The algorithmic silhouette : new technologies and the fashionable body

Disruptive advancements in digital technology such as AI, robotics, the virtual dressing room, e-commerce, social media and other emerging digital technology are changing the experience of clothing and fashion. As these technologies become more available, affordable and accessible, they are also becoming integrated into our everyday lives such as the ambivalence and anxiety people face in deciding what to wear (Entwistle, 2009; Clarke, 2002). This chapter examines the role of an algorithm-enabled device - the Amazon Echo Look - in shaping ideas about fashion and 'what to wear'. Comparing the use of the device by women in the US and Trinidad, it interrogates the particular ideals of the body and 'the silhouette' that emerged in different participants' algorithmic recommendations. Such recommendations included preferences for muted tones and little pattern, suggested because they hid 'curves' and other physical differences. They also amplified the norms of what particular (US) demographic segments were imagined to be appropriate rather than the determinants 'what to wear' by participants with different values determined by ethnicity, body shape, occupation and other differences. Bringing together work on fashion and material culture studies with digital anthropology, this chapter explores how cultural values and norms are produced in emerging technologies.