fashionINSTA.AI

FashionINSTA is the first AI tool that generates .dxf patterns that are ready to be stitched. 

With over 15 years of experience in product development and pattern drafting, we know that all garments have only one thing in common - THE PATTERN. 

Pattern is the core of every garment - it's how a designer's idea becomes a tangible good.

-> From the pattern depends if your customer will love your product, or will send it back, writing negative reviews.
-> From the pattern depends if the garment will cost you $50 or $500 in production
-> From the pattern depends if the garment is what the designer envisioned it to be


We love AI-generated fashion images, but we know they are worth nothing if they are not feasible in the real world. That's why fashionINSTA was born - we give you a tool that makes those images REAL GARMENTS.

Co-Founder & CEO

Teaching Digital Making of Fashion
- Introduction to AI tools for fashion - best use cases, available tools, and ways to always be up to date with evolving technology.
- CLO3D - from basics to advanced
- Patternmaking & fittings in CLO3D
- Adobe Substance and Unreal Engine for Fashion - showcasing garments in real-time app
- 3D + AI - how to take the best of two technologies to establish a fully digital product development process and unlock on-demand manufacturing

Lecturer - Digital Making of Fashion

Timberland, a VF Company

- Driving genAI tools implementation and development within Timberland Product Hub
- Serving as the in-house expert, enhancing the brand's 3D/AI skills and introducing innovative workflows.
- Delivering 100% of the collection in 3D (driving the team of 7+ external collaborators).
- Providing hands-on support in 3D sewing, adjusting fit and fabric, selecting materials, streamlining automation processes, and rendering, ensuring our presentations are of the highest standard.
- Took the lead on significant projects, including the creation of a 3D trim library for Timberland, which set a standard for all VF brands, and the development of a versatile 3D avatar that perfectly aligns marketing visuals with real-world fitting.
- Pioneering technology integration with a people-centric approach, emphasizing the importance of human touch in driving innovation. Advocating for leveraging technology as a tool that amplifies, not replaces, human creativity.
- I champion change management initiatives using the ADKAR method, ensuring that technology adoption is smooth and employees feel valued and guided in the process.
- Vigilantly test and adopt new technologies and industry practices, ensuring we're ahead of the curve and making informed decisions on training, software, and resources.

Skills:
Maya, ZBrush, Vstitcher, Adobe Substance, Garment Construction, Adobe Illustrator, Fashion Design, Textiles, Fashion, 3D Modeling, 3D, ZBrush, Substance Designer, Unreal Engine, Manufacturing Process Improvement, Analytical Skills, New Business Development, Product Management, Problem Solving, Generative AI, Photoshop, Computer Ethics, Project Management, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Analysis, Research and Development (R&D),

3D Apparel Specialist |  Vstitcher, Unreal Engine, Maya, Adobe Substance, AI, Process Innovation

E-THICAL Digital Fashion

At E-THICAL, I consistently harnessed my expertise to drive innovations in 3D fashion, ensuring our designs were not just visually appealing but also sustainable and inclusive. My dedication to the role ensured we remained at the forefront of technological advancements in the fashion industry. 

- I championed the use of cutting-edge technologies to foster sustainability in fashion. One notable achievement was transitioning from physical to digital samples, making the process 70% faster and reducing costs by 50% for our clients
- Managed and executed R&D projects, enhancing the quality and efficiency of our 3D design processes.
- Played a pivotal role in promoting digital samples over physical ones, highlighting their cost-efficiency, speed, and sustainability benefits.
- Collaborated with a team of specialists to innovate and implement 3D solutions, leveraging tools like Maya, ZBrush, Vstitcher, CLO3D, Unreal Engine, Adobe Substance Package.

