Chanel
AIRD, AI & Biomaterials in Luxury RTW
The winning concept for the ESMOD Business Marathon brief for Chanel: AI put to work on biomaterials, so the innovation stays inside the house codes.
BRIEF
The ESMOD Business Marathon brief, set for Chanel, asked how an ultra-luxury house can bring AI and digital into its creative process while respecting the codes that make it luxury: heritage, craftsmanship, rarity, experience and discretion. The context was rising production costs, tightening sustainability regulation and intense competition. The answer had to justify price through something genuinely new, not through branding alone.
APPROACH
Rather than using AI as a marketing layer, the concept put it where a luxury house actually competes: materials. AIRD, Artificial Intelligence Research Development, was framed as an R&D capability for bio-based fabrics, mapped across six stages from research and molecular discovery to production and performance analysis.
Each biomaterial was then matched to a wellness need a customer already feels, sleep, heat, cold and stress, and to a fibre the house already uses, so the innovation works inside the codes rather than replacing them. Every proposition was given a 2025 starting point and a 2030 horizon.
OUTPUT
A strategic concept for a new category, scientific ready-to-wear, presented as a final pitch to the competition jury.
- AIRD innovation frameworkSix AI stages, from research to performance analysis
- Four wellness propositionsSleep, heat, cold and stress, each tied to a biomaterial, a fibre and a garment
- Material researchEncapsulated antioxidants, gene-edited hemp, biocompatible polymers and tension-variation knit
- 2030 product roadmapFrom durable fibre integration to in-garment sensing and adaptive response
- Commercial propositionPatented, functional wellness as the justification for price
- Final pitch deckAn 18-slide presentation to the competition jury
Four wellness propositions
Sleep
- Encapsulated antioxidants
- Silk
- Sleepwear
Heat
- Gene-edited hemp
- Vicuña
- Outerwear
Cold
- Biocompatible polymers
- Cashmere
- Innerwear
Stress
- Tension-variation knit
- Wool
- Activewear
AIRD across production
- Research
AI data aggregation and search.
- Collection
AI-powered molecular discovery.
- Generation
Generative design and modelling.
- Application
Predictive bio-integration modelling.
- Production
AI production optimisation.
- Analysis
Global performance data analysis.
RESULTS
- Winning entry, ESMOD Business Marathon, Verified
- 1stWinning entry, ESMOD Business Marathon
- Wellness propositions developed, Project scale
- 4Wellness propositions developed
- Stage AI production framework, Project scale
- 6Stage AI production framework
- Product roadmap horizon, Project scale
- 2030Product roadmap horizon
Maison Kitsuné
Chez Kitsuné, Tableware Line · Competition Brief
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