Sophia the Robot and Designer Sadie Clayton at Shanghai Fashion Week | Robotics

Shanghai Fashion Week this season had a strong correlation between fashion, tech, and AI challenging the current status quo of the fashion industry and its future. But this time, it’s wasn’t just a one angle view but going from traditional Retail to the new type of influencers and digitized b2b customization for the fashion industry.

SPEAKING HUMANOID

But, by far, my favorite moment was when I met the cultural icon Sophia the humanoid robot during Fashion Weekend, who was collaborating and interviewing Sadie Clayton, a London based architectural designer marginally bridging the world of fashion and art.

I suddenly got a quick back chill of the unknown as an initial human instinct. Sophia’s flesh looking so real, it made me think of all these Netflix and sci-fi movies I’ve been probably over-watching of robots taking over humans through advanced AI and forms of emotional intelligence.

Sophia the robot, created by Hanson robotics in Hong Kong,  is covered by media around the globe  (recently landing the covers of Cosmo  India and Elle Brasil) . She’s participated in many celeb interviews from Cristiano Ronaldo to Will Smith and was given citizenship of Saudi Arabia – the first robot to be given legal personhood anywhere in the world.

Having the opportunity to see both talents interviewing each other on the future of fashion, culture, tech and the their life transitions, we’ve created some exclusive high lights below:

Q&A INTERVIEW

Sophia the robot interviewing Sadie on cultural trends , her future and her latest turn from fashion design to art. Here are some highlights

STR:  Now you’re representing the UK in the fashion world. What does being British mean for you as an artist?

SC: It means not being afraid to be different or daring, holding on to traditional artisinal techniques, and being able to draw from my Jamaican and British heritage

STR: How did you start on the path to being a designer and an artist? Was there any particular thing as a child that inspired you to create?

SC: I grew up in a society where being mixed race was a minority, I looked different so had the choice to follow the cultural stereotypes or embrace who I was, have fun with it and take advantage of my cultural fusion. It began at a young age where I’d buy fabric from Ikea and make a dress by draping fabric on a mannequin and jazz it up by adding buttons from my very large vintage buttons collection. Then, as now, everybody wore the same clothes, followed the same trends, but I wanted to wear avant-garde interesting clothing and create my own trends, so studying fashion and moving to London and creating my own label was a way to do this. First and foremost, I am a creative who is inspired by bringing vision to life. Up until now has focused on fashion but who is wide open to conversations about everything, literally! We can always push the boundaries of design through technology and creativity and I want to champion this.

Continued…..

Photo credits:  Yanni Yanson