Skills:
Unreal Engine, Maya, ZBrush, Vstitcher, Clo 3D, Adobe Substance, Photoshop, Project Management, Garment Construction, Adobe Illustrator, Product Development, Fashion Design, 3D Modeling, Substance Designer, substance Painter

Technical Director & 3D Fashion Developer | Unreal Engine, Clo3D, Vstitcher, ZBrush, Maya

Max Mara Fashion Group

At Max Mara Fashion Group, I began my role as a seamstress, mastering the fine details of garment creation. 
As I advanced, I further developed my expertise in pattern making, ensuring accuracy in every design. Recognizing the potential of digitization, I transitioned into 3D fashion development. In this role, I bridged the gap between traditional craftsmanship and modern design techniques. Collaborating closely with designers, I translated concepts into 3D models, ensuring each digital garment mirrored the quality and standards of its physical counterpart. 
This blend of hands-on experience and tech-savviness enabled me to offer invaluable insights and solutions in the sample room, making designs come to life in both the physical and digital realms.

Skills:
Analytical Skills, Clo 3D, Problem Solving, Photoshop, Garment Construction, Pattern Making, Adobe Illustrator, Apparel Design, Microsoft Excel, Product Development, Fashion Design, Textiles, Fashion, 3D Design.

Sample Room Consultant | 3D Fashion Development, Pattern Design, Seamstress

3D Fashion Developer/Pattern Maker/ Sample Maker

Optimizing Fashion Industry processes with 3D & AI | Whispering the Secrets of Fashion Tech | Keynote Speaker & Fashion Geek

I am ambitious.
I am creative.
I am bold.

Let me introduce myself.

Instead of telling you what I love, 
I'll let you know what I hate!

→ I hate to be stuck.
Or you grow, or you die. 
Comfort zones are prisons.

→ I hate being late.
I am an innovator and learner.
Always trying to be ahead of the curve.

→ I hate people without an opinion.
You can't please everyone, so speak up.
Show who you are. Otherwise, you seem sneaky.

→I hate wasting my time.
Repetitive tasks can be automated.
Easy ones can be delegated. Do yourself what matters.

→ I hate it when everything is clear and easy
There is no space to play if all the puzzle pieces are in place.

Everyone can be a "fashion designer" now. 
That's the problem.

The more AI-generated garments I see, 
The clearer it becomes.

We're missing the point entirely.

I see stunning AI renders daily. 

Perfect draping. 
Impossible constructions. 
Magazine-ready.

How many can actually be produced?

Once, becoming a designer meant: 
→ Years of study 
→ Understanding construction 
→ Learning how fabric behaves 
→ Knowing what bodies need from clothing

Today? 
→ Generate 50 designs before lunch 
→ Call yourself a designer 
→ Send impossible requests to manufacturers 
→ Wonder why nothing works

AI was promising a more inclusive fashion industry.

No more $70k fashion degrees as gatekeepers. 
Young talent from anywhere breaking in. 
Fashion finally democratized.

But that's not what's happening.

What I'm actually seeing:
Manufacturers flooded with impossible AI requests. 
Designers skipping basics - "AI will handle it." 
"Real" designers vs "AI prompters" divide growing. 
Final garments look nothing like the renders.

It's creating a toxic "us vs them" mentality. 
And it's killing innovation.

I am still waiting for AI tools that:
→ Generate producible designs 
→ Calculate accurately the fabric behavior 
→ Reduce overproduction by predicting demand 
→ Enable hyperpersonalization WITH technical accuracy 

We're in the awkward teenage years of AI fashion. 

Everything feels chaotic. 
Nobody knows the rules.

There are real problems that AI can solve:
→ 30% return rates from fit issues 
→ 92 million tons of waste yearly 
→ 9-12 month development cycles 
→ Sizing that doesn't work for 70% of bodies

And I am sure AI can make fashion better.

More sustainable. 
More inclusive. 
More wearable.

That future excites me. 

Even if we're taking the scenic route to get there :)

PS: What about old, good Midjourney images? 
I didn't publish any for ages :)

PS2: thanks Jade Wei 🪡👩🏻‍💻🌿 for inspiring this post!

