Artificial intelligence is making its way into seemingly every industry — and now, it may end up in your closet. Couth Studios, an e-commerce womenswear shop launched by Toronto science engineer Sajna Massey last September, uses multiples models of AI to generate design blueprints based on current trends and create samples, before inviting the public to vote on their favourites. Only the most-voted designs are chosen for small batch production, a model that Massey hopes to use to combat overproduction in the fashion industry.
First, Massey uses computer vision, a field of AI that enables computers to “see” and interpret images and videos (mimicking human vision) to analyze global runway shows, including all the major fashion weeks like London, Paris and Milan. “Our program is able to pick up really detailed features of a garment,” says Massey, citing examples like an oversized fit, gold hardware, cuffed pants and various fabric types.
The second step is to feed those data-driven insights into another AI model that actually designs the clothes, from which three iterations of every proposed design are created. Finally, Massey shares the designs to Instagram where followers are invited to vote on them, and produces the highest voted designs.
“There’s a lot of brands out there that market themselves as conscious and sustainable, but the reality is, they’re still over-producing garments. They throw out usually about 30 per cent of what they make,” says Massey. “We’re trying to combat that issue by flipping the script and validating demand before we supply.”
Of course, AI itself has its own environmental problem: recent research points to the staggering amounts of electricity required to support the development and operation of these tools, which increases carbon dioxide emissions and water consumption, calling into question the sustainability of an AI-powered fashion company. But Massey has worked in AI across various industries for several years and says that what informs her opinion is knowing that it isn’t going to go away.
“We’re so far down the path, yet just at the beginning — there’s going to be a really high uptake of adoption in the next five years,” she says. “To me, the onus is on the industry to create other innovative technologies that lessen that environmental impact and that energy usage. And I do think that there are companies that are working on that.”
Many organisations are already calling for restrictions and regulations around AI use for corporations, particularly asking that AI data centres be fossil fuel-free and for governments to require the environmental impact of AI tools, including energy and water usage, to be tracked through the entire AI life cycle.
Couth’s present collection is called The New Collection, which features seven garments including The Cipher Corset ($138), The Vesper Dress ($188) and The Halo Bodysuit ($98). It’s a pivot from the original collection that Couth launched with, which only featured three garments and presented an aesthetic more geared towards occasion dressing. “A lot of market feedback was ‘I would rather have something I can wear over and over and over again.’ So we moved to things that are like a little bit more every day,” Massey explains. As of now, Couth is likely to release two collections a year, keeping in mind the seasonality of the industry.
Massey was born in the city, and believes that Torontonians want to shop more consciously — making Toronto the perfect launch pad for Couth. “Torontonians are very loyal to their own. They hear about a Toronto business, they want to support it,” she says. “Even though we’re a digital business and people could buy from anywhere, 70 per cent of people that have bought from us [so far] are from Toronto.”
For now, Couth will remain solely an ecommerce shop, but there may be in person pop-ups in the future. (Massey had one planned for this summer, but says she already sold through all the available stock). Instead, they’ve hosted some very small fitting events (10 people), to give returning clients an opportunity to try on samples in person and place orders on site.
