Field Skjellerup reimagines a Tommy Hilfiger classic with the help of AI

What do you get when you cross a certified icon of preppy, pre-90s fashion and artists working at the cutting edge of creative technology in 2023? Not sure? Well wonder no more, because Tommy Hilfiger has the answer.

For the last couple of years, fashion archivist and designer Field Skjellerup (ai_clothingdaily) has been crafting experimental fashion imagery by feeding photos of historical runways – from the likes of Junya Watanabe and Hussein Chalayan – into a GAN model, a kind of machine learning tool that can whip up original images with just a few well-placed prompts. Now, he’s been enlisted by Tommy Hilfiger to reimagine its new, red, white, and blue rugby shirt (itself a reimagining of one of the label’s most iconic looks) using AI.

The result? A series of images that reside firmly in the uncanny valley, somewhere in the middle of super-smooth painting and high-resolution photography. Eerily lifelike models wearing the rugby shirt pose in bucolic (and completely fictional) fields, while design elements are digitally chopped and changed – a sculptural collar added here, a remix of the original stars and stripes decals there.

Skjellerup’s visions for Tommy’s rugby shirt are flashy and futuristic in their own way, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that the innovation is all surface-level. The looks in the brand’s new capsule collection are also designed with a fresh focus on sustainability, incorporating innovative fibres, plus fabrics and dyes made of recycled materials. The rugby shirt itself is made of a recycled and organic cotton blend – take a closer look at the Field Skjellerup’ reimaginings in the gallery above.