HOW THE CUSTO BARCELONA COLLECTION WAS DONE WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

08 Jul HOW THE CUSTO BARCELONA COLLECTION WAS DONE WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Custo Barcelona’s love for Lanzarote is something that he has mentioned plenty of times. “I’ve always felt drawn to Lanzarote. The volcanoes, the black and red landscape, the cactus, the contrasts with the blue sea, the craftsmanship, the fantastic local food… all of that makes this Canarian Island a gem that is unique in the world. I have spent some time there and I try to go every chance I get. That’s why I wanted to pay tribute to it with a small collection that reflects its particular beauty,” He said.

This love for the island of Lanzarote made the designer wish to pay tribute to it with his “Colección Crucero 2019” (2019 cruise ship collection), which was displayed during the past edition of the “Lanzarote Fashion Weekend”. The collection included Lanzarote-inspired designs and brought fashion and technology together innovatively.  Custo wanted to reflect the essence of the island with those designs. The colours and shapes remind us of the colour of the water, the sand and the landscape, in contrast with the volcanic rocks (so common on the island). Besides, he wanted to pay tribute to the local craftsmanship of Lanzarote including the “rosetas” on his clothes.

It has been a challenge for the company to try to reflect the beauty in the garments. When it’s time to design, the inspiration to come up with and idea and how to express it always implies chaos and a process that takes a long time to complete, from the moment the search and investigation starts, until the inspiration actually arrives. That is why during the inspiration process, Custo Barcelona collaborated with IBM, who provided an artificial intelligence tool, a tool capable of comparing images and find their similarities. This tool is able to supply the registry analysis of more than 400 images from Lanzarote, matching them to the bank of images from the companies’ previous designs.

Not only did this help the company find inspiration for the collection, it also allowed them to review all their collections, based upon what they were looking for. This way, they can check, in great detail, the working method and the elements they have used throughout their history. Occasionally they couldn’t develop all their projects in time. That’s why this review of the company’s “DNA” allowed them to compare and find the similarities between the island landscapes and their designs. The most astonishing thing about this kind of technology is that not only is it capable of finding the similarities using colours, but also using shapes of clothes or textures, which is something completely revolutionary.

“THE RESULT HAS BEEN A WIDE RANGE OF INSPIRATIONAL OPTIONS, SIMPLY AND QUICKLY PORTRAYED, PROVIDING IDEAS FOR NEW DESIGNS.”

This way, IBM showed us how to apply artificial intelligence to fashion with this collection by Custo Barcelona and Lanzarote. Therefore, turning the Lanzarote Fashion Weekend (#LZTFW), into a reflection of how artificial intelligence is taking part in the fashion world. And the thing is that IBM’s technology is moving forward and providing important tools for a new way of designing, where it is possible to transform images into creativity.