The thought of a world dressed like Mark Zuckerberg feels deeply traumatising, but here we are
As technology and fashion become more intertwined, Facebook has introduced its new app, Fashion ++, which is aimed at making its users more fashionable.
Using artificial intelligence, the technology will assess what improvements could be made to your outfit. Claiming that sustainability is at the heart of this project, the app will tell users how to elevate clothes they already own, instead of buying new ones — “it incrementally adjusts an outfit as opposed to starting from scratch”, the accompanying report explains.
Proposing minimal adjustments which “will have maximal impact on its fashionability”, the social media giant will use deep image neural network to identify clothes and offer alterations. From swapping pieces out to tweaking the colour scheme, “Fashion++ provides successful edits, both according to automated metrics and human opinion.”
Although the prospect of a world dressed like Mark Zuckerberg feels deeply traumatising, the app is trained by analysing thousands of publicly available images. Through this, the technology will look at which outfits are judged stylish or not, and advise you based on this knowledge.
This news comes at a time when fashion is increasingly exploring tech and the ways in which it might revolutionise the industry (emphasis on might).
At its AW18 show, Dolce & Gabanna sent drones down the runway to model its handbags, while last year, Tommy Jeans released Xplore, a collection of t-shirts, hoodies, and dresses fitted with Bluetooth microchips that tracked its owners movements. Elsewhere, over the course of the last few years, fashion has witnessed the rise of virtual influencers including Lil Miquela and Blawko, with the first-ever virtual avatar runway show, hosted by Trashy Muse, taking place earlier this summer.
For those who have longed for that Clueless wardrobe to become a reality, your time may have come. But for those of us wary of our tech giant overlords penetrating into our lives even further, the app is likely to be a miss.
