Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Why One AI Start-Up Is Cataloguing Millions of Fashion Items

Truss has earned support from Selfridges and Depop, as well as a £1 million grant from the UK government’s innovation agency in its effort to build image-recognition for garments that it says could help to power the booming secondhand market.

A screen shows a Prada America's Cup sneaker and information such as product details and historical sales prices online. — Truss' product data. (Truss)

Marc Bain

19 June 2024

BoF PROFESSIONAL

If you want to sell a Helmut Lang jacket on a resale site, you have to photograph it, write out a description and price it, which isn’t always straightforward. There are different levels of value for a Helmut Lang jacket designed by Lang himself, one designed by an anonymous studio team after his departure and one

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Millions of Luxury Products Now Come With Unique Digital Passports. Here’s What That Means.

Brands are starting to adopt the tags in large numbers as they prepare to meet major new EU regulations coming down the pipeline. They’re using the opportunity to build in customer-facing features that can appeal to shoppers, too.

Can Fashion Resale Ever Be a Profitable Business?

Companies like The RealReal and ThredUp promised Wall Street that with scale comes profit. But operational costs and competition have kept them in the red.

What Digital IDs Can Do for Fashion

Proponents of the effort to give every item its own digital identity say they’ll unlock numerous benefits for brands and shoppers alike. But for these IDs to work will require overcoming some big obstacles first.

About the author

Marc Bain

Marc Bain is Technology Correspondent at The Business of Fashion. He is based in New York and drives BoF’s coverage of technology and innovation, from start-ups to Big Tech.

In This Article

Topics

Technology:Artificial Intelligence

Organisations

Alibaba Targets $100 Billion of AI Revenue in Five Years

The Hangzhou-based company is the most aggressive Chinese spender on AI technology, having pledged over $53 billion of AI investment over several years.

Exclusive: Nvidia and Antoine Arnault Are Moving Into Virtual Try-On

At the Nvidia GTC conference on Monday, the AI company announced it was partnering with Catches to launch RealFit, a new platform that uses physics to improve digital try-on technology.

Which High Street Fashion Brands Are Winning the AI Discovery Battle?

Getting recommended by ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other AI chatbots is fast emerging as a competitive advantage for fashion brands. As AI reshapes discovery, which brands are being favoured by AI and why?

Why Fashion Doesn’t Talk About How It Uses AI

A new analysis suggests most big fashion and retail players are using AI, though many are still reluctant to speak about it publicly.

Why H&M’s Sustainability Report Is So Unusual

The Swedish fast-fashion retailer is one of a shrinking number of companies that’s still drawing attention to its emissions goals. Plus, a Shanghai Fashion Week preview.

The Industry That Eats Its Young

Small fashion labels have always been shortchanged by their wholesale partners. A wave of high-profile bankruptcies has turned a structural injustice into an existential crisis. There is a better way to do business, writes Imran Amed.

The Zara-Fication of John Galliano

Fashion’s enfant terrible is trading exclusivity for the mass market. Is it the ultimate fashion coup, or the final surrender of prestige?

The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.

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