ChatGPT and DALL·E are shaping next season’s fashion

A new study shows that ChatGPT and DALL-E 3 can help fashion designers spot trends and generate runway-ready outfits – if used with expert guidance.

Fashion is a chameleonic field, and designers often leap into the unknown, risking their reputations at a high cost.

But what if they were to use AI as a trend-predicting and speedy assistant?

A Pusan University study investigated how effectively generative AI could predict forthcoming trends, alongside humans.

The researchers found that overall AI can help humans predict mercurial fashion trends, and quite paradoxically, needs concrete prompts in order to help achieve this.

The season they chose was specifically the fall/winter 2024 men’s season.

Research for the runway

The researchers started by feeding historical data (up to September 2021) into ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4, followed by analysing and predicting upcoming trends.

Trends were broken down into six design elements – trends, silhouettes, materials, key items, garment details, and embellishments.

Key findings included that DALL·E 3 followed the prompts perfectly 67.6% of the time and that abstract prompts performed worse in the process compared to more concrete commands.

Limitations were that DALL·E struggled with non-visual or cultural ideas like gender fluidity, often reverting to stereotypical clothing for male or female.

Coded for couture

Some AI-generated looks closely resembled real runway designs, but others missed the mark, showing how unpredictable outputs can be without expert input.

This reinforces the rule “garbage in, garbage out” and shows that prompting is becoming a core creative skill for designers.

But it also risks bias and homogenization, as models tend to favor Western, ready-to-wear aesthetics and struggle with cultural or conceptual nuance.

Used wisely, AI becomes a fast, tireless assistant. It’s not a replacement for human creativity, but a tool that expands what’s possible.

Generative AI can support creativity and accessibility. With further improvement, AI can help designers work more efficiently and allow non-experts to understand and explore fashion trends.