In a nutshell
Italian luxury retailer Rinascente cut fixed costs by double digits after partnering with Pixelmoda in 2024 for AI-assisted fashion product images. The new hybrid model – 70% visuals from brands, 30% co-produced – keeps the signature “Rinascente look” while also enabling savings in the company’s own studios. Production speed stayed the same, but workflows became leaner and more flexible. AI supports post-production tasks like retouching and color correction, with future potential for generative use – always under human creative control to preserve luxury quality.
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Luxury in the Digital Shop Window – with Top-Notch product images
The Italian luxury retailer Rinascente represents an experience that blends tradition and modernity – both in its historic department stores and online. To ensure that its digital presence reflects the same sense of exclusivity as its in-store experience, visual quality plays a central role. Since 2024, the company has partnered with Italian content specialist Pixelmoda – achieving measurable results in efficiency and cost optimization.
For a luxury retailer like Rinascente, high-quality product images are not an extra – they are an absolute necessity. More than 70% of visuals come directly from brand partners. The remaining 30% are produced in collaboration with Pixelmoda – primarily in the Ready-to-Wear, Accessories, and Kids categories.
The challenge: bringing together a wide range of international brands, each with its own visual language, under one consistent aesthetic. The goal is a distinct “Rinascente look” that conveys luxury, attention to detail, and modernity – whether customers are shopping online or in-store.
Example 1: Pixelmoda’s proprietary AI ensures that the “Rinascente look” is instantly recognizable: static posture, model cut below the nose, and series with front and rear views, full-body image, and detailed view. The AI provides specific information to support the correct placement of the model, optimal lighting and shooting position, and the best possible camera settings. These settings are reproducible, so that an identical setting can be quickly created even for reshoots or follow-up shoots.
From In-House Studios to a Flexible Model
Until 2023, Rinascente managed all content production internally, operating eight photo studios and shooting up to 1,300 items per week. Strict styling and lighting guidelines ensured consistency, but maintaining this infrastructure came with high fixed costs. By outsourcing content production to Pixelmoda, the high fixed costs for studio rental and maintenance were eliminated.
To preserve each brand’s vision, Rinascente has optimized its processes by receiving a greater number of visual assets directly from the brands themselves. As a result, the production of the remaining product images needed to be optimized. The partnership with Pixelmoda was therefore a strategic decision to reduce costs and optimize workflows – not to increase production speed.
Example 2: Thanks to optimal settings, AI assistance enables maximum photo quality. Not only is the pattern on the cap razor sharp and distortion-free, but the knit texture of the material is also immediately visible.
Test Run and Launch of the Collaboration
Discussions with Pixelmoda began in early 2024. Following an in-depth evaluation, Rinascente initiated a non-binding test run, which proved crucial for defining the collaboration.
Pixelmoda provided its full resources to analyze technical processes and automate as many steps as possible – from the shipment of goods to the upload of retouched images. This test helped refine workflows and clarify interfaces. After several months of preparation, the first regular production batch started in September 2024.
Example 3: Here, too, the typical “Rinascente look” is immediately recognizable. The images also convey a concrete impression of the thickness of the fabric and how the material behaves when worn – for example, when tying the belt. The feel of the material can also be sensed from the photo alone.
Results: Same Quality, Lower Fixed Costs
Thanks to this strategic collaboration, Rinascente has achieved cost savings that reached double-digit percentages, proving that the same high standards can be maintained with a more flexible and economically sustainable model. The biggest savings came from rent, utilities, and studio maintenance.
Production time remained the same – about four to five days from product arrival to publication – but time savings was never the main objective. What matters most for Rinascente was that quality and efficiency have remained on par with the previous in-house setup. By switching to an external provider, the company has been able to maintain the high quality of its visual content while achieving greater operational and economic flexibility.
Visual Consistency and AI Integration
To ensure consistent brand presentation, Rinascente works with detailed visual guidelines that Pixelmoda follows closely. These apply to all styles – from streetwear to haute couture. Artificial intelligence is currently used mainly in post-production, for tasks such as retouching and color adjustments. The teams are now exploring the use of generative AI to create image variations more efficiently.
Example 4: A striped shirt – often a nightmare for photographers and product managers. This is because the fine lines easily blur into a wavy appearance in two-dimensional views. With the help of AI, Pixelmoda can quickly align the model, shirt, and lighting so that this does not happen. As a result, the appearance of the shirt is clearly recognizable.
Looking Ahead
This technology (AI) will help the company to further reduce production time and costs, provided it is guided by human creativity. Visual content will continue to play an increasingly strategic role for Rinascente, not just showcasing products but creating experiences – interactive, personalized, and omnichannel.
Want to know more? Then check out episode 126 of our podcast “Let’s talk Marketplace!” In it, Gianni Serazzi from Pixelmoda discusses with Valerie and Ingrid how AI can help when it acts as a co-pilot for photographers and models on set, controlling lighting, poses, compliance with style guides, and quality assurance how this works in practice and why it is a real performance lever for fashion brands and retailers.
Key Learnings
The Rinascente case shows how digital excellence and economic efficiency can go hand in hand. By partnering with Pixelmoda for AI-assisted fashion product images, the retailer maintains luxury-grade visual quality, optimizes internal resources, and gains the flexibility needed to thrive in an increasingly digital luxury market – all while reducing fixed costs by a double-digit percentage.
- 1. Hybrid Content Model
The fashion retailer Rinascente combines 70% brand visuals with 30% Pixelmoda-produced photos, ensuring a consistent and premium “Rinascente look” across all fashion categories. - 2. Strategic Outsourcing
The partnership with Pixelmoda focused on cost reduction and workflow efficiency, not faster photo production – proving outsourcing can maintain luxury standards. - 3. From In-House to Flexible
By cutting back on internal photo studios, Rinascente was able to reduce rental and maintenance costs while maintaining the same quality and a turnaround time of 4–5 days. - 4. Pilot & Automation
A test-and-learn phase helped optimize workflows and integrate automation for efficient, AI-supported content production. - 5. Same Quality, Lower Costs
Rinascente achieved double-digit cost savings in the production of his fashion product photos without losing visual excellence – with AI as a tool, not a substitute for human creativity.
You can find the most important facts about Pixelmoda in our Service Provider Portait: https://marketplace-universe.com/service-provider-portrait-pixelmoda/