Thers is a slight nip in the air, which means half your customers are panic-shopping for fall fits while the other half are pretending it’s still summer.

But here’s the twist: they’re not doing that browsing on Google or Instagram anymore. They’re doing it inside ChatGPT.

OpenAI’s latest moves — shopping integrations, an Orders hub, and even checkout tests — are quietly turning chat windows into storefronts. At the same time, brands from Ralph Lauren to MAC are experimenting with stunts, stylists, and cultural hijacks to grab attention.

So the question isn’t just where customers shop — it’s whether your brand is even visible in the conversation.

Inside this issue:

✅ Cover Story: The 3 AI shifts fashion pros can’t ignore
✅ Swipe File: The Ordinary’s viral “Cheap Eggs” stunt
✅ Spotlight: Knwls x Nike’s Milan takeover
✅ Fun Fact: Dior once banned outfit repeating (seriously)

🕒 Read time: 2 minutes — about the time it takes to scroll one Zara new-in page.

The only 3 AI shifts fashion pros should care about

Forget the noise — these are the moves shaping discovery, creativity, and operations in 2025.

Last week I asked ChatGPT for a recipe. This week it tried to sell me sneakers.

That’s not a typo. OpenAI just rolled out shopping flows inside ChatGPT. You can now browse products, see prices, ratings, and even hit “buy.” The kicker? It’s not just pulling search results — it’s curating them inside the conversation.

Fashion’s relationship with AI is no longer theoretical. It’s infrastructure. And for founders, creative directors, and anyone trying to sell more than another Instagram tee, there are three big shifts you can’t ignore.

1. Shopping inside ChatGPT

Think of it as Google Search + Amazon + your favorite personal shopper — all rolled into one chat window.

• OpenAI’s new shopping features surface products with imagery, metadata, and links. Checkout still usually happens on the retailer’s site, but the discovery and decision phase? It’s happening in-chat.

• For fashion, that’s massive. High-consideration buys (like a $3k handbag researched across 12 tabs) are exactly where AI thrives. Instead of Googling reviews, clicking ads, and hopping across websites, customers can now say: “Find me a black leather tote under $500 with gold hardware.”

• If your product feed isn’t structured and searchable — clean images, detailed attributes, real reviews — you risk being invisible in this new discovery layer.

Bottom line: the next storefront isn’t your homepage. It’s wherever your customer is chatting.

2. Content, but make it AI

Yes, brands are already using AI to spit out product descriptions. But the frontier is much bigger:

• Email campaigns: AI can draft subject lines, tweak body copy, and A/B test variants faster than your copywriter can sip an oat latte.

• Social visuals: Tools like Midjourney and Gemini’s “Nano Banana” can generate campaign images while keeping models and styles consistent across channels.

• Web copy & lookbooks: AI can scale product pages, style guides, and collection stories without watering down tone — as long as you’ve trained it on your best past work.

For fashion founders, this isn’t about firing creatives. It’s about speed. One AI assistant can crank out 20 Instagram carousel drafts in minutes, giving your team more shots at virality.

The catch: AI is a mirror. If your brand voice is fuzzy, AI will amplify the fuzz. Feed it strong creative DNA, and it becomes the intern who already “gets it.”

3. Agentic AI

Forget chatbots that just answer FAQs. The new buzzword is agentic AI — systems that don’t just respond, but act. Think of them as tireless junior employees who never sleep.

In fashion, the use cases are multiplying:

• Customer service: Agents can now handle DMs, WhatsApp, and email queries — routing, resolving, and upselling in real time. Adoption of AI agents in customer service grew 22x since January, according to Forbes.

• Operations: Imagine an AI agent that tracks your fabric supplier, chases late shipments, and alerts your team before problems hit production.

• Post-purchase care: Agents can recommend styling options, process returns, or nudge repeat purchases automatically.

It’s not about replacing humans wholesale — we’re still in the augmentation phase. But brands that master agents will run leaner and faster, while competitors stay bogged down in manual busywork.

Why this matters now

Fashion has always been about timing. The right product, the right message, the right moment. AI just compressed that cycle:

• Discovery is shifting into chat interfaces like ChatGPT.

• Content is becoming AI-assisted by default.

• Operations are increasingly run by digital agents.

Ignore this, and you’re the brand still faxing lookbooks in 2025. Lean in, and you’ve basically hired an invisible army of interns scaling your business behind the scenes.

The takeaway for fashion pros

The AI era isn’t about gimmicky campaigns or “prompt engineering” hacks. It’s about infrastructure. The winners will be the brands who:

• Treat ChatGPT as a storefront.

• Feed AI assistants a strong, consistent brand voice.

• Deploy agents to quietly automate the unglamorous but critical work.

AI won’t choose your color palette or decide if sequins are back. But it will make sure your customers discover, decide, and get served faster than ever.

Swipe File (Real tactics used by real brands)

🥚 The Ordinary’s “Cheap Eggs” Pop-Up Stunt

In March 2025, The Ordinary — the skincare brand famous for $6 serums and no-BS packaging — decided to sell… eggs. Yep, actual cartons of eggs. $3.37 a pop, stacked neatly inside its NYC boutiques.

It made zero sense and perfect sense at the same time. The Ordinary’s whole shtick is radical transparency and “everyday essentials, no fluff.” Eggs are the ultimate ordinary product. Together? Viral gold.

Why it worked:

• Double-take factor: A skincare brand selling eggs is absurd enough to stop you mid-scroll.

• Brand-on-brand: It wasn’t random — it riffed on their “straightforward pricing, ordinary items” DNA.

• Sharable stunt: Instagram loves weird retail moments. This was built for it.

• Low risk, high reward: No $2m shoot, no A-list model. Just eggs. And press coverage.

Lesson for founders:
You don’t always need a new product drop to spark conversation. Sometimes the most buzzworthy thing you can “sell” is something so ordinary it becomes extraordinary — as long as it fits your brand voice.

The Runway Reel

The campaign that literally blew up

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Spotlight

This week’s pick:
Knwls makes its Milan stage debut with Nike, blends fashion + athletic spectacle

London-based brand Knwls just turned heads at Milan with its first major show outside the UK — and it wasn’t just runway garments. In collaboration with Nike, the event merged high fashion and sportswear, featuring hybrid designs (think corsets + sneaks) in an industrial, futuristic setting.

Why this matters:

• It’s not just collaboration, it’s co-branding at the show level — Nike lends scale, Knwls keeps edginess.

• It transforms a product drop into an event: you don’t just see the clothes, you see the spectacle.

• It signals ambition: the brand isn’t content with its existing audience — it wants to stretch into new markets & identities.

A Final Note

Fun Fact

In the 1950s, Christian Dior banned women from wearing his dresses twice in public. The logic? If a gown was photographed at one ball, it couldn’t be seen again — exclusivity drove desire.

Fast forward: today’s consumers want the opposite. Outfit repeating is a flex (thanks to TikTok’s sustainability wave).

The lesson: What used to be a fashion faux pas is now a badge of honor. Trends don’t just flip — they somersault.

Let me know what you thought of this edition.Until next time,