Sylwia Szymczyk

Generate .dxf pattern in 1 minute | fashionINSTA.ai Insider Community | From Seamstress to Fashion Geek & Keynote Speaker

Giorgio Armani gave me the chance when nobody else would.

It's 2015. 
I'm in Italy, sending 1000s of CVs. 
Rejection after rejection.

The reasons?
→ "You might get pregnant" (yes, they actually said this)
→ "No fashion degree" (I wanted to stitch, not design) 
→ "You're not Italian" (worse - Eastern European) 

Real quotes from real interviews. 
Italian fashion companies. 10 years ago.

I moved to Italy to learn from masters. 
Nobody wanted to teach me.
Except for one company.

𝗚𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗼 𝗔𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

Short contract. 
Changed everything.

Not just because it opened doors. 
(Max Mara hired me 2 months later because of it.)

But because of what I witnessed inside:

Never before. Never after. 
I have seen ALL employees speak about their boss with such love and respect.

They'd met him. Multiple times. 

They respected him. 
He wasn't just the founder. 
He WAS the culture.

And that culture gave chances to people like me:
→ Eastern European
→ No fashion degree
→ Full of grief from rejections


Armani was my sliding doors:
2012: Nobody wants me 
2015: Armani gives me a chance 
2025: Building AI that changes fashion

All because one man built a culture "talent over CV".

Giorgio Armani didn't just create fashion. 
He created opportunities for underdogs.
I'm one of thousands whose life he changed. 

Without ever meeting us.
That's legacy.

Rest in peace, Mr. Armani. 
We won't forget. 🖤

This is what I told a journalist asking me about Gen AI in fashion a few days ago:

"Gen AI didn't solve many real problems in fashion. 
It solved a lot of imaginary ones. 
And created problems fashion never had before."

Gen AI found its place in marketing. 
It's bringing value there. 
Changing the game. 

Creative campaigns, personalized content, fast iterations.

The real problem? How we use AI in product development.

We started in the right direction. 
Then completely lost our way.

What I see today:

→ Folks pretending to be designers. 
Generating impossible garments. 
Beautiful renders, zero construction sense.

→ Manufacturers drowning in AI designs. 
No idea how to produce them. 
The pixel-to-pattern gap is massive.

→ Companies dropping 80% of AI pilots. 
Tools given to designers? 
They create MORE work, not less.

→ Merchandisers treating renders as photos. 
Expecting exact replicas. 
Old CADs allowed interpretation. Not anymore.

→ Virtual try-ons that just overlay. 
They don't show real fit. 
Creating confusion, not clarity.

There's SO MUCH we could do with AI in fashion:
→ Predict demand patterns
→ Optimize supply chains
→ Automate pattern management
→ Analyze fit data at scale

Instead? We're using rocket ships to deliver pizza.

We need to stop asking "What CAN AI do?" 

Start asking "What problems do we ACTUALLY need to solve?"

Because right now, we're not disrupting fashion. 
We're just complicating it.

Are you seeing the same in your corner of the industry?

20.000 folks believing we can innovate fashion.

20.000 people who love fashion and know it can be better thanks to technology.

20.000 fashion workers who know AI and 3D are here to stay, and we better start to use them to our advantage.

Thank you for being here.
Thank you for following my journey.
Thank you for all the great discussions we had.

20k innovators,
20k creatives,
20k experts.

I am grateful for each one of you.

And I know we can make it together!

I cut 80% of the fashion PD process.
Everything broke. 
That's exactly what was needed to happen.

How everybody tells you to automate:
1. Understand the process
2. Simplify it
3. Cut steps
4. Automate

But the real deal is this: 
Cut until you have to add steps back.
That's where you find what actually matters.

I've been in product development for 15 years. 
Only now, as I build AI for it, do I actually understand it.

So many steps look like a waste. 
Until you cut them. 

Then 5 steps later, you're blocked.

