LVMH, IFM Launch €150,000-a-Year AI Creativity Chair as Half of Design Students Already Use GenAI
Updated
Updated · WWD · Jul 13
LVMH, IFM Launch €150,000-a-Year AI Creativity Chair as Half of Design Students Already Use GenAI
3 articles · Updated · WWD · Jul 13
Summary
€150,000 a year will fund a new LVMH-IFM research chair studying how science—especially AI—shapes creativity, talent development and design practice in fashion.
Three research tracks will examine creation and cognition, human-machine computational design, and the anthropology of design as LVMH seeks a more rigorous framework for using AI without flattening human originality.
Half of IFM’s design students already use generative AI, while the school keeps it optional amid student unease and wider debate over whether AI obscures a designer’s personal voice.
LVMH already uses AI across operations—from store allocation and client messaging to legal drafting—and is testing design tools at Louis Vuitton, where Sidney Toledano said they generate new handbag shapes without replacing designers.
The move extends Bernard Arnault’s broader push to link luxury with scientific research after Agache invested €50 million in a new mathematics and fundamental sciences institute at École Polytechnique.
As AI enters the design studio, is true human creativity becoming the ultimate luxury?
With AI able to copy designs instantly, can luxury brands win the IP war against fast fashion?
LVMH-IFM AI Creativity Chair: €150,000 Annual Investment in Responsible AI for Luxury Fashion Innovation and Education
Overview
The LVMH-IFM AI Creativity Chair is a pioneering initiative established through a partnership between LVMH and the Institut Français de la Mode. Supported by an annual endowment from LVMH, the chair funds essential research projects and partnerships to explore the evolving landscape of creativity and technology in the luxury industry. Driven by a strategic imperative, LVMH aims to responsibly integrate artificial intelligence into luxury fashion, not to replace but to augment human ingenuity. The chair fosters a deeper understanding and application of AI in creative processes, ensuring that innovation enhances, rather than diminishes, the human creative spirit.