Photo Credit: Getty Images 

Artificial intelligence, more commonly known as AI, has been creeping into almost every aspect of the world. From ChatGPT to the fashion industry, we can expect this new technology to be an integral part of life going forward. 

AI can mean really exciting things for the future of fashion. Revolve, a popular clothing brand, and Maison Meta, an AI creative industry, recently collaborated to show just how useful AI can be for fashion.

Photo Credit: Revolve

According to CNN, the companies hosted a competition during the first-ever Ai Fashion Week in which designers submitted collections created using AI technology. The top three designers who submitted collections would have their designs manufactured and sold by Revolve. 

“Through AI, we’re able to explore new emerging designers, brands and trends that we are known for delivering in unique ways,” said Michael Mente, co-founder of Revolve, in an interview with CNN

Not only can AI help big designers advance their companies, but it can also help enable people without fashion training to produce their own innovative ideas.

Photo Credit: Revolve

According to CNN, two of the winners of the Revolve challenge, José Sabral and Matilde Mariano, have no previous backgrounds in fashion, proving that AI can be the missing piece to many designers careers in fashion. 

In fashion, AI can be useful for not just designers, but for consumers too. 

According to Fashionista, REVERSIBLE, an AI personal stylist tool, offers personalized styling tips and looks for the everyday person. 

By simply inputting your likes, dislikes, sizes and price range, this tool gives you pieces it knows you will love while also staying within your budget. The tool provides a service more accurate than anything seen before by “culminating in a collection of outfits that resonate with one’s style DNA,” according to Fashionista. 

Although many brands, like Revolve, are excited to see what artificial intelligence can do for the industry, there is also a large pull against the use of AI.

Even in the Revolve challenge, the negative sides of AI-designed clothes were prominent. 

According to CNN, a few pieces were described to “show off AI’s disregard for standard clothing construction, like a sequined navy blouse with hand-engulfing satin sleeves and a bolero-esque shape that looks like it would only keep the wearer’s chest covered in a digital world with no wind or movement.” 

The most obvious concern is the effect it may have on the workforce. If AI can style, design and invent, many people’s jobs will no longer be necessary. This will have a negative impact not only on those immediately affected by it but on the broader economy as well, according to Forbes. 

There is also the aversion to homogeneity within the industry. With AI algorithms making marketing and design decisions. According to Forbes, “There is a risk that fashion will become less individual and less creative. This could lead to a decline in the quality of fashion products, as well as a decline in the popularity of the overall industry.”

There is no doubt AI will be a useful catalyst for the advancement of the fashion industry, but there also might be some drawbacks along the way while we try to navigate this revolutionary technology. 

If you’re anything like me, you grew up reading and watching the beloved Hunger Games franchise. From the action to the love story and the powerful female lead, “The Hunger Games” has everything young minds are drawn to. 

With the new movie, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” being released in theaters this Friday, the world of Panem and the 13 districts takes center stage once again. 

The new film, a prequel to the original film series, follows a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he mentors his first tribute, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) through the 10th annual Hunger Games. 

An important part of these stories is the eccentric fashion of the capital city of Panem. The upper-class citizens in the Capitol show their wealth with loud colors, fluffy wigs and sometimes even surgical modifications. 

Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), Katniss and Peeta’s Capitol escort, is a prime example of the frivolous style. In each movie, she is sporting a new hair color paired with over-the-top makeup and clothes. The other characters poke fun, but ultimately, she fits in with the rest of her city.

In an interview with E! News, Banks said that costume designer Trish Summerville, sourced many of the looks from right of the runway, many of which were from designer Alexander McQueen. 

In one of her most iconic looks, Trinket is seen during the reaping ceremony of the second film in the series wearing a dress from Alexander McQueen that is constructed out of 10,000 hand-painted feathers, made to look like individual butterflies. 

The dress, which comes from Sarah Burton’s spring 2011 collection for McQueen, was recently featured as one of the close-up shots promoting this year’s Met Gala and Costume Institue theme announcement, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” 

According to Hello, Tailor, Trinket represents the “huge chasm between Katniss’ life in the impoverished District 12, and the thoughtlessly cruel frivolity enjoyed by the people who dwell in the Capitol.”

