Spanish company Minicool launches first AI platform for the childrenswear industry

Madrid – Valencia-based company Minicool, which specialises in trend analysis for the childrenswear sector, is subverting its own dynamics and increasing its value to companies in the industry. It has launched its own artificial intelligence (AI) platform for developing childrenswear collections. The company is careful to emphasise that this solution is a support tool for industry professionals, whose creativity will remain the key differentiating factor during the design phase.

Founded in Valencia in 2012 by entrepreneur Amelia Arroquia Cuadros, Minicool has established itself over the last 14 years as a leading platform for design and trend analysis within the childrenswear segment. This is a key sub-sector in the Valencian Community, where the FIMI trade shows, which specialise in children's and youth fashion, are an unmissable international event for industry professionals. Minicool is once again at the forefront with the launch of what it presents as “the first artificial intelligence platform created for the childrenswear industry”. This solution promises to streamline companies' workflows during the creative and design phase of collections, without limiting or erasing the “human soul” of their proposals. It combines its trend intelligence with an AI specifically trained for childrenswear on a single platform. This AI can assist brands throughout all stages of the design process, from gathering inspiration to the final development of new collections. The entire process is managed from a single suite that can be adapted to the needs of small firms; independent designers; and large corporations.

“The best collection is always born from a human idea,” and based on this conviction, “we want technology to help that idea arrive sooner, with more information and better tools to develop it,” states Amelia Arroquia, founder and CEO of Minicool. An integrated platform has been designed with this purpose in mind to amplify designers' creative capacity and streamline all stages of the collection design and development phase. “Creativity will continue to belong to people,” Arroquia adds. “Our goal is for technology to eliminate repetitive tasks so that designers can spend more time creating.” Through this solution, “we want designers to work with more information, develop their collections more quickly and be able to concentrate on what truly differentiates a brand: its creativity and its identity.”

From inspiration to technical specifications and campaign development

The launch of its AI platform, from an internal perspective, marks a turning point in Minicool's own development. The company is evolving from a trend analysis platform to a trend intelligence hub, as it likes to call it. It offers solutions that go beyond “inspiration” to involve all the different phases of developing a childrenswear collection. From an external perspective, Minicool offers companies the ability to “convert hours of manual work into minutes, without replacing the designer's judgement” through this integrated platform, using AI-driven dynamics and its own childrenswear trend analyses.

Delving into the platform's dynamics, Minicool promises to guide companies and their design teams from the initial idea to the final garment in three different stages. The process begins with a “references” phase, during which sketches and references from the brand's previous collections are imported into the platform so that it can “learn” its fashion style. Following this study, the process moves to a second “AI generation” phase. Here, the platform can generate different garment variations aligned with both the brand's codes and the latest industry trends identified by Minicool. The platform presents these pieces in photorealistic images before entering a final “application in your collection” phase, where the technical sheets for each garment are finalised.

Translating these methodologies into concrete operations, Minicool states that its new integrated AI and trends platform has the capacity to generate design variations while maintaining each brand's identity; modify design details in a matter of seconds; adapt garments to different age ranges; visualise garments in their final finish, eliminating the need for prototype manufacturing; develop campaigns with AI-generated models; remove backgrounds and extract garments from any image to prepare their technical sheets; create descriptions for each garment in a style consistent with the brand's identity; and finally, plan seasonal collections and work teams. They stress that this is all thanks to a platform specifically designed to meet the needs of textile and childrenswear companies, with the added ability to respect each brand's unique identity.

With this solution, “we integrate trend intelligence and artificial intelligence tools in a single space so that creative teams do not have to work with different platforms during the development of a collection,” explains Arroquia. This optimises the internal working methodologies of companies in the sector. A key differentiating factor is that “our artificial intelligence does not seek to standardise design,” but rather “is designed to understand the creative DNA of each company and generate proposals aligned with its style, positioning and values.” The AI of Minicool's platform, its founder and CEO points out, “understands the language of fashion, the development processes of a collection and the real needs of the textile and childrenswear industry.” With all this knowledge, the Valencia-based company adds, “the platform streamlines tasks such as searching for references, analysing trends and organising information, allowing creative teams to devote more time to design and innovation,” not to “repetitive tasks.” This leaves the platform free to “accompany brands throughout the entire creative process, from inspiration to the development of new collections.”