This Sydney-based designer is using AI to create surreal, sculptural fashion

“I wanted to create a collection that used AI in ways it wasn’t intended to be used.”

As an official media partner of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Fashion Journal is excited to once again be supporting the National Graduate Showcase x Emporium Melbourne, celebrating Australia’s top-ranked emerging fashion design talent. The top 10 leading graduates from across the country will exhibit their collections in a boundary-pushing presentation, showcasing experimental design and innovation.

Looking for more fashion news and features? Head to our Fashion section.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling each designer through a series of interviews. Next up is Alexander Enticknap. A recent honours graduate from the University of Technology, Alexander has been exploring the creative potential of artificial intelligence within fashion design. His resulting graduate collection, Zero-Sum Game, blends carnival surrealism with sculptural, distorted silhouettes, like something from a fever dream.

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an honours graduate from the University of Technology, Sydney. I am a designer primarily interested in exploring applications of new technology within the fashion industry. My collection, Zero-Sum Game, explores the creative use of artificial intelligence (AI) … It’s a collection that is warped, distorted, compressed and abstract; a blend of carnival surrealism, sculptural silhouettes and distorted textiles.

When did you know you wanted to get into fashion and textile design?

I was studying a different degree in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics] that I was not particularly interested in… and couldn’t really apply myself properly to. I would spend my days going to class and in the evenings, I would trawl auction sites looking at archival clothing and watch runway shows. At the time, I felt unhappy with where I was and where I was going, so I took the chance to immerse myself in something I saw I had a passion for.

What were the major points of inspiration for your collection, and you more broadly as a designer?

When I first became aware of how creative AI was being used within the fashion industry and broader art community, I was interested in the ethical debate about its use. I wanted to create a collection that used AI in ways it wasn’t intended to be used; resisting designing from pre-visualisation and instead embracing chance.

I wanted to explore how AI can be used to create new outcomes without recycling the old. As a designer, I find myself drawn to debates about creativity and creative practice, so exploring using AI myself was inevitable.

Tell us about the experience of putting together your graduate collection.

It was a fun but gruelling year. [It involved] lots of experimentation, playing with different shapes, silhouettes, patterns, prints and different methods of working with AI. [I was] treating AI as less of a tool to do a specific task and more of an open collaborator; figuring out ways to break it, developing warped figures and garments from that process.

I found that being a student with a limited portfolio of work gave me a unique perspective in using AI. It pushed me to experiment in a more abstract manner that was centred around patternmaking.

What part does sustainability play in your design practice? And other ethical considerations?

A large portion of my collection is made using zero-waste methods. I spend a lot of time manipulating [fabrics] from selvedge to selvedge and exploring the forms created from that. Beyond material sustainability, I think the role of designers should be to encourage more socially sustainable ways of engaging with fashion.

I see AI in the fashion industry as something that’s a bit daunting. The way it’s used at the moment, for both design and marketing, worries me a little. I want to show people that it can be used in an original manner, and if we want AI to be better, the best way to go about doing that is to tell better stories about AI.

Who do you think is most exciting in Australian fashion right now?

My former classmates definitely excite me the most, they make me want to keep creating and I look forward to what the industry will look like in a few years.

What about the Australian fashion industry needs to change?

I think it’s already starting to happen, but it’s exciting to me to see the fashion industry embracing emerging talent and independent creators more. I think, slowly, [Australian] clothing is becoming a bigger export rather than talented [Australian] creators moving away to work overseas.

Also, it’s exciting to see experimental clothing being created a bit more, [as well as] work that exists as something more conceptual.

Dream Australian collaborators?

I would love to work for Song for the Mute and would love to collaborate with Injury.

To view more of Alexander’s work, head here. You can get your tickets to PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s National Graduate Showcase x Emporium Melbourne here.