[mynti]

To me it feels so weird that people are trying to push these model for online shopping like "here is how this dress/shirt/pants would look on you". But these models will always make the clothes fit your body and show you in flattering light and so on. How the actual garment fits is still as elusive as before these tools

[teraflop]

The short-term goal of a tool like this is to sell products. The more ambitious long-term goal is to shift cultural norms, blurring the lines between advertising and reality until the question you're asking is no longer consciously asked. At least, not by average people, and not at the point of purchase.

I find it easy to envision a world, maybe 50 years from now, in which the very concept of "truth in advertising" is viewed as a lost, idyllic fantasy. Something people are nostalgic for, but feel powerless to regain.

[dataflow]

> I find it easy to envision a world, maybe 50 years from now, in which the very concept of "truth in advertising" is viewed as a lost, idyllic fantasy.

From what I hear (fact-check, etc. needed) that's already the case right now with much more consequential transactions, like renting real estate in NYC. Square footages that are blatant lies, etc.

[supern0va]

>I find it easy to envision a world, maybe 50 years from now, in which the very concept of "truth in advertising" is viewed as a lost, idyllic fantasy. Something people are nostalgic for, but feel powerless to regain.

Alternatively, perhaps we'll see models fine-tuned or steer-able towards accuracy that customers can themselves use to get a more honest view on what the product would look like in person.

The funny thing about these tools is that they can go either direction, but it sure seems like there's the potential for it empower individuals and shift the balance. Clothing sales shifting online has given sellers the advantage/ease to deceive without much customers can do other than hope the reviews aren't manipulated (they are) even before AI. Maybe this can turn things around as people start to shop with personal agents.

[jcelerier]

> Alternatively, perhaps we'll see models fine-tuned or steer-able towards accuracy that customers can themselves use to get a more honest view on what the product would look like in person.

we live in a world where the norm is to use filters on pictures of your own face to lie about how you look, imagine thinking than people actually care about truthness

[supern0va]

>imagine thinking than people actually care about truthness

I think they actually care about "truthness" when it comes to how others will perceive them. You might filter your face for an online photo.

However, you're not going to want to look at yourself through your selfie camera with a filter that hides your imperfections when you're checking to see if something is stuck in your teeth on a date, don't you think?

There's nuance. People will fudge the truth to be perceived better, but don't want to be lied to when gathering data about how to be perceived better.

[jcelerier]

> However, you're not going to want to look at yourself through your selfie camera with a filter that hides your imperfections when you're checking to see if something is stuck in your teeth on a date, don't you think?

No, but you definitely use it in all the pictures you put on dating apps

[supern0va]

Sure, but just because I may want to filter the photos I post, doesn't mean I want my mirror to show me a distorted view of reality. Isn't this use case more like the mirror, and less like the dating app?

[derefr]

That's a fun thought. A gradual division between "institutional models" trained to have capabilities that solve for the needs of corporations, vs. "personal models" trained to have capabilities that solve for the needs of individuals.

I wonder what kind of capabilities those might be?

[ElProlactin]

> I find it easy to envision a world, maybe 50 years from now, in which the very concept of "truth in advertising" is viewed as a lost, idyllic fantasy.

There hasn't been "truth in advertising" for many, many years. The only thing that has changed recently is that you don't even have to hide most of the lies.

[palmotea]

> I find it easy to envision a world, maybe 50 years from now, in which the very concept of "truth in advertising" is viewed as a lost, idyllic fantasy. Something people are nostalgic for, but feel powerless to regain.

It's infuriating the amount of effort people will expend to claim that what was achieved in the past is literally impossible to do now. It's pervasive, especially from allegedly-smart people like software engineers.

[dleeftink]

Software has a dependency contract that is quite unique. We can't imagine the shelflife beyond the Bazaar or Cathedral. They seem ever lasting.

The myth of impossibility remains, because we can't imagine what it means to forever occupy those places, even when others rise past them.

[verisimi]

> I find it easy to envision a world, maybe 50 years from now, in which the very concept of "truth in advertising" is viewed as a lost, idyllic fantasy.

I find it easy now!

[khurs]

As long as the Product Manger gets a bonus/promotion then it's a success.

[k2enemy]

I've noticed something similar in Facebook marketplace ads for used furniture. Most of the images are AI generated to look like a Pottery Barn catalog, then the last image will be the actual item, full of scratches and other damage, sitting in a messy garage.

[mikepurvis]

I've started to see this on Etsy and Wayfair too, where there will be a listing that is clearly just MDF flatpack being resold from China, but the AI-generated images wildly exaggerate the proportions of it.

Here's a recent example: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/4509158065/corner-wall-shelf...

Ironically, ChatGPT is decently good at ferreting these out. Like I sent it a screenshot of that listing and it not only helped me find where the original item was for sale, but also pointed out how the dimensioned diagram shows it as being just 49" tall, whereas the "in real life" image looks like it's at least six feet, based on it coming up over the top of the picture frame.

