{"date_updated":"2025-11-15T19:35:14Z","intvolume":"        42","publication_identifier":{"issn":["1614-0885"]},"article_type":"original","quality_controlled":"1","abstract":[{"text":"With the rise of multimodal AI tools, such as DALL-E, Midjourney, or Stable\r\nDiffusion, it has never been easier and faster to produce compelling fashion\r\nimages. While the proliferation of AI-generated fashion images can be\r\nseen as the ultimate triumph of the fashion image over both fashion text\r\nand fashionable garments, this paper critically examines how these images\r\nare produced, what exactly they show, and ultimately, how this impacts our\r\nunderstanding of fashion. Building on current research on multimodal AI,\r\nspecifically text-to-image models, I argue that AI-generated fashion images\r\nare produced through textual means, that is, through “operative ekphrasis”\r\n(Bajohr 2024: 83). This means that the generation of fashion images created\r\nvia multimodal AI is based on textual prompts that extract statistically\r\nprobable images from a latent space, which, in turn, is the result of previously\r\nindexed and labeled image-text pairs. Because the indexing of images\r\nrequires a reduction of complexity, images generated through multimodal\r\nAI are often generic. In the case of fashion images, this is reflected in the lack\r\nof texture and the reproduction of fashion photography’s conventions. As\r\nfashion photography is not necessarily a representation of ‘the world’ or even\r\nfashionable garments, it resembles AI-generated images more than other photographic\r\ngenres. AI-generated fashion images are then not images of fashionable\r\ngarments, but images about fashion images—a statistically probable permutation\r\nof fashion photographs from the past (cf. Meyer 2023: 108). As such,\r\nAI-generated fashion images are not only the product of a mediated collective\r\nimaginary but also feed back into it. The view on fashion shaped by AI-generated\r\nfashion images is then based on reduction and stylized normativity.","lang":"eng"}],"publication_status":"published","user_id":"95414","title":"Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI","page":"155-168","date_created":"2025-07-31T12:24:29Z","type":"journal_article","volume":42,"has_accepted_license":"1","author":[{"id":"95414","first_name":"Charlotte","last_name":"Brachtendorf","orcid":"0000-0001-5739-933X","full_name":"Brachtendorf, Charlotte"}],"status":"public","oa":"1","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"doi":"10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663","file":[{"relation":"main_file","content_type":"application/pdf","date_updated":"2025-11-15T19:31:45Z","file_id":"62210","date_created":"2025-11-15T19:31:45Z","file_name":"10.14531614-0885-2-2025-16663.pdf","success":1,"access_level":"closed","creator":"chbr8","file_size":982100}],"ddc":["770"],"main_file_link":[{"open_access":"1","url":"https://image-journal.de/possible-fashion-images-operative-ekphrasis-and-the-reduction-of-fashion-through-multimodal-ai/"}],"issue":"2","file_date_updated":"2025-11-15T19:31:45Z","publication":"Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences","_id":"60847","citation":{"bibtex":"@article{Brachtendorf_2025, title={Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI}, volume={42}, DOI={<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663\">10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663</a>}, number={2}, journal={Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences}, author={Brachtendorf, Charlotte}, year={2025}, pages={155–168} }","ama":"Brachtendorf C. Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI. <i>Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences</i>. 2025;42(2):155-168. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663\">10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663</a>","ieee":"C. Brachtendorf, “Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI,” <i>Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences</i>, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 155–168, 2025, doi: <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663\">10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663</a>.","mla":"Brachtendorf, Charlotte. “Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI.” <i>Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences</i>, vol. 42, no. 2, 2025, pp. 155–68, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663\">10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663</a>.","chicago":"Brachtendorf, Charlotte. “Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI.” <i>Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences</i> 42, no. 2 (2025): 155–68. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663\">https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663</a>.","apa":"Brachtendorf, C. (2025). Possible Fashion Images: Operative Ekphrasis and the Reduction of Fashion Through Multimodal AI. <i>Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences</i>, <i>42</i>(2), 155–168. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663\">https://doi.org/10.1453/1614-0885-2-2025-16663</a>","short":"C. Brachtendorf, Image: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences 42 (2025) 155–168."},"year":"2025"}