[Roundtable] ZOZO Research Institute × Hiroshi Ashida: "Data Science & Fashion Culture"

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This special feature "Words & Images: Data Surrounding Fashion" is brought to you with Hiroshi Ashida, an associate professor at the Faculty of Design, Kyoto Seika University, and a fashion researcher. In this installment, along with the members of the ZOZO Research Institute, who have made the quantification of fashion their mission, we will discuss the standardization of fashion.

From the perspective of the nature of "words" when interpreting fashion, and the characteristics of fashion as a subject in data science, we will think about words and data related to fashion.

PROFILE

Hiroshi Ashida

Born in 1978. Having withdrawn after earning doctoral credits from the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University. After serving as an associate curator for the Kyoto Costume Culture Research Foundation, he is now an associate professor at the Faculty of Design, Kyoto Seika University / Vice-President. His specialty is fashion theory. His publications include "言葉と衣服" (Adachi Press, 2021). His translated books include "Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theories" (co-supervised translation, Film Art, 2018) edited by Agnès Rocamora and Anneke Smelik. He also serves as an editorial board member for the fashion critique magazine "vanitas" (Adachi Press) and is a member of the managing team for the book and clothing store "kotobatofuku."

PROFILE

Takuma Nakamura

Graduated with a Master's degree from the Faculty of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University. Since 2016, he has been in charge of data analysis for a fashion app as a data scientist at VASILY, Inc. After being acquired by the company, he joined the ZOZO Research Institute in 2018. He is responsible for studying fashion images using deep learning and developing recommendation algorithms.

PROFILE

Chinami Hirakawa

Graduated from the School of Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology. Engaged in facial recognition research. After working as an engineer for iOS applications, she joined the ZOZO Research Institute as an ML engineer in 2018. She is currently in charge of investigating and analyzing measurement data and fashion images.

Thinking About Fashion from "Words & Images"

"Fashion," Ever Avoided as a Research Subject

AshidaIn the book "言葉と衣服" (literally, "Words & Clothes"), published in February, I focused on definitions of words related to fashion. For example, people might say things like, "This dress is very elegant," about a dress presented in a collection. But what does "elegant" actually mean? It's not clearly defined. Of course, there is a dictionary definition, but in the context of fashion, it's often used in a vague way, like "the fabric is flowing and the length is long." I'm trying to attempt to define such vague words. To do that, I'm trying to unravel the historical changes in usage and the ways creators use words.