Pooches, Purses, and AI with Poppy Lissiman
The dogs are the stars of the show, of course, but Poppy’s use of AI to assist in designing this collection is what really defines the Pet Collection. office sat down with the designer to discuss the impact of AI on her craft and the fashion industry as a whole.
When it comes to applying it to the world of fashion design, AI can be polarizing. What inspiration can artists and designers gain from using it?
In this collection, we see AI as both a tool for artists and designers and as an aesthetic in itself. As for the aesthetic part, we’re talking about a technology still in its early, imperfect stages. The images generated by computers today are still a bit wonky. There’s a friction and a wrongness there that we wanted to lean into. Rather than critique the way images turn out, we wanted to embrace it as an aesthetic in itself.
As for the movement of AI in the design world, there’s a lot of concern that the existence and development of this sort of technology will render artists and designers obsolete. And as a designer, I can’t really afford to think like that. I’m not trying to speak for all designers here, but I can’t single-handedly stop AI. Nor is my protesting going to do anything beyond me missing out on what could be a really fun way to bring my ideas to life. Instead of worrying too much about the downsides of computer-generated art, I’d rather become inspired by its potential and lean into the crazy.
I think it’s also important to remember that you can’t generate an original image without an original prompt, and to create an original prompt you still need an original idea. Those ideas come from us! And the idea of chucking some slightly skew-whiff Shih Tzus on a vegan leather handbag still came from my brain. There’s always a human element. The originality is in the prompt. I hope this collection inspires people to play around with AI — to use it as a tool for bringing your weirder ideas to life, and to remember that creativity lies within your ability to ask an original question, or in this case, give a slightly bizarre prompt to a machine and watch it turn it into a slightly imperfect reality.
We’re aware that you love Pomeranians, who take front and center in some of these designs. What spurred this eccentric, dog-inspired accessory collection?
If you saw the Explore page of my Instagram it’s literally just videos of Pomerianians and I love that. My heart skips a beat when I see one on the street, I squeal with excitement. I wanted to recreate that feeling on some bags — obviously, we had to start with a Pom, then we included some of the other dogs which are some of the most beloved family members of people I know.
How do you plan to continue incorporating AI into your design process while still honoring the human, hands-on elements of creation?
Honestly, the human, hands-on element of creating this collection far outweighed AI. The amount of tweaking, editing, and updating of this imagery was A LOT. So much so, that it took us just over a year from original conception to release, which is roughly three times longer than normal. At the moment, I don’t see us using AI too much more in the design process. It’s sometimes a great tool to use as a starting point then tweak and play with from there but the human touch is what works best for us.
Lots of Poppy Lissiman designs embrace weirdness. What advice would you give to help others find the beauty in the bizarre?
I love the left of center, the slightly off — the little bit ‘ugly.’ Run of the mill, same as everything else is boring. I very much feel beauty is in the eye of the beholder so the weird and bizarre might not be everyone’s taste — it’s very personal. But I do say lean into that weirdness. Seeing a Pomeranian literally brings me so much happiness that I had to have a bag with one of them on it. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea and there’s probably not anything in the rule book to say having a bag with small wonky dogs on it is du jour but if something brings you joy — wear it, do it, embrace it.
Which Poppy pet best reflects your personality and why?
As much as I’d like to say the Pomeranian bag, it’s probably the quivering little chihuahua on the Yap Yap bag. I probably most identify as a chihuahua. Constantly teetering on a state of flight or fight — anxious and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
