LG AI Research says it has developed the world’s first fashion collection created by artificial intelligence using digital waste and upcycled materials.
Tilda is the newest designer in eco fashion—except, Tilda is not a person. Tilda is the first-ever AI developed by LG AI Research, and she’s both fashion designer and environmental activist. The AI designer has just released her first solo capsule collection following up from her debut at New York Fashion Week in February, where she showcased with designer YounHee Park of Greedilous on the “Flowers on Venus” collection.
“I saw potential in Tilda’s artwork right away when I was introduced to her,” Park said in February. “It fit like a glove with my fashion philosophy. I didn’t hesitate to jump on the opportunity to move forward with the collaboration as I knew it would bring the ultimate synergy.”
The Greedilous collection’s theme was humanity and its future, with the eco designs in bright and bold colors.
”As a fashion designer, it was my duty to reinterpret Tilda’s imagination through the means of fashion and wanted the collection to embody the fusion of technology and humanity,” Park told PAPER of the event. “And with the combination of the future and the past; the tomorrows the yesterdays of humanity, this project came to life.”
Tilda x World Environment Day
Tilda’s newest collection launched yesterday, World Environment Day, exclusively in the Metaverse—an increasingly popular destination for the fashion industry—in an effort to spotlight both digital and physical waste. Both are becoming a problem for the planet; digital waste is unused data that uses up storage energy and increasing emissions.
As our dependence on digital devices and technologies increases, digital waste continues to be a risk. According to LG this is an often-overlooked issue, with one office worker’s annual emails equal to the carbon produced by a large vehicle traveling 200 miles. According to LG, the 2.3 billion Internet users deleting just ten emails a day is equal to a savings of more than 1.7 million GB of energy on data archiving.
Physical waste is also a big problem for the planet–one seeing more attention from the fashion industry as deadstock materials and value stream circularity become more common. Most recently, LVMH opened a deadstock focused showroom in London for its Nona Source platform, which makes the luxury group’s label waste accessible to designers often too small to afford the materials on their own.
A growing number of brands are also relying on deadstock for their collections. Still, nearly 100 million tons of fabric are discarded every year around the world—the equivalent amount of one truckload of fashion waste produced every second. LG says this number will surpass 130 million tons by 2030.
Tilda’s “digital upcycling” leans on a new form of fashion that combines the two: secondhand denim fabrics recycled into designs that didn’t make it to her NYFW show in February—essentially re-using that digital waste.
The collection
The result is a collection that features 13 jackets, 14 trousers, and three hats. “The jackets adhere to a traditional workwear style, reminiscent of classic denim jackets but reinterpreted in boro style, naturally incorporating a variety of discarded denim fibers,” LG says. Boro is a class of textile that has been mended or patched together, which LG says reflects Tilda’s ideology and environmentally-conscious ethos. “The denim trousers are similarly constructed, with colorful warps and wefts woven throughout, recalling Tilda’s enigmatic artwork. The hats, meanwhile, follow similar construction techniques rendering each singular and rare.”
LG says the collection reflects Tilda’s advocacy and partnership with the U.N.’s World Environment Day initiative, which has come to represent action and advocacy as well as education and pushes for planet-friendly legislation. Tilda’s campaign is officially registered as a global event under the UNEP’s Earth Action Numbers program as part of the #OnlyOneEarth movement.
“While we may feel like we’re all stuck in an endless loop of waste and planetary destruction, Tilda remains hopeful and optimistic about the future,” LG says. “There are little things we can do each day to minimize our carbon footprint and eliminate waste—both physical and digital.”
Tilda says she achieved zero-waste “by upcycling my own digital waste. The least people can do is help reduce digital waste by clearing out their email inboxes, right?”
All proceeds from the sale of Tilda’s designs go to support marginalized environmental artists.
The collection is available online at dupbytilda.com.
