<\/p>\n
Guests gather at the Miami Fashion Week Virtual Fashion Awards pre-gala screening at Miami Dade College\u2019s Wolfson Campus on May 19th, 2026.<\/p>\n
Alexandra Phelps<\/p>\n
aalexandra.phelps@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
On an outdoor stage, a woman struts in a patterned dress and matching hat, reminiscent of floor tiles the designer recalls from her grandmother\u2019s home. It\u2019s dark outside, and spotlights illuminate the runway as rows of eyes follow the model, her dress train, and her steps in beaded boots.<\/p>\n
It may all seem real. But it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
AI has entered the world of fashion shows.<\/p>\n
The public got a look at the AI-powered runway show this past week during a preview of Miami Fashion Week\u2019s first Virtual Fashion Awards gala at Miami Dade College\u2019s Wolfson Campus. The preview contained showcase videos by designers, with nine chosen to present their collections again at an upcoming gala. Miami Fashion Week is in October.<\/p>\n
The runway show featured fashions in backdrops featuring an Italian city square, a French estate, a wild jungle and the surface of the moon.<\/p>\n
Fashion designers requested the settings, music, lighting and types of models they wanted in their videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the freedom that gives [us] the possibility to dream,\u201d said designer Andrea Salazar of SETA apparel in Miami.<\/p>\n
The inspiration for her collection was a vineyard in France, and the virtual runway allowed her to show her sophisticated spring-summer pieces in that far-away place. \u201cThis is only the beginning. … I think it\u2019s a great tool.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AI generation had some issues, though. Despite a focus on accurately portraying outfits and accessories, some clothing materials moved in ways they shouldn\u2019t have. And some in the virtual audience were missing half their face.<\/p>\n
But this virtual showcase wasn\u2019t designed to be a perfect replacement for flesh-and-blood fashion shows. The executive managing director for Miami Fashion Week, Lourdes Fernandez-Velasco, described the use of AI as a helper to make a showcase more accessible.<\/p>\n
Guests at the Miami Fashion Week Virtual Fashion Awards pre-gala screening watch an AI model at Miami Dade College\u2019s Wolfson Campus on May 19th, 2026. Alexandra Phelps alexandra.phelps@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these designers don\u2019t have the bandwidth or the team to put everything that is required for them to launch a collection,\u201d Fernandez-Velasco said. \u201cThis industry is super difficult, it\u2019s super competitive.\u201d AI … is \u201chelping a lot in this very difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernandez-Velasco said the the tool can assist emerging and growing designers \u2014 such as candidates of the first-year Virtual Fashion Awards, Ana+Maria, Beatriz de la C\u00e1mara, Brooke Wilder, Bymervedundar, Danfive by Daniela Ospina, Fiore, Giannina Azar, Jacqueline Then, Jhoan Sebastian Grey, Jonathan Hayden, Rene by RR, Seta Apparel, Shantall Lacayo, Vero Diaz, Yas Gonzalez and Yenny Bastida.<\/p>\n
But she says virtual runways won\u2019t replace real showcases. For the awards gala, selected designers had real-live models walk through the venue in some of their pieces to present their collections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a special something that happens during a physical show that it\u2019s very difficult to show through a screen,\u201d Fernandez-Velasco said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re at a show, and you\u2019re seeing these spectacular models two feet away from you, and the designer comes out and you can feel how excited they are, it\u2019s something very, very, very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow More of Our Reporting on Uniquely Miami<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guests gather at the Miami Fashion Week Virtual Fashion Awards pre-gala screening at Miami Dade College\u2019s Wolfson Campus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-282147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}