“The Hunger Games” is known for being a social commentary and brings up numerous issues regarding class, power and war. According to an article from Medium, Suzanne Collins said her novel “tackles the desensitization of violence.”

Recently, Capitol fashion has been particularly scrutinized as representing our reality with how celebrities dress for award ceremonies and events and in some cases there are uncanny similarities between the two worlds. 

Celebrities are dressing in over-the-top looks, spending tens of thousands for these garments, while most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, almost mimicking the relationship between the Capitol and District 13 portrayed in the films.

“The fashion choices are sometimes so outlandish that it’s hard not to wonder if we’re all just unwitting participants in some dystopian game show,” said Nathan Chen in an article for Medium.

On a more positive side of celebrity fashion, the cast of the new film has been channeling their inner Hunger Games at the premiere of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” several of the actors wore outfits inspired by looks from previous films.

Rachel Zegler, who plays Lucy Gray Baird in the new movie, wore a dress inspired by the iconic Katniss Everdeen Mockingjay dress that was seen in the second movie “Catching Fire,” and although Zegler’s dress doesn’t literally catch on fire, it is the perfect homage to Jennifer Lawrence’s iconic character. 

Hunter Schafer, who plays Tigris in the new movie, wore an eccentric Schiaparelli Haute Couture dress that was clearly heavily inspired by Capitol fashion, where her character resides in the film. 

The dress, designed by Schiaparelli designer Daniel Roseberry, was meant to look as though it was painted directly onto her skin. Each piece of the dress was designed by hand to fit perfectly beside one another, which the brand dubbed as a “trompe l’oeil body” effect, according to W Magazine. 

“The Hunger Games” stories have been a part of popular culture since the 2000s, inspiring young readers and fashionistas everywhere and are continuing to influence the world of pop culture in 2023. 

With Halloween around the corner, the fashion that surrounds this time of year takes center stage.

A notoriously well-dressed character of this time of the year is the one and only Wednesday Addams. 

In 2022, Netflix aired a spinoff series that focused entirely on Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) as she goes through her teenage years in a private school for werewolves, sirens, shape-shifting and everyone in between. 

Although her personal style is also notable, Ortega’s Wednesday wardrobe is perfect for this fall, with a bit of a morbid flare. 

Colleen Atwood, the lead costume designer for the show, said in an interview for Women’s Wear Daily that she was trying to modernize the character of Wednesday while also paying homage to her roots. And Atwood has done an amazing job, Ortega’s character resembles the original Wednesday, but now elevating her to a more wearable teenage girl style. 

The central color of all her outfits is black and although she is never seen in bright colors, she often has pieces that incorporate white as well to create the perfect balance of light and dark.

Exclusively black and white outfits may sound boring to most, but Ortega is seen wearing bold patterns and layering jackets and sweaters in all of her outfits, making for more of a dynamic wardrobe than we are used to for the iconic character. 

Chunky sweaters are a staple to many of Wednesday’s looks and can offer perfect inspiration for your fall wardrobe this year too. 

Ortega is also often styled with overly conspicuous collars and lace details that emphasize her character’s dramatic personality and draw attention to her melodramatic facial expressions. 

In the most famous scene from this series, Wednesday goes to a school dance wearing a billowy, black lace dress, adding a layer of gothic ambiance to the scene. The look quickly became the most popular look from the series after the dance Ortega choreographed went viral. 

Atwood said the dress had several versions made due to the fact that immediately following the dancing, a downpour of blood stained the beautiful lace and frills. 

“Of course, my work crew wanted to kill me because it had to get blood on it.” said Atwood. “We had to make copies of it and it was a lot of work.” (Women’s Wear Daily)

Ortega not only embodied Wednesday during the filming of the show, but her red carpet looks during the release were right on theme as well. She perfectly captures the same moody, goth-inspired in her wardrobe.

Her styling outside the show is a bit more form-fitting and mature. The outfits are still dominated by dark colors but have corsets, lace and jewelry, meshing Ortega’s style with Wednesday’s perfectly. 

This goes to show that Jenna Ortega has proven time and time again that she was meant for this role, truly embodying Wednesday Addams, both on and off-screen.