I’m a little old-fashioned. I love the tactile experience of trying on clothes in a store. In a world of Amazon and online shopping, I’d rather brave the bright lights of a changing room than read through online reviews.
I don’t want to add to the mountain of daily delivery boxes or unnecessary waste. If I have to order online, I want to be confident in my purchase. Many labels are likely using artificial intelligence to generate their look books and photo shoots now, so I wanted to see if I could add AI to my process as a buyer.
If it can save me money, a return item or awkwardness, “trying on” outfits with AI will be worth it. I planned to run two tests: First with a new outfit and second with an item I already own to see how accurate it is.
A quick search for AI outfits and I came across The New Black, a platform used by fashion designers and brands. It has a sketch-to-design functionality, a model generator, an AI stylist assistant and even an AI perfume generator.
To create designs with The New Black, you’ll have to cough up a monthly subscription fee starting at $5. However, the virtual try-on feature can be accessed free via the complimentary credits upon sign-up. Activate the free credits via an email code.
It’s “wardrobe change” time.
AI outfits — getting set up
I navigated to the Virtual Try On tab in the menu and checked any for specifications. I could “try on” clothes virtually via a text prompt or by uploading an image of an item. I could also generate AI outfits and try them on. Wild!
For the first test, I picked a jacket I’ve had my eye on from Free People. Given it’s over $200, I wanted to be sure it looks good on me before spending that much.
I saved the image of the jacket from the brand’s website, then I picked a photo of me that I could upload, as I wanted to use the image-to-image prompt.
Here’s the jacket and the image of me I uploaded.
The Free People jacket I wanted to try on (left) and an image of me (right).
I selected “tops” and pressed “try on now.” Let’s see what pants it gives me.
It transported me to the bygone era of ripped jeans. It somehow got my tattoo right, but I lost an arm. The jacket lost all its luster too. The unique colors and stripes were mostly gone, and it gave me the model’s scarf too, for some reason.
AI’s first attempt to put the jacket on me virtually.
To avoid blowing through my free credits, I thought I’d try the text prompts to make improvements. It had preselected my age and nationality as a 30-year-old Italian. I’ll take that as a compliment.
I changed it to Australian and then opened ChatGPT to ask it to describe the jacket for me, so I could (hopefully) get as close as possible.
Then, I reloaded it. And it went horribly wrong.
An AI-generated jacket produced by my description of a jacket (left) and me wearing my AI-generated jacket (right).
I mean, I’m into the jacket, but that item is AI-generated, so it’s not very helpful. To make sure it wasn’t just an image issue, I uploaded a different photo of the jacket and an image of me with a similar stance.
At this point, I ran out of credits. I signed up for the 40-credit package for $5, just so I could complete this test.
Luckily I did, because we made progress!
The jacket for sale (far left), a photo of me wearing one of my jackets (middle) and AI’s attempt to put the jacket virtually on me (far right).
My hand was weird and the striping was a tiny bit off, but otherwise, not bad.
For my second test, I located an image of a BlankNYC jacket I previously purchased, and a photo of me wearing it.
I wanted to see how close the AI could get to the image of me, so I found a photo of myself looking straight on to try to match the stance of the model. This one didn’t turn out too badly, although the AI has a hard time matching the appropriate outfit items, which can skew the way you view a piece.
A photo of the jacket listed online (left), a photo of me wearing that jacket in real life (middle) and an image of me wearing an AI-generated version of that jacket (right).
The verdict
While using AI to “try on” outfits is fun and can generate some gems, I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on what these models generate. Like all AI tools, it comes down to the quality and context of the prompt (or photo), and it can get the clothes wrong.
Personal style is just that — it’s personal, not predicted. Sometimes an outfit defies all fashion rules, and it just works once you’re (physically) wearing it. I want to leave an element of serendipity in my shopping experience, where my next favorite item is hanging on the racks, waiting to be discovered.
AI outfit generators might need more of a runway of time to get it right. Until then, I’ll just have to trust my instincts. Not everything is meant to be outsourced to algorithms.