I ended up engaging a local woodworker to make me a piece like it instead. Obviously an order of magnitude difference in price, but it will actually be real solid walnut and finished to match my dining table.

[gtowey]

Even funnier is that first picture shows the bottom panel overlapping the baseboard in a way that is impossible in real life.

[throwup238]

The merchant is even called “VibesPlante”

[aembleton]

Estate agents are also doing it; making interiors of houses look very different to how they really are.

[spaceman_2020]

This should really be illegal

[jeremyjh]

Yes and even if all they do is ask it to stage an empty room picture with furniture and decorations it will make improvements like adding a doorway to a room that doesn’t exist.

[agile-gift0262]

The worst I've seen changed the view out a window from an alley to a private garden. Most also add natural light that isn't possible, and in some cases I'm convinced the generate image is depicting the space as larger than it actually is, with furniture and spaces that wouldn't fit in reality

[hiccuphippo]

I once heard about a company that specialized in making furniture about 10% smaller than normal for use in show rooms to make the spaces look larger. Not surprised they do it with AI if they can.

[masfuerte]

This is a thing in show homes on new-build estates in the UK. British houses are often tiny.

[mikepurvis]

Wide angle lenses have been a thing in real estate photography since forever, but you would always have the reference of the furniture to ground your perception. Having furniture be slightly downsized is diabolical.

[skinfaxi]

Seems like false advertising.

[QuantumGood]

And knocking out the messy garage background to replace it with a showroom is the easiest prompt.

[victorbjorklund]

Is it gonna be less distorted than just seeing the shirt on a model photographed by a professional in the perfect light?

[collinmcnulty]

Yes, because it is the actual dimensions of the real shirt.

[smith7018]

Many product/model shots actually use clips to make the clothing look like it's perfectly fitted to the body. [1] This image is actually over 15 years old at this point. I think there should be laws that prevent this because it veers into false advertising though others believe it's alright because you can theoretically tailor the clothes to fit like this.

Regardless, I'd rather see real clothing on a real person when it comes to my purchasing decisions. I buy a lot of vintage clothes online and I've noticed a dramatic uptick in AI images of models wearing the clothes. I've never once bought from those sellers because it feels disingenuous. Sometimes they have fake runways which is actual false advertising because it makes the item appear more expensive than it really is. I've also noticed that the AI models' body types are always thin even if the item is a L or XL. Needless to say, the AI isn't showing me what an XL looks like on a small model; it's showing what a small model would look like if the item fit perfectly.

[1] https://www.primermagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/St...

[stavros]

That image isn't from a clothes catalog, they'd generally use the unaltered garment there.

[phainopepla2]

Nope. I used to assist a photographer who did shoots for catalogs, and clips were used quite a bit. The same model has to wear dozens of pieces of clothing throughout the shoot, and not everything is going to fit their body well, but the clients obviously want everything to look well fitted.

[stavros]

Ah, I stand corrected, thanks.

[coldtea]

Yes, because at least that won't be flattering you (not to mention it would be showing the actual garment).

[number6]

Sounds exactly like something the marketing department would use to up the convertion rate

[pwillia7]

I bet if you had a way to easily train a LORA on you trying on various clothing types the models would do pretty well but I agree without that I can't think of a way to get it to work. Reminds me of the flattering mirrors scam https://finance.yahoo.com/news/company-swears-controversial-...

[aljgz]

One joy of online shopping, especially for people doing it in an impulsive and/or addictive way (it's not really rare) is the satisfaction they get from the imagination of having it.

An acquaintance of mine was buying many and not wearing most, as she did not attend that many social occasions. Still, she kept buying.

Eventually, she had to face the actual problem in her life that bothered her. She ended up dealing with it, terribly.

[jliptzin]

If it doesn’t fit, then you must have gained weight while the item was in transit

[agile-gift0262]

You can fix it through our partner, Ozempic

[viraptor]

There's definitely a predatory "everything will look good", but you can also leverage exactly that part for your own purposes - I've done pre-shopping a couple of times by asking for something like "a grid of 9 versions of my photo, wearing different types of X that look good". Definitely helped with choosing a good style.

[brookst]

The more honest ones are “how it looks on you” and don’t promise fit that depends on so many measurements that aren’t even visible in pics.

Sure, it’s idealized, but some people benefit from seeing color / neckline / etc on themselves as a visual reference.

Me, I’m a text-learner so I don’t get it at all. But I know people who get value.

[kmfrk]

Definitely. I think the appeal to some isn't GenAI per se but image-to-image generation like "make this item look like a talented photographer shot it".

But I can't imagine that your conversion wouldn't benefit by showing actual imperfect photos of your products, especially when you run a platform with 1k new listings per month. I'm personally turned off by something that looks like 3D, especially when all the different colour variations look the exact same.

[walrus01]

The cynic in me says this is just an advancement and logical continuation from the known problem of sycophantic behavior in text-to-text chatbot format LLM, to image generation models.

[inerte]

To me the tools are newer, but fit people in a controlled context to sell clothing is as old as photography itself.

