Start-up Finesse raised 4.5 million dollars for artificially designed clothing: algorithms create fashion by listening to young people on social media. Clothing trends are easier to predict than the stock market, it would seem.
Designing like a trader
Finesse, a start-up that promises to take the guesswork and waste out of fashion, has raised 4.5 million dollars in seed funding. However, there isn’t a collection yet: the very young company has only sold articles via a few “drops”, where customers could vote for designs and pre-order the limited editions.
That is also the whole idea behind Finesse, which no longer believes in fixed designer collections. The start-up wants to create unique pieces, purely based on the data analysis of consumers. CEO Ramin Ahmari looks at fashion “the same way an economist or hedge fund trader would look at stocks,” according to TechCrunch. He should know, as he previously worked in finance.
Conversations on social media
Although Ahmari says the stock market is much more unpredictable than the fashion industry, Finesse says he is the first to apply technological tools such as natural language analysis and deep learning to the industry. There is a wealth of information available, from what influencers are wearing to daily posts on TikTok. Ahmari says that thanks to AI, he can predict trends even before they go viral.
Once a trend is spotted, algorithms take over the design process – assisted by ‘real’ people wherever necessary. But, Ahmari thinks the idea that at traditional brands, one person can personally dictate fashion “arrogant” and old-fashioned. On top of that, he makes all items gender-neutral.
Faster and more economical
Another, possibly even more important, advantage is that new-found trends can go from design to a product ready for sale in less than 25 days. Finesse works with a very short supply chain and does not use physical fitting models but 3D modelling software. This way, even low-volume items can still be affordable: the products currently on sale range from 8 dollars to 116 dollars.
However, with his computer-driven forecasting and small batches, Ramin Ahmari mainly wants to solve the problem of overstocks and waste in the fashion industry. Every year, the industry produces approximately 13 million tonnes of textile waste.
