“The world of fashion is advanced in so many ways, yet when it comes to technology it is incredibly low-tech,” Goni Grupper, co-founder and CEO of Styletech told The Jerusalem Post.
Grupper recently sat down with The Post to discuss the intersection between the fast-paced worlds of fashion, ecommerce, technology, and artificial intelligence.
"Today, especially after the coronavirus pandemic, ecommerce is the future and the only way for companies to sell their products online," she said.
Fashion brands and companies understand the importance of this trend, she said, and have poured enormous resources into establishing an ideal online presence for their customers.
Grupper, who has worked in the fashion industry for over 15 years, has seen this trend develop first-hand. Beginning her career studying and working in the fashion world epicenters of Milan and London, as fashion houses began to expand to the digital world, she found herself at the helm, managing the online presence of various international brands.
“If you look at the world of fashion, in some ways it is very advanced and cutting edge, but with regards to incorporating technology not much has changed,” she said. “Today, just like decades ago, we still hold photo shoots with photographers, casting agents, auditions, models, hair and makeup- it is a very costly and time-consuming process.”
Known as a “look book,” or a virtual catalog of all the products online, Grupper said the development process “is almost a Sisyphean one.”
“I slowly began to understand just how important production and photography is for ecommerce, and just how low-tech this world is,” she said. “There aren’t really any solutions to facilitate this process.”
“This is where the idea for Styletech was born,” she said. “From an understanding that there is nobody upgrading the customer experience for these big fashion companies.”
Learn more about Styletech>>
Styletech, an Israeli startup co-founded by Grupper along with Tal Melenboim and Omer Erlichman and advised by VFR Group and the Barinboim Group, has developed a catalog of virtual models using AI technology.
"We can create a life-like model in any shape and size and create a look book with endless possibilities,” she said. “We can then take a simple photo and with the click of a button dress the model. A studio can create 100 looks a day, but we can create an unlimited number.”
Essentially, the company is able to completely eliminate the need for costly and time-consuming photo shoots, and using AI technology, is able to create an unlimited number of virtual models and styles.
In fact, the AI technology behind the platform is so advanced that it is nearly impossible to differentiate between the virtual model and a real person.
“We have a catalog of models that come in all shapes and sizes, including plus size models and models with disabilities – the possibilities are endless,” she said.
"It is important to note that we are not creating plastic dolls, we believe in empowering the body and we really love imperfection. We try to include some kind of imperfect element into each of our models just like in real people,” she added.
Grupper said that this new hi-tech solution even allows companies to custom develop models targeted specifically for their brand and market and in the future, companies will even be able to specifically target customers with custom made virtual models according to their personal tastes and preferences.
“We can create a specific look for different markets from London to New York to Shanghai with just the click of a button and without the need for massive photo-shoot productions in different locations,” she said.
“This hi-tech solution was designed to facilitate the process for our clients, to reduce costs, to insert the world of fashion into the world of hi-tech,” she added. “To date there is no other company that is doing what we are doing at this level. We have limited competition, but we believe that our tech is really the top of the line.”
As such, within its first year of operation, Styletech is already working with numerous fashion brands, including Israeli fashion brands Urbanica and Afrodita as well as international lingerie brands and other fashion companies in the US and Canada.
Currently, the startup is looking for its second round of investments.
“There are companies that want to include real people at the front and there are those that are very proud to be part of the change in the industry and integrate new tech into their brand,” she said.
“The market takes time to adapt to new tech and the world will take some time to adapt,” she added. “But this is the future of fashion, and we are at the forefront.”
For more information: Styletech
This article was written in cooperation with Styletech