REWRITING THE PATTERN

BEYOND NOISE MEETS The women using artificial intelligence to reshape fashion—from creativity and commerce, to confidence and conscious consumption.

By Juju Rosell

Long before a trend reaches our wardrobes, designers, buyers, and brands have already made countless decisions about what we’ll wear next. It’s no easy feat. Even with data and industry expertise, anticipating customer behavior remains one of fashion’s biggest challenges and often comes at a cost: overproduction, unnecessary returns, inefficient supply chains—simultaneously leaving shoppers overwhelmed, fatigued by choice, and under-confident in what they buy.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a tool in addressing these shortcomings, not by replacing creativity, but by giving the fashion industry valuable insight into its decision-making. AI is changing how clothing is imagined, constructed, and experienced. That gives designers more time to ideate, enables brands to optimize existing resources, and lends shoppers greater power. AI’s greatest contribution is not its ability to “create” at scale (tangibly or intangibly); rather, it’s the way it allows the industry to be more intentional in what it makes, how it operates, and, ultimately, who it serves.

This transformation isn’t happening on its own. It’s driven by the individuals building cutting-edge AI technology. Beyond Noise sat down with the female founders, CEOs, and product leaders using these tools to rethink every stage of fashion, from design and production to shopping and personal style. Together, they’re redefining what innovation in design looks like. Here, automation serves imagination—not the other way around.

Stephanie Benedetto has spent years tackling one of fashion’s biggest blind spots: excess. As co-founder and CEO of ALOQIA, an AI-powered supply chain platform helping brands extract value from surplus inventory, she’s reimagining how resources move through her industry. Working with global labels like Nike and Ralph Lauren, ALOQIA has led businesses to uncover more than $1 billion in clothing that would otherwise end up in landfills. It goes to prove that some of fashion’s most meaningful innovation doesn’t happen on the runway: It begins in the supply chain.

JUJU ROSELL: If AI can give the fashion industry complete visibility into what it already has in stock, and how it can be used, is there still an excuse for waste?

STEPHANIE BENEDETTO: The era of claiming “we didn’t know it was in the warehouse” is officially over. Waste isn’t an operational mystery anymore, it’s an information failure. When AI can crawl global supply chains, index unused components, and instantly calculate their resale or reuse value, sitting on deadstock becomes a leadership decision. The next challenge is courage: The question for executives is whether they have the guts to rewire their financial models around what already exists, before ordering more.

JR: Building AI is one challenge; changing the way an entire industry thinks is another. Looking back, what has leadership taught you about creating lasting change in fashion?

SB: It all started in the 1890s on the Lower East Side with my great-grandfather. He was an immigrant who built a business by picking up garment scraps off workshop floors and turning them into new clothes. He didn’t do it to be sustainable; he did it because waste was money left on the table. Decades later, as a Wall Street lawyer, I saw billion-dollar corporations making the mistakes he avoided. That taught me the ultimate rule of driving industry change: Ideology doesn’t flip supply chains. Economics do. Whether you’re working with luxury fashion houses or consumer powerhouses, you can’t preach to the C-suite. You have to hand them a platform that saves them 15 percent on supply chain costs, starting day one.

JR: Do you think the industry has finally begun to see excess as an asset rather than a liability?

SB: For years, overstock was a dirty corporate secret, quietly written off, stashed in expensive distribution centers, or secretly incinerated. Today, smart brands realize that excess is just pre-paid capital waiting to be unlocked.

Look at Anheuser-Busch: When global giants outside of apparel adopt inventory optimization infrastructure, it proves this isn’t a niche initiative. It’s core enterprise logistics. A lot of companies are [starting to] turn liabilities into working capital.

JR: Consumers rarely see the systems that actually shape fashion. Do you think making them more visible is as important as improving them?

SB: Yes. When supply chains are dark, nobody accounts for the 700 gallons of freshwater used to make a single t-shirt, or the millions of dollars tied up in idle warehouses. When you bring auditable AI into the picture, everything changes. Visibility creates accountability, and accountability creates market value. You can’t fix what you can’t see.

JR: How has your journey changed the way you think about consumption in your own life?

SB: It’s changed everything. You stop seeing physical items as “stuff,” and start seeing them as temporary arrangements of valuable resources. Everything I do with ALOQIA comes back to my two sons. I want them to grow up in a resilient world with clean drinking water. Building a zero-waste future isn’t a corporate strategy for me; it’s the legacy we owe the next generation.

Most online shopping begins with uncertainty: “Will this actually suit me?” As Head of Product at SPREEAI, Banu Jafarli is helping transform that uncertainty into confidence. Working alongside leading fashion industry organizations including Vogue Business and the CFDA, SPREEAI uses AI-powered virtual try-on technology to help shoppers visualize before they buy—creating a retail experience that’s not only more intuitive, but also better informed and increasingly sustainable.