Example from pattern grading:

Make edge X longer → edges Y and Z proportionally longer.

Simple rule. 
Easy to code. 
Works perfectly.

Until it doesn't.

Size 46 needs different proportions because physics exists. 
Size 38? The print doesn't match at the seams anymore.
Size 42, the pocket placement is off. 

Suddenly, your "simple rule" has 47 exceptions. 
Making the rule useless.

Those "pointless" steps? 
They're preventing disasters you haven't had yet.

What happens when you cut them?
You're blocked. 
It was load-bearing.

You want to find the MINIMUM viable process.

Not the one you have.
The one you NEED.

And only after that, automate.

How to find it:
→ Cut until it breaks
→ Note exactly HOW it breaks
→ Add back ONLY what fixes that break
→ Repeat until stable
→ Now automate

The magic isn't eliminating everything. 
It's knowing which 30% was actually theater.

After 15 years of doing product development, only now, trying to automate it, do I understand WHY we do what we do.

Respect your weird processes. 
They're weird for a reason.

What "useless" step in your work is actually mission-critical?

Not everyone's brain works best 9-5

Mine doesn't.
Gil's doesn't.
Maybe yours doesn't either.

→ Some of us hit flow state at 11 PM
→ Some need that 2-hour walk to solve problems
→ Some do their best thinking in pajamas at 6 AM

That's the beauty of remote work. 
You design YOUR perfect workday.

BUT

(There's always a but, right?)

WFH can be lonely as hell.
Zoom calls don't replace whiteboard sessions.
You can't high-five through a screen.

That's why right now, Gil Moreno and I are working together in his beautiful home city, just steps from the seaside. 

Morning: Deep focus, crushing code
Afternoon: Pattern problems, AI training
Evening: Aperitivo with sea view

The result?

We're shipping something HUGE for fashionINSTA!

Here's what I can tell you:

→ No more generic AI outputs
→ AI that knows YOUR go-to solutions
→ Your pattern-making DNA captured in AI
→ AI that learns YOUR favorite construction methods

Every pattern maker has their signature moves. 
That perfect way you draft a sleeve. 
That clever trick for tricky fabrics.

Now imagine AI that learns all of it.

This changes everything.
No more one-size-fits-all AI.

This is YOUR intelligence system.
Built on YOUR expertise.

After years in 3D/AI fashion tech, I know this is what we've been missing.

September can't come fast enough.

What pattern-making trick would you teach your AI first?

PS. Yes, working by the sea makes everything 10x more creative. Gil knows what's up 😉

If there's something I really miss from working at fashion brands, it's touching fabric.

Actual trims and buttons.
Physical garments. 
Real samples. 

Not gonna lie - building AI is staring at screens all day.

At Timberland, my desk was covered in: 
→ Fabric swatches 
→ Half-made toiles 
→ Boxes of trims 

And I was working with 3D.

Now it's: 
→ Code 
→ More code 
→ Error messages 
→ Even more code

Sometimes I miss the chaos of samples everywhere. 
Fighting with fabric that won't behave.
The panic before a fitting. 

Every fabric fight taught me rules: 
→ Silk organza = french seams 
→ Stretch velvet = needs negative ease 
→ Cheap polyester = will haunt your dreams

Those aren't feelings. 
Those are patterns. 
And patterns can be coded.

The irony? 
I had to leave fashion to actually understand it.

What do you miss from your "previous life" that makes you better now?

You don't have to be a bada$$ all the time.
You have to be real, always.

A few days ago, I sent a very personal email to my newsletter subscribers. 

Honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted to make it.

This one made me "human" and no longer a superhero.
This one was an excuse for "sorry I disappeared."
This one shows I needed a break too.

But those people believed in me.
They are cheering for me the whole way.
They bet on me paying for fashionINSTA access.

So I owe it to them. 

And I was so surprised seeing my inbox flooded with messages of courage!

