Major retail fashion brand unveils AI-generated campaign

Spanish clothing brand, Mango, unveiled a campaign for a limited-edition collection for its teen line it says was created entirely with generative artificial intelligence.

Mango is one of the first companies in the fashion industry to use AI-generated images for a collection campaign. U.S.-retailer Toys ‘R’ Us recently released an AI-generated ad using OpenAI’s Sora video-generation tool that garnered mixed reviews.

Mango has been a retail leader in utilizing AI. The brand has used the technology since 2018, developing over 15 machine learning platforms for the effort, it said, including Gaudí, a tool used for product recommendations, and Midas, a pricing platform that helped it raise prices based on demand, driving first quarter 2024 sales.

The clothing brand’s latest launch, available in 95 markets, is part of the company’s strategic plan through 2026, “which aims to create value through technological development, data management and operational excellence,” it said.

“This initiative reflects our continued commitment to innovation and being on the cutting edge in the fashion world,” Jordi Alex, chief information technology officer at Mango, said in a statement.

Multiple teams at the company were involved in creating the campaign, Mango said, including its design and art and styling teams, and a team focused on dataset and AI model training. The process started with shooting real photos of models in the clothes, Mango said. A generative AI model was then trained on the photos “to learn how to generate images by positioning the real garments on a model.”

Mango said the most challenging part of using generative AI “was achieving images with editorial quality similar to a fashion campaign, while maintaining the characteristics of the garment and the model.” Mango’s art team then selected and edited the AI-generated images for the campaign.

“Artificial intelligence is a technological revolution that presents great opportunities that should act as a co-pilot to extend the capabilities of our employees and further amplify our creativity,” Alex said. 

“Because technology will either make us more human or it won’t.”