JR: SPREEAI often talks about solving a “confidence problem,” rather than simply a shopping problem. Is confidence becoming fashion’s most valuable currency?

BANU JAFARLI: Absolutely. Fashion is incredibly emotional. People are not just buying a garment—they are buying into how they hope to look, feel, and express themselves while wearing it. The challenge with online shopping is that so much of that confidence gets lost. Customers cannot always understand how something will fit or how it will work with their personal style. That uncertainty shapes the entire journey, from discovery and consideration, to purchase, to, ultimately, returns. At SPREEAI, we see confidence as the bridge between inspiration and action. When customers can better understand a product before purchasing it, they can make more intentional decisions. That creates value not only for the customer, but also for brands by building greater trust.

JR: Building AI isn’t just about what the technology can do—it’s about understanding people. How do you make sure innovation starts with the human experience?

BJ: I always start by trying to understand both the customer problem and the brand problem. I am also the customer: As a woman who shops online, I know how difficult it can be to understand how something will look on my body or whether a product will feel the same in person as it does online. Everyone shops, but people across different demographics, body types, and lifestyles experience different challenges. We all have unique preferences and ways of making decisions. A major part of my role is understanding those individual problems and identifying where they overlap.

At SPREEAI, we’re building technology around those real needs, helping brands create more personalized experiences. The goal is not to use AI to change the natural way people shop. It’s to enhance the experience. With virtual try-on, for example, high fidelity is incredibly important. The experience needs to accurately preserve the garment’s details, proportions, and overall look.

JR: For years, online shopping has normalized ordering multiple sizes, buying “just in case,” and expecting returns. Does AI have the potential to change those behaviors altogether, rather than making them easier to manage?

BJ: Absolutely. I think many of those habits exist because customers lack sufficient information. AI has the potential to change that. The goal is not just to make returns easier for brands to manage. It’s to address the uncertainty that causes them in the first place. That creates a better experience for customers, better outcomes for brands and a more sustainable model for the industry.

JR: If AI reaches the point where it can accurately predict fit, style, and personal preference, what part of the fashion experience belongs to the human?

BJ: Taste, identity, and reinvention will always belong to the individual. AI can become incredibly good at understanding patterns, surfacing relevant products, and helping people navigate an overwhelming amount of choice. But fashion is not only about selecting what’s appropriate. It is also about emotion, experimentation, and culture. Sometimes people dress for who they are today. Other times, they dress for who they are becoming. That is deeply personal. AI should expand someone’s possibilities, not narrow their style. It can introduce new ideas and show how pieces work together. The final choice—to be bold, understated, or completely original—will always belong to the consumer.

JR: What excites you most about SPREEAI’s future?

BJ: The opportunity to create a more intelligent and connected relationship between customers, brands, and products. Commerce today is still very fragmented. People discover a product in one place, find inspiration somewhere else, and ultimately purchase through a completely separate experience. Very little of that journey truly understands the individual. SPREEAI has the opportunity to connect those moments. We are building beyond a single feature or transaction, with a broader vision that includes digital twins, intelligent styling, personalized discovery, outfit building, and wardrobe intelligence. That feels most powerful to me: using technology not simply to sell more products, but to make fashion feel more personal, expressive, and intuitive.

In a world of endless choice, WISHI has pinpointed that what we need isn’t more options, but better guidance. Founded by Clea O’Hana, Lia Kislev, and Karla Welch, the platform combines AI technology with the expertise of professional stylists to make personalized fashion more accessible. Rather than trying to automate taste, WISHI uses technology to give stylists new ways to understand and respond to their clients, while keeping personal taste at the heart of the experience.

JR: You each came to WISHI with a different perspective on fashion. What made you believe personal styling could be done differently?

WISHI: We all shared the same frustration: Personal styling had become something that felt either exclusive or impersonal. You had access to a luxury stylist if you could afford it, or you were left with algorithms telling you what to buy. We knew there was a better way. Style is deeply personal. It’s about understanding someone’s lifestyle, confidence, aspirations, and how they want to feel. Technology should make that experience more accessible, not replace the human connection. That belief is what WISHI was built on.

JR: Algorithms are becoming increasingly good at learning what we like. But is knowing our preferences the same as understanding our tastes?

W: Not at all. An algorithm can learn that you buy wide-leg trousers or neutral sweaters. Taste is much more nuanced. It evolves with your career, your travels, your confidence, and even with your stages of life. A great stylist notices the things you don’t always articulate. Maybe you’re dressing for a promotion, navigating motherhood, or rediscovering your style after years of putting everyone else first. Those moments can’t be reduced to purchase history. They’re conversations.