Startup founders have to be superhumans.
We code, ship, sell, and repeat.
We find product-market fit.
We develop super fast.
We sell even faster.

But what makes our products better than others?

We have to face it: 
Today, "code, ship, sell, and repeat" is easier than ever.

-> There are folks making products overnight and being able to validate a startup idea in 48 hours.
-> There are startups arriving to 1M ARR from 0 in weeks.
We are waiting for the first 1B startup with fewer than 10 employees, and I bet we won't wait long.

I got it clearly last days, why fashionINSTA is different.

-> We are not solving problems "we heard about" from prospect interviews only.

We lived them, every day, for years. 
We automate what we have made a million times manually.
We know everything about internal politics, budgets, sourcing, stakeholders, you name it.

-> There are no open-source industry-proven pattern datasets. What you find for free on the web makes you laugh if you want to call them "patterns".

You have huge budget, you steal, or you owe your dataset. 
We do have one -> 15 years of hands-on work :)

-> Community is EVERYTHING.
You can buy data.
You can pay top-notch devs.
You can pay for marketing campaigns.

What you can't buy is people's trust. 
You construct it, and it takes time.

All the messages I received over the last few days showed me that we have this trust. 

People are signing in and following us because they know we are the ones who are solving problems we truly understand. 

We speak the same language. 
We lived the same struggles.
We tried the exact solutions.
We know why they failed.

And this is, Ladies and Gentlemen, our secret sauce.

3 best hacks to use AI in fashion. 
The only ones you need to know.

#1: Know the manual process first
You can't automate what you don't understand.

I see designers buying AI tools, 
thinking it'll magically fix their workflow. 
It won't.

→ Map every step first. 
→ Every decision point. 
→ Every pain. 

Only then can you spot what to automate.

#2: Use the 80/20 rule
20% of your tasks drive 80% of results.
Find your 20%. 
Protect it.

The other 80%? 
→ Cut it
→ Delegate it 
→ Automate it

Once you automate the low-value (but necessary - everything is not you CUT) tasks, go back to your 20%. 

Simplify it. Cut non-essential steps.
Then automate only what makes sense. 

#3: Stop thinking "AI assistant." 
Start thinking autonomous workflows

This is the future. 
And it's fu***g scary. 

But it's your biggest competitive advantage.

Think about what you do every day. 
Every season. 
Every client. 

Now imagine teaching AI to do it autonomously. 

→ Set it up once. 
→ Never think about it again.

Most people use AI as if it were Google. 
Type prompt → Get answer → Repeat.

Winners build systems. 
They delegate tasks to AI as they would to a team. 
Except AI doesn't take vacations.

Ready to build your first AI agent?

Tomorrow's newsletter drops the complete guide. 
Step-by-step. 
No fluff.

But it's only for waitlist subscribers. 
Comment AI AGENT if you want to get a link!

Who's ready to stop playing with prompts and start building real AI systems?

Know your limits. 
Double down on your strengths.

Let me re-introduce myself through what I CAN'T do:
→ Can't do repetitive tasks (lose me after round 2)
→ Can't follow rules that make no sense
→ Can't sit still when things are "fine"
→ Can't handle comfort zones
→ Can't do small talk

There is one thing I learned along the way.
Your biggest weaknesses ARE your strengths.
You just haven't flipped them yet.

Can't do repetitive tasks 
→ Obsessed with automation
Can't handle "fine" 
→ Always optimizing
Can't follow stupid rules 
→ Build better systems
Can't do comfort 
→ Constantly evolving
Can't do small talk 
→ Ship products instead

You can't be great at everything.
You lie to yourself if you think you are.

The secret is to understand your limits and decide whether to fix or leverage them.

I get bored fast.
Perfect for a founder.
Terrible for corporate.

I hate repetition.
Perfect for automation.
Terrible for production lines.

I can't do "normal."
Perfect for innovation.
Terrible for... actually, who cares?

