bonprix Fashion Creation App: new AI tool inspires fashion design

From the first idea to the finished product in the webshop – the development of new fashion styles involves many steps. bonprix is consistently digitising this process and relying on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 3D technologies. At the very beginning of the product development process, the new and self-developed Fashion Creation App is now put to use. With just a few inputs, it provides the product management with inspiration for designs. After a successful testing phase and the sale of the first AI-assisted styles in the bonprix webshop, the fashion company announces an expansion of the fashion range for the current year.

The new Fashion Creation App represents the first step towards a completely digitalised product development process, which will eventually encompass everything from design ideas to virtual fitting. “At bonprix, we pursue the vision of a fully digital end-to-end product development process to make our operations more efficient and flexible. Our goal is to respond more quickly to trends and customer wishes while working more sustainably,” explains Jessica Külper, Head of Consulting & Innovations at bonprix. Several digital applications are already in use, with more in development.

App development in-house

The Fashion Creation App was developed in-house by a team of AI specialists at bonprix. The tool aims to accelerate the time-consuming and research-intensive design phase while fostering the creativity of product designers. The web-based application utilises generative AI, which provides design suggestions through text prompts or by uploading individual images or sketches. To achieve optimal results, multimodal generative models are additionally employed in combination with classic image processing. This ensures that the tool delivers both high quality and flexibility to customise designs individually.

Results in photorealistic quality

Thanks to the app, designers and product developers at bonprix can easily and quickly turn their creative ideas into visual designs. With just a few clicks, new styles can be generated in photorealistic quality, which can either serve directly as a briefing template or as a basis for discussions and inspiration. Further adjustments to individual preferences and specifications can be made through the integrated editing tool. In addition to the product category, users specify desired attributes, colours, and materials via prompts, and subsequently receive various suggestions for further processing.

“The Fashion Creation App greatly simplifies and enhances the inspiration phase in product development,” reports Jessica Külper. “The photorealistic representation of the product, complemented by a detailed style briefing, significantly improves the handover to technical product development.”

Last autumn, the first AI-assisted garment, a striped cardigan, went live in the webshop and was quickly sold out – more styles will follow.

Digital end-to-end product development in focus

In the product development of the Hamburg-based fashion company, several digital applications are already in use, such as the Learning Collection tool for predicting the success of items and the 3D-Fitting, which tests and finalises materials, cuts, and different sizes on a 3D avatar. With the new Fashion Creation App, bonprix has now set another important milestone in the transformation of product development.

Carolin Klar, Managing Director of Product, Sourcing & Corporate Responsibility, sees great value in the innovative tool: “The Fashion Creation App is an example of how we at bonprix effectively use AI for the use of digitalisation tools in the value chain. By strategically deploying new technologies, we continuously improve our product development processes and thus strengthening the product and shopping experience for our customers as well as our competitiveness in the market.”