JR: What do you think technology can learn from the stylist—and what can the stylist gain from technology?

W: Technology is incredibly good at processing information quickly. It can surface products, identify trends, and eliminate a lot of the manual work. What technology learns from stylists is judgment: Knowing when to break a rule. Knowing when a client needs confidence more than another pair of shoes. Understanding emotion, context, and trust. At the same time, AI gives stylists more time to do what they do best: build relationships and think creatively. We see AI as something that amplifies a stylist’s expertise, not replaces it.

JR: Great styling isn’t always about giving us what we already know we like. As AI becomes better at predicting our preferences, how important is it to preserve the element of surprise?

W: It’s essential. Some of the best styling moments happen when a client says, “I never would have picked that for myself.” If styling only reinforces, it stops being creative. Growth happens when someone is gently introduced to something new that still feels authentic to them. Stylists know when to push, when to listen, and when to surprise someone in a way that feels exciting rather than overwhelming.

JR: How has building WISHI together shaped the way you lead?

W: One of the greatest strengths of WISHI has always been that none of us approached the business exactly the same way. We’ve learned that the best ideas come from challenging one another, listening, and staying open to different perspectives. Fashion, technology, and entrepreneurship are constantly evolving, and we’ve tried to build a culture that embraces curiosity instead of certainty. At the end of the day, every decision comes back to one question: Does this create a better experience for our clients and our stylists?

Launched in 2020, long before AI became fashion’s latest buzzword, Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova were exploring how it might reshape the way we shop. As co-founders of DRESSX, they’ve helped redefine the relationship between design and technology: from AI-powered styling and virtual try-on to personalized AI Twins, imagining new ways for consumers to discover what to wear.

JR: DRESSX has always challenged the idea that fashion is limited to the physical world. As AI changes how fashion can be created and experienced, how has your vision for DRESSX evolved?

DARIA SHAPOVALOVA: When we started DRESSX, we had a big mission: to democratize fashion and to make it more sustainable and fun. The technology has evolved enormously since then, but the vision at its core has stayed the same. We started by showing that fashion doesn’t have to be physical to be experienced or to enable self-expression. This vision gave people new ways to experiment with their identity and clothes, beyond the limitations of the physical world.

NATALIA MODENOVA: AI has taken that idea much further. We are entering a world where anyone can create, search, and discover. Technology is becoming increasingly personal. For us, the interesting question is how we can use it not simply to generate more content, but as a tool for self-discovery.

JR: Where do you think AI could have the biggest impact next?

DS: AI has dramatically lowered the distance between having an idea and being able to see it. It gives designers and creative teams new ways to explore ideas. But we also believe that taste and point of view are fundamentally human. Technology can expand the creative toolkit, but it doesn’t replace the person with the idea or the cultural context that gives that idea meaning. Some of AI’s biggest impacts may actually happen outside of the creative process. Fashion has never had a shortage of beautiful products. One of its biggest problems, particularly online, is helping someone decide: “Is this right for me? Will I actually wear it? How will it look on me?”

NM: That’s where we see enormous potential. Our research found that shoppers using AI Try-On viewed seven times more product listings and converted 50 percent more often than those who weren’t. AI can help people navigate the enormous amount of clothing that already exists. We think that shift, from AI primarily as a content creation tool to AI as a decision-making tool, is one of the most interesting developments to watch.

JR: When people hear the term “fashion tech,” they often think about digital technology. What do you wish people understood about the human side of what you’re building?

NM: Fashion is incredibly human. We use clothes to communicate who we are, how we feel, and sometimes, who we want to become. Technology only matters if it makes that experience better. One finding from our research that we found particularly interesting was that around 80 percent of AI Try-On engagement was with full-body, realistic visualization, rather than more basic AI twin formats.

DS: For years, a lot of the conversation around digital identity was about creating avatars. What we’re seeing now is different: People want technology to help them understand themselves better. The best fashion AI will eventually feel almost invisible. People won’t use it because they want an “AI experience.” They’ll use it because it gives them confidence.

JR: These days, is our idea of what makes fashion valuable changing?

DS: Absolutely—although we don’t think it diminishes the value of physical clothing. A garment can carry identity, memory, status, creativity, and emotion. Digital experiences simply give us new ways to build those relationships. What is changing is how much of the fashion experience can happen before, around, and beyond ownership. You might discover something through an AI assistant, virtually try it on, experiment with it, before ever owning the physical piece.

NM: That creates a much more fluid relationship between the physical and digital. We don’t necessarily see the future as one versus the other. They will simply be different parts of the same experience.