fashion

GBH reporter Megan Smith spotlights Open Style Lab, a nonprofit founded at MIT that aims to make fashion more accessible. Yasmin Keats, executive director of Open Style Lab, notes that the organization was founded in 2014 at MIT’s International Design Center to “show what was possible in fashion. We also looked at the importance of design and style and how it can change not only the way that you see yourself — but also looked at how it can be a vehicle to change the way that the world views disability.”

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, MIT Prof. Katherine Kellogg and Stanford Prof. Melissa Valentine explore the challenges of introducing AI technologies in the workplace, focusing on the fashion industry. "Getting workers to actually use the technologies will turn out to be just as important as making sure the systems work in the first place," they write. 

TechCrunch reporter Jonathan Shieber writes about the women’s rental clothing service Armoire, an MIT spinoff. Shieber explains that Armoire aims to “provide a daily wardrobe for professional women at a price point that could be attractive enough to switch from an ownership to a rental model for fashion.”

Motherboard reporter Rob Dozier writes about Glitch, an MIT startup that uses machine learning to design clothing. “These tools are meant to empower human designers,” explains graduate student Emily Salvador. “What I think is really cool about these creative-focused AI tools is that there’s still this really compelling need for a human to intervene with the algorithm.”

CNN reporter Parija Kavilanz spotlights The Groomsman Suit, a company co-founded by MIT alumna Diana Ganz. The company, which was initially created to offer well-fitting tuxedos at a discount, is developing a line of tuxedos and suits specifically for women.

In an article for The Boston Globe, Amy Carleton, a lecturer in the comparative media studies/writing program, writes about the jacket First Lady Melanie Trump wore to visit a shelter for migrant children. Carleton posits that the First Lady, “has demonstrated that she is well-versed in the rhetorical power that fashion possesses.”

Andrea Timpano writes for Boston Magazine about how students at the Open Style Lab are designing fashionable and functional clothing for people with disabilities. “What we’ve noticed is even if you have the best intentions, the best product, the most helpful technology, if it doesn’t look great, people don’t want to wear it,” explains MIT graduate Grace Teo.