It’s easier than it ever has been to start a clothing brand, and it’s going to get even easier. Luxury clothing has taken off, and the richest man in the world is a fashion and luxury goods baron. Regular ecommerce is also growing at an incredible rate. The industry has more than 9% annual growth rate, making it one of the most lucrative industries to get into.
Fashion is one of the most lucrative areas of eCommerce for several reasons. The first is because clothing items are extremely profitable. They are made from dirt-cheap materials, and the designs cause them to be marked up for major profits. The second reason fashion is a profitable niche is due to the low marketing costs. Instagram made it so that anyone who wants can be a model. A fashion company looking to advertise their clothes need only send the models an email, and arrange to pay them directly, without the help of a manager or talent scout. Brands like Brandy Melville (as problematic as they may be) have capitalized on Instagram, putting their clothes in front of a worldwide audience of preteen and teen girls. Independent designers are also finding success. If you create a “blank” Instagram account and follow a bunch of models and beauty influencers, you’ll have no problem finding somebody who dropship clothes. This is regardless of which country you live in.
So what happens when we don’t even need to hire models? Sure, the cost of setting up studios and photoshoots along with scouting for talent was high, and reducing that has made a massive difference. But it still costs some money to send an influencer a box of clothes, and those same models often charge a fee per post. Right now, it takes a few thousand dollars to start a fashion brand. If fashion content can be made without real models, it might only cost hundreds of dollars.
The photos and videos that influencers post to Instagram fall under a category of media known as user-generated content. User-generated content is exactly what it sounds like a piece or pieces of media that are generated and posted by social media users. Productizing Instagram users has been a game-changer for people working in fashion, as advertisements now feel natural and integrated into the user experience.
Generative AI is likely to bring UGC to another level. Even though the technology has been around for a long time, Chat GPT was the new spin on generative AI that people needed to refocus on this category of technology. All of a sudden, AI companies of all types were coming out of the woodwork, and it seemed as though a bubble had begun to expand. Things got interesting when people started messing with text-to-video models. Text-to-video models are AI models that allow you to input a written prompt, and receive video in response. So far, they are pretty mediocre. Oftentimes, objects appear deformed or in odd places. If you try making something with humans or animals, the results are often frightening. But the models improve more and more every day.
At this point, even though text-to-video models are only in their infancy, it’s still possible to create AI videos. Text-to-image models have been around, and these allow users to create AI-generated stills. These images can be added to other videos, to modify the videos. Right now, it’s possible to create an AI with a fake face or a fake voice, using a different and real video as the base. This means that you can already use AI to create UGC content, and it’s only going to get easier. In the future, running your fashion company will look like this: 1) Finding clothes or generating AI designs with your text-to-image model. 2) Generating UGC content with your text-to-video model 3) Linking your Instagram or TikTok to your shop. 4) Accounting and taxes. It’ll be a job that requires only a few people to do, and the wages won’t necessarily be high if you’re just doing it as an employee. On the other hand, running a fashion company will be dirt cheap. It will definitely become more of a meritocracy, as the best marketer will win. But it will also likely lead to more Shein-style consolidation and lots of inequality.
If you’re at all in the fashion or beauty industry, you want to build your own brand fast. Generative AI is coming, and it’s coming for all of the content creators. This is bad in a way, because it makes content creation less valuable, but the silver lining is that it makes creativity and discipline more valuable. Anyone who puts in the work will be able to start a clothing company if they know what their doing. While the technology is still in its infancy, you can still play around with AI for UGC purposes. Below are some tutorials.https://www.youtube.com/embed/5TDIBJF0HU8?feature=oembedhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/gWNtOqesF4Q?feature=oembed
As you can see, this technology isn’t perfect, but it’s already good enough to create some pretty good ads. For this reason, I think it’s the future of fashion and videography.
