11/24/2023 0 Comments Ella high wasted shortsOluwajimi’s thoughtful work has garnered global attention. These are the things that have been pushing people down.” “It’s me trying to remind people that is still happening. And of course, money’s green.” Black serves as a juxtaposition to this fertile utopia. “Green means there’s some growth there,” he says. One immediately eye-catching look is a pantsuit whose olive-green tones are contrasted with black colorblocking. “If these issues weren’t in the picture, then Africans would have a chance of accumulating wealth like their white counterparts,” he explains. “It was something that I could relate to as a Black person,” he says. Bloke’s fall 2023 collection was titled “Black Tax,” the term for the money that Black professionals provide to their families in need, often out of obligation. Not only do Nigeria’s raw materials serve as inspiration, but so, too, do its politics. “I also wanted to explore what it was like to make garments without any construct or bias of gender.” The garments are ethically and sustainably created: His knitwear is made from organic yarn, and he upcycles coconut shells to use as buttons. “I was trying to find that intrinsic value that makes me, me,” he says. Like most teenagers, he was on a path of self-discovery. “And I’d be like, ‘Hmm, I think you should change the shoes.’ She must have noticed something for her to trust my judgment.”Īt only 19, Oluwajimi founded Bloke, his “artisanal, genderless” fashion brand. “She would ask, ‘Faith, what do you think? Does this fit look good?’” he recalls. His mother spotted a glimmer of creativity in him and would seek his opinions on her outfits. “My medium just happens to be clothes.”īorn in Ijebu Ode, a town in Ogun State, the self-taught designer was already honing his stylistic eye as a child. “I’m a storyteller,” says Faith Oluwajimi, the Nigerian founder and creative director of the unisex brand Bloke. Véronique Hylandīloke's Fall 2023 Show, PHOTOGRAPHED BY MANUEL LASTIRI At least for now, that kind of spark is something that’s impossible to replace. Rather than lines of code, hands and minds are the technologies we’re celebrating here-including those of the designers in the following pages, who have harnessed the craft traditions of their native countries and turned them into wearable art. Which is why, for our fourth annual Future of Fashion package, we wanted to take futurism in a less expected direction. For an industry that celebrates individualism and creativity, and in which the profit margins for young designers are already slim, the rise of the robots brings with it some fearsome implications. Finding clothes made to your exact specifications, or designing your own, could soon be accomplished in a few keystrokes.ĪI-generated “Street Style” Looks from OPÉ.īut as Hollywood writers strike, their demands including protection from AI taking over their job responsibilities, and as the “godfather of AI” himself, Geoffrey Hinton, sounds the alarm in the New York Times about the technology’s negative implications for society, fashion has reasons to be concerned, too. Fashable, a generative AI startup, responds to trends and creates designs in keeping with them, while the design platform Cala allows users to incorporate DALL-E technology to create visuals from text descriptions. In May, Google announced it would test a search experience for shoppers that uses generative AI, and Farfetch has a partnership with Microsoft to develop luxury applications. A McKinsey & Company report from March estimated that in the next three to five years, the technology could add between $150 and $275 billion to the fashion, apparel, and luxury sectors. Still, some are embracing generative AI’s possibilities for fashion wholeheartedly. Brands that have opted to use AI models, rather than a diverse group of human models, have also come under fire lately, both for creating a phenomenon that Phil Fersht, founder, chief analyst, and CEO of the analyst firm HFS, deemed “artificial diversity” in New York magazine, and because of the employment threat the technology poses for models. Business of Fashion reported that “with a few exceptions, the AI models were mostly the thin, high-cheekboned types that dominate runways today.” Outside the venue, designer Ravieshwar Singh protested the lack of racial diversity and disability representation on the show’s virtual runway. The event did replicate some real-world biases, though. An AI Design by Alena Stepanova, Shown at AI Fashion Week.
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