Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with a few small clothing brands, and one problem kept coming up in every conversation:
“We can get new inventory fast… but product photos slow everything down.”
That fascinated me. Most boutiques spend: days coordinating photoshoots money on models + photographers time editing everything and meanwhile, new items sit in inventory waiting for photos One boutique owner told me: “I can add products to Shopify the same day I get them, but photos take 2–3 weeks. I lose sales every time.” That sentence is basically what kicked off this whole project.
🧪 Early experiments I started by playing with background removal tools, virtual studios, early AI generation models, pose-transfer models Results were… okay-ish. Cool tech, but nothing yo…
Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with a few small clothing brands, and one problem kept coming up in every conversation:
“We can get new inventory fast… but product photos slow everything down.”
That fascinated me. Most boutiques spend: days coordinating photoshoots money on models + photographers time editing everything and meanwhile, new items sit in inventory waiting for photos One boutique owner told me: “I can add products to Shopify the same day I get them, but photos take 2–3 weeks. I lose sales every time.” That sentence is basically what kicked off this whole project.
🧪 Early experiments I started by playing with background removal tools, virtual studios, early AI generation models, pose-transfer models Results were… okay-ish. Cool tech, but nothing you’d confidently publish on a real store.
What I really wanted was something like: Upload garment → get realistic model photo → done No photoshoot, no scheduling, no waiting.
⚙️ The tech stack I’m using Right now the project is built with: Next.js (frontend) Supabase (auth + storage) Fal.ai (AI inference endpoints) Vercel (hosting)
The flow looks like this: User uploads a garment image -> It runs through preprocessing (crop, contour detection, smoothing) -> Sent to an AI model for realistic try-on -> Post-processing improves lighting + consistency -> delivered as a final product photo
Still improving it — realism is the hardest part but now it’s more realistic than others that I played with.
🎯 The goal I’m trying to answer one simple question: “Can small clothing brands get store-ready model photos without photoshoots?” I’m not sure yet, but early tests have been promising enough to keep building. Some brands loved it: “This saves me days.” Some weren’t ready: “I still prefer real models.” Understanding that gap is part of this whole journey.
🚀 Launching soon on Product Hunt I’m planning to launch the project on Product Hunt soon (next week). If you like AI + e-commerce + build-in-public stuff, I’ll share the link when it goes live. Would love any thoughts, feedback, or questions — especially from developers working with: generative models computer vision e-commerce automation apparel tech Happy to nerd out on the technical side if anyone’s interested.
Results: