Norma Kamali adopts artificial intelligence technology as her latest design muse

Despite having been associated as a fashion designer for over six decades, Coco Chanel was technically only an active designer for about 46 of those years and was majority owned by the Wertheimers for most of them.

Karl Lagerfeld, who designed Chanel from 1983 after his death in 1971, can boast 65 years as a designer. Therefore, at 57 years of exclusively designing her collection and owning her brand, Norma Kamali occupies an esteemed place of longevity in fashion.

Always forward-thinking (i.e. her sleeping bag coat, parachute silks, wool sportswear and high-heeled sneakers from the 80s and the most famous swimsuit from the 70s, the elegant style and unstructured style used by Farah Fawcett), Kamali continues to innovate. .

To keep her brand fresh and alive, Kamali has turned to the latest technology, artificial intelligence, to preserve her archives spanning over five decades. To introduce the newest member of her team, Kamali invited press, designers and other industry OGs to her Greenwich Street headquarters to demonstrate the technology, showcasing results in fashion design and art installation titled 'Fashion Hallucinations'.

Kamali said the project started six years ago when he visited Abu Dhabi. There she met a scientist working on an artificial intelligence project and asked Kamali to consider using nascent technology to design clothes.

“They want to download my brain!” said the designer, in a video shown in the vast gallery space.

Kamali described his curiosity about using new technology, noting that he was first introduced to computer technology when he worked on a Univac computer while working for Northwest Airlines, just after graduating from FIT in 1965.

“I learned then that the possibilities in the world of technology were beyond my imagination,” he said.

Almost 60 years later, AIXNK is a complete example of how technology has impacted the designer's field. In June 2023, Kamali enrolled in a generative AI course at MIT and after that approached Maison Meta, a creativity-focused Gen Ai agency in New York.

Together, they created a proprietary tool that references Kamala's 57-year archive and extracts all of its clues solely from Kamali's work. Since she has been the sole designer of her collections and created the AI ​​signals, the tool is, in theory, designing new styles in the purest form.

To prove it, Kamali showed off a popular black and sheer dress recently worn by Jessica Biel. Reviewing the dress, Kamali designed a jumpsuit but wanted to add two more versions of the dress.

“I was so obsessed with the stripes on the chest and shoulders that I couldn't look past the pictures for something new,” she said in the film.

However, channeling commands into the AI ​​generated several new versions of the dress.

“They all looked like I designed them. “The AI ​​was not influenced by the emotional connection I had with the photo and the design,” he continued, touting another benefit of using the technology.

Another vignette showed mannequins wearing silver studded swimsuits from the 1980s. In this design exercise, which Kamali said was unintentional, the result is more of an editorial art installation than designs made to be worn (although not much adjustment would be needed if that were the course).

“Hallucinations is a term used in AI that occurs when AI creates images that contain inaccuracies and distortions. These images, containing obvious flaws, formed the artwork he titled 'Fashion Hallucinations', which consisted of six eight-foot-tall cutouts of models dressed in newly manipulated black studded outfits.

“I prefer the imperfect because that's where the inspiration is purest,” he said.

Kamali was inspired to demonstrate the new technology so other creatives could participate, putting aside skepticism and fear that it would take over the design process. He also believes that AI will help the fashion industry protect intellectual property.

Mainly as any designer or artist would consider as they soon enter their eighties, Kamali's modus operandi was to ultimately protect his legacy while revitalizing his brand.

“The purpose of the AIXNK brand is to achieve sustainable longevity for my company, using the archive to design indefinitely in the authentic NK style.”