The Interline Podcast

When it comes to visually representing a product, and building alignment around that visualisation, brands and retailers are placing some serious bets on the capabilities of both general-purpose frontier models and fashion-specific tooling. But is AI “good enough” to change the overall go-to-market trajectory?

To evaluate both sides, Ben talks to Marco Marchesi, CTO of The Fabricant.

For this week's quickfire analysis of the fashion technology headlines, Grace and Ben tackle:
Klarna and Save Your Wardrobe's BNPL / repair partnership - https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/klarna-launches-care-repair-feature-in-uk-and-france-to-boost-apparel-lifespan/2026093090624
Adobe's analysis of the role AI is set to play in a potentially bumper holiday season - https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/09/adobe-us-holiday-shopping-season-to-hit-record
a16z's occasionally-useful second-edition State Of Markets - https://www.a16z.news/p/state-of-markets-ii
L'Oreal's ascendance to the top of the French public company value table - https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/loreal-steals-french-stock-market-crown-lvmh-2026-09-15/
A narrow pilot of AI virtual try-on in a UK supermarket, and whether it has bigger implications - https://www.tescoplc.com/tesco-trials-virtual-try-on-technology-as-part-of-new-ff-in-store-shopping-experience/

Our data shows that fashion’s use of AI is outpacing its willingness to trust it with important choices. But technology vendors see a clear progression from assisting to automating decision-making, paired with a move away from traditional interfaces.
How much is fashion really comfortable letting AI decide today, and how fast is that frontier likely to move?
To find out, Ben talks to Rupert Schiessl, Chief Strategy & AI Officer for Bamboo Rose - building on the interview he previously gave for our AI Report 2026.

In this week's analysis of the top fashion technology headlines, Grace and Ben run through:

Unitree robots on the Vogue World runway - https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/23/vogue-sent-robots-down-the-runway-at-vogue-world-and-people-were-not-impressed/

Gen Z using AI to 'showroom' in physical stores - https://ww.fashionnetwork.com/news/Ai-influences-62-of-gen-z-in-store-spending-wearables-increasingly-being-used-in-process-report,1868455.html

Big banks raising the flag on the risks of agentic commerce - https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/banks-warn-ai-shopping-bots-raise-scam-fraud-data-privacy-risks-2026-09-22/

The state of smart glasses in fashion, and in polite society - https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-ray-ban-meta-audio-glasses-new-styles-plus-muse/

Amazon blocking Meta's Muse agent - https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/21/metas-ai-agent-has-been-blocked-from-using-amazon-com/

The complicated proposition of Meta's 'personal superintelligence,' for shoppers and retailers - https://www.ft.com/content/f4770cdf-626e-41e3-9db0-3dc0b64b8c00?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Social media and influencer marketing have made big marks on fashion - and vice versa - but strategies are changing as a result of both synthetic content and the tech-led evolution of creators into something more closely resembling traditional media.
Ben sits down with Bryony Barker, Global Strategy Director for Pulse Advertising, to discuss what’s next for brand marketing.