Kimono design and color scheme proposal using image-generating AI technology

Abstract: The kimono market has shrunk by about a tenth in 40 years. While demand is decreasing, there is an equal or even more significant shortage of companies and workers, so some existing companies face a greater burden in production than before. Some kimono OEM productions in Nishijin, a part of Kyoto in Japan famous for kimono textiles, have more customers as the number of competitors in the same business is decreasing. This has made it difficult to propose differentiated designs for each customer. In particular, the content of the customer's order is often expressed only in words and abstract expressions, making it difficult to determine the design. In addition, it is usually necessary to consider multiple color schemes for each design. These processes must be carried out by a limited number of people within the company and in a short period. Given the current situation, we believe ‘streamlining the design process’ is necessary in the kimono industry. On the other hand, the technological development of image-generating AI is accelerating rapidly and attracting great social interest. The rapid development of image-generating AI technology is expected to improve the productivity of various operations in various industries. Therefore, this study investigated and verified the possibility of using image-generating AI in the kimono design process. In the experiment, AI was used to generate images using texts as input values, and it was examined whether the design and color scheme of the images matched human impressions. Under the current experimental environment, it was found that the AI-generated images and human impressions were close in terms of country/region with a high degree of accuracy. The color analysis showed that the color of the AI-generated images was comparable to that of human impressions for both the country/region and the adjective word. This suggested the possibility of using image-generating AIs to support the kimono coloring process.

Keywords: Design, AI, Human Impression, Kimono

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004920

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