Meet UpStyle
At the GSD, faculty, students, and alumni are harnessing AI to design systems that address many of the world’s pressing problems.
Global textile waste is projected to reach 150 million tons annually by 2030. Driven by the growth of the fast fashion industry, clothing makes up the bulk of these discarded items, which end up in landfills or incinerators.
As students in the Master in Design Engineering program, offered jointly by the GSD and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), alumni Yiqi Yan and Wenbo Zhang (both MDE ’24) used generative AI to reimagine fashion as more sustainable and democratic. Working with Karen Korellis Reuther, GSD design critic in architecture, they developed UpStyle, an image-assisted app that lets users create new garments from preowned clothes—reducing waste and extending the life of one’s wardrobe.