Your limits aren't bugs.
They're features.
Ship them.

What "weakness" are you done apologizing for?

Most AI fashion tools are just wrappers. 
And they're about to die.

Ever heard of AI wrappers?

They take foundational models (DALL-E, Midjourney, Runway), add a fashion label, and charge you 10x.

"Industry-specific!" 
"Fine-tuned for fashion!" 
"Professional garment generation!"

It's bullsh*t.

→ Technical sketches? Still broken. PNG files, not vectors. 
→ Garment construction? Ahaha. No control over details. 
→ Consistency? Non-existent. Good luck with e-commerce.

Now Google's Nano-banana just dropped. 
And it's killing these wrappers.

My test this morning:
Nano-banana (€19/month) vs "Fashion AI" tools (some €100+/month)

Same prompts. One shot. 5 minutes in each. 
Better results with Nano-banana. 
For 1/10th the price.

Why pay for a wrapper when the original is better AND cheaper?

The wrapper playbook:
1. Take OpenAI/Midjourney API
2. Add "fashion" to the name
3. Charge 10x
4. Pray nobody notices
   
The problem for wrappers:
Every new model makes them obsolete. 
They can't keep up. 
They're always one update behind.

Meanwhile, at fashionINSTA, we're building from scratch. 
Not wrapping. 
Building. 

Because fashion needs actual solutions, not repackaged APIs.

Pro tip: Nano-banana has a killer Photoshop plugin by Rob de Winter. Costs almost nothing. Does more than most "professional" fashion AI tools.

Drop "PLUGIN" in comments and I'll share the link.

Wrappers, your days are numbered. 
Build real value or die.

What overpriced wrapper are you still paying for?

95% of AI projects are failing.

MIT just dropped the research everyone needs to read.

After years building tech at Timberland and now fashionINSTA, I've watched enough AI disasters to know why.

It's not the technology. It's us.

1. Stop building. Start buying. 
→ Internal AI projects succeed 33% of the time 
→ Purchased solutions? 67% success rate 
→ Your dev team isn't OpenAI. Accept it.

2. Pick ONE pain point. Just one. 
→ You go from $0 to $20M focusing on ONE problem 
→ Corporates are trying to "AI-ify" everything 
→ Focus wins. Every time.

3. Give power to line managers, not AI labs. 
→ Central AI teams create pretty demos 
→ Line managers know what needs fixing 
→ People doing the work should drive the tools
→ You cannot automate what you don't understand.

4. Fix your data FIRST. 
→ 43% of failures = bad data 
→ AI can't fix garbage inputs 
→ Boring? Yes. Critical? Also yes.

5. Start with back-office, not front-office. 
→ Everyone's throwing AI at sales/marketing 
→ Real ROI? Automating the boring stuff nobody sees 
→ Less sexy. More profitable.

ChatGPT works great for individuals because it's flexible. It fails in enterprises because it doesn't learn YOUR workflows.

That's why we're building fashionINSTA differently.

Not generic AI. YOUR AI. 
Learning YOUR methods.
Focusing ONLY on PD.

Everybody thinks fashion = design
Everybody sees AI generated marketing campagins.

We see months of work to make those garments real.
Because our cutomers want to WEAR them.
They want them do have consistent FIT.
They want them to FIT well.

This is what fashionINSTA does.
And we do it with years of hands-on of experience.

What's your biggest AI failure story? I have some to share!

Working in fashion is more than just designing or making patterns or tech packs.

If you are a freelancer, you know what I mean😜

Many admin tasks have nothing to do with what folks think working in fashion is!

Which of them are the most annoying for you?

A. Looking for new clients - setting up offers, portfolio, tracking leads

B. Keeping track of all recurring communication with existing clients/projects  -  I receive tons of emails, WhatsApp messages, messages on social media - sometimes I have no idea where to look for info I am missing!

C. Preparing reports, being present to let the client know about the progress.

What is the most annoying task when you work with clients?

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