Financial TimesFinancial Times

Can AI end the era of the fashion super-fake?

By Rosalyn Wikeley

19 Jun 2023 · 4 min read

Editor's Note

The fight against “super-fakes” is a priority for the fashion industry as it adapts to the rise of AI. For luxury brands and resale businesses, trialing the technology is a no-brainer, the FT reports.

“The bag she wanted to sell with us was an Hermès Mini Kelly – it was visually perfect,” says Hanushka Toni, CEO and co-founder of luxury resale company Sellier: she is speaking of a potential vendor. “However, when we inspected it, we noticed that it didn’t smell like an Hermès bag – which has a distinctive ‘new-car smell’…” Sellier ran the Mini Kelly through its new AI software. “It was confirmed as a fake.”

Fashion is adapting to the rise of AI in multiple ways. Resale company Hardly Ever Worn It, HEWI, recently launched the search-optimisation chatbot “Maia” on their platform, with the goal of saving customers hours of scrolling for a certain look or product; Shopify has also recently integrated ChatGPT into its Shop app, assisting sellers with product descriptions. But the fight against “super-fakes”, which have long tormented luxury brands and resale companies, is the main priority.

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