@article{60847,
  abstract     = {{With the rise of multimodal AI tools, such as DALL-E, Midjourney, or Stable
Diffusion, it has never been easier and faster to produce compelling fashion
images. While the proliferation of AI-generated fashion images can be
seen as the ultimate triumph of the fashion image over both fashion text
and fashionable garments, this paper critically examines how these images
are produced, what exactly they show, and ultimately, how this impacts our
understanding of fashion. Building on current research on multimodal AI,
specifically text-to-image models, I argue that AI-generated fashion images
are produced through textual means, that is, through “operative ekphrasis”
(Bajohr 2024: 83). This means that the generation of fashion images created
via multimodal AI is based on textual prompts that extract statistically
probable images from a latent space, which, in turn, is the result of previously
indexed and labeled image-text pairs. Because the indexing of images
requires a reduction of complexity, images generated through multimodal
AI are often generic. In the case of fashion images, this is reflected in the lack
of texture and the reproduction of fashion photography’s conventions. As
fashion photography is not necessarily a representation of ‘the world’ or even
fashionable garments, it resembles AI-generated images more than other photographic
genres. AI-generated fashion images are then not images of fashionable
garments, but images about fashion images—a statistically probable permutation
of fashion photographs from the past (cf. Meyer 2023: 108). As such,
AI-generated fashion images are not only the product of a mediated collective
imaginary but also feed back into it. The view on fashion shaped by AI-generated
fashion images is then based on reduction and stylized normativity.}},
  author       = {{Brachtendorf, Charlotte}},
  issn         = {{1614-0885}},
  journal      = {{Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{155--168}},
  title        = {{{Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI}}},
  doi          = {{10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663}},
  volume       = {{42}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}