[LogicFailsMe]

I use nanobanana 2 to test changes in paint and flooring/tiling to great success. And the real pro move is taking those images to a designer to tweak the remaining 20% or so.

[sixothree]

You just described how people are using AI in general. And I think that last step is actually a huge gap. People will brainstorm or improve their understanding of the task with AI and create something. Ideally they would hand it off to a professional for finalization like you did.

I wish a service existed where I could make something in AI (text, images, whatever), then pass that AI output to an actual human who would use it as a guide to produce an actual product.

[paradox460]

I used it recently to explore a few placements of a pool and glass building on my property. It's not authoritative, by any means, but it did answer some questions

And at this level it's barely any different than an architectural render, more for "how could this look" rather than "how will this look"

[TylerE]

To be fair in many cases the actual clothes aren't much better. I've had two pair of the same pants, same brand, same size fit noticeably differently.

[therealpygon]

Good or bad, I’m pretty sure showing things in the best light has always been the point of “marketing”. There is a reason ads aren’t filled with ugly people with misshaped bodies, and it isn’t because the intention is to reflect reality, so what you allude to as problematic is what a lot of businesses call a feature.

[sixothree]

I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere people can sell re-sell clothes. They can include a picture of themselves wearing the item and it replaces literally everything but the clothing with someone/someplace "prettier".

In the end the one thing that is completely honest is the portion of the picture that is the item you are re-selling. But somehow to me the entire thing feels disingenuous.

[therealpygon]

Marketing a product is often disingenuous. You didn’t actually need that shirt, or that bag of chips. That’s the definition of successful marketing in their mind.

If marketing had to be honest, an entirely different set of products would likely be the most popular. I don’t think that’s a good thing by any means, just that the problem hasn’t really changed much beyond more focused targeting, which has always been a goal of marketing anyway.

It’s hard to convince someone who isn’t interested to buy something which is why tech ads sell on tech channels and car ads sell on car channels. Now you get to star in your very own clothes ads…for yourself…targeting you…

I suspect companies drool for that prospect because you are selling it to yourself with only some nice gentle nudging. That is the grail of marketing; that you don’t even realize you are in the midst of being marketed to.

[epolanski]

I have a similar use case at work for previewing construction material and such in our catalogue applied to user uploaded images.

Results are mixed, expensive, but it really feels you're few months off the next improvement to really nail it. It's already good enough.

Wonder what Qwen image will provide over nano banana.

[vunderba]

Well from the images I've seen they seem to be pushing text-heavy "infograph" capabilities pretty hard. Outside of that, I have serious doubts that it'll be better than other proprietary models like NB Pro and gpt-image-2.

[sandworm101]

User-targeted fashion advice is the polite goal. AI designed to generate images of people is actually racing to capture the entertainment markets. They want to be ready to replace models/actors in everything from fashion mags to porn studios. That is where the money is.

[yorwba]

For Alibaba, it's definitely all about shopping. That's where their money is. They haven't had much luck investing in entertainment so far.

[m463]

I see the ai product ads and it's pretty funny. The product is shown but is "broken" as far as scale is concerned.

Sort of like how they tried to make gandalf big and the hobbits small in lord of the rings (which wasn't very convincing to me)

[newswasboring]

I've been struggling with this question myself. But isn't this a model training/use problem (a.k.a skill issue )? Isn't there a way to make these models be faithful to how people will actually look?

[jareklupinski]

i'd like it to notice things i would miss, like "this is ring-spun shirt, so it will sit like this on your torso" or "these pleats will require you to iron them" etc

[DrScientist]

If the online retailer has a no quibble returns policy - then at there is at least a strong incentive to minimise returns, rather than oversell.

[jeromechoo]

It’s clear to us here on HN but to the average person today the way these models actually work is beyond the realm of constraints and reasoning.

[morningsam]

Maybe this will lead to more business for tailors doing alterations, assuming the clothes people end up buying are expensive enough to justify it.

[jimnotgym]

I understand they are already doing decent business since the advent of the magic weight loss pen

[spaceman_2020]

A prompt went viral recently where people were sharing their pictures and asking chatgpt to visualise what their looksmatched partner would look like

The result was always someone extremely good looking

There’s going to be an entirely new class of mental disorders that will emerge from people being deluded by AI

[imhoguy]

This will push us even more to go outside and visit actual shops. Becouse thanks to AI we will have more time? Will we?

[geniium]

Yet it pushes the goal of the brand/shop forward: make the product more appealing and sell

[daedrdev]

But they dont have to do either of these things. Thats just what people prompt

[qwertox]

> But these models will always make the clothes fit your body and show you in flattering light and so on

This is something that can be fixed over time. And if this forces clothing manufacturers to stick more to their advertised "specs" (width/length), then it's a win for us.

[coldtea]

Nobody that's pushing it has any incentive for fixing it - and they have all the opposite incentives.

[zkmon]

How does this fry pan look with a fish in it? Ask Mr Bean.