n
For one, Barton said technology is baked into how she thinks. She likes playing with the real and the unreal, and found the idea of using AI-like set design, \u201ca portal into the collection\u2019s world, rather than \u2018AI for AI\u2019s sake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, tech is a tool for expanding the world around the clothes, how they are presented, and how people enter the story, and how we create that moment when your eyes do a double-take,\u201d she told TechCrunch, adding that the goal for this collection was to create a sense of curiosity.<\/p>\n
Harinath said his company used IBM watsonx, IBM Cloud, and IBM Cloud Object Storage to help pull off Barton\u2019s presentation. It was a production-grade activation with a Visual AI lens (built with IBM watsonx) that detects pieces from Barton\u2019s new collection. It can answer questions in any language via voice and text and offers photorealistic virtual reality try-ons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardest work wasn\u2019t model tuning; it was orchestration,\u201d he told TechCrunch. This isn\u2019t the first time Barton has put a technological spin on her fashion \u2014 last season, she experimented with AI models, also in collaboration with Fiduicia AI.<\/p>\n
At fashion week, there was some chatter about whether brands \u2014 and, if so, which ones \u2014 would be using technology and artificial intelligence. Barton thinks many brands are using AI, though quietly, mainly in operations. \u201cMaybe fewer are using it publicly because of the potential reputational risk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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It rhymes a bit with the early days when many big fashion names were nervous about starting websites. \u201cThen it became inevitable, and eventually the question shifted from \u2018should we be online\u2019 to \u2018is our online presence any good?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Image Credits:Kate Barton<\/p>\n
Harinath added that, though many brands are experimenting with AI, much of its deployment remains at the surface level \u2014 such as chatbots, content generation, and internal productivity tools.<\/p>\n
But Barton sees a world of better prototyping, better visualization, smarter production decisions, and more immersive ways to experience fashion, without replacing the humans who \u201cactually make it worth wearing.\u201d Change will only come with more clarity, she said, with \u201cclear discourse, clear licensing, clear credit, and a shared understanding that human creativity is not an annoying overhead cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the technology is used to erase people, I am not into it,\u201d she said, adding that audiences are smarter than we think. \u201cThey can tell the difference between invention and avoidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the tension, AI is becoming more routine, and there will come a day when shows like Barton\u2019s are just part of the norm. Harinath thinks AI in fashion will be normalized by 2028, and by 2030, he sees it becoming embedded into the operational core of retail.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of this technology already exists \u2014 the differentiator now is assembling the right partners and building teams that can operationalize it responsibly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dee Waddell, Global Head of Consumer, Travel and Transportation Industries at IBM Consulting, agreed. \u201cWhen inspiration, product intelligence, and engagement are connected in real time, AI moves from being a feature to becoming a growth engine that drives measurable competitive advantage,\u201d Waddell told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n
But until then, there is this show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most exciting future for fashion is not automated fashion,\u201d Barton said. \u201cIt is fashion that uses new tools to heighten craft, deepen storytelling, and bring more people into the experience, without flattening the people who make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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