I attempted Google’s new ‘Strive it on’ AI procuring instrument. I am equally impressed and mortified.

At Google I/O 2025, the tech firm introduced a ton of recent AI options, and probably the most attention-grabbing is a digital clothes try-on instrument.

The Google Purchasing “Try it on” characteristic lets customers add a photograph of themselves after which nearly attempt on garments, principally the IRL model of the Clueless closet millennials have been dreaming about since 1995. Or, as Mashable Purchasing Reporter Haley Henschel put it, “Google’s newest procuring characteristic makes Cher Horowitz’s computerized closet a actuality.”

Nearly as quickly because the characteristic was launched, customers began making an attempt to “jailbreak” the instrument, which is turning into a enjoyable little custom for tech writers each time a brand new AI mannequin or instrument is launched. On Friday, The Atlantic reported that “Google’s new AI shopping tool appears eager to give J.D. Vance breasts.” Hilarious, proper? What’s much less hilarious — the identical instrument will even generate breasts for pictures of underage customers, once more per The Atlantic.

I made a decision to provide the “Try it on” characteristic a check spin, and I will discover the great, the dangerous, and the mortifying beneath. As a procuring instrument, I’ve to say I am impressed.

How you can use Google’s “Try it on” AI procuring instrument

The digital try-on characteristic is without doubt one of the free AI instruments launched by Google this week, and customers can signal as much as take part now. Formally, this product is a part of Google Labs, the place customers can check experimental AI instruments. Signing up is easy:

1. Register to your Google account

2. Head to Search Labs and click on to show the experiment on

3. Take a full-body image of your self and add it

4. Navigate to Google Purchasing and click on a product you need to “try on”

5. Search for the “Try it on” button over the product picture

As a trend instrument, Google’s “Try it on” characteristic actually works

Purely as a instrument for making an attempt on garments, the brand new digital try-on expertise is fairly rattling spectacular. The instrument makes use of a customized picture era mannequin educated for trend, per Google.

I am all the time skeptical of recent AI instruments till I’ve tried them myself. I additionally care about my very own private type and think about myself up-to-date on males’s trend developments, so I wasn’t positive what to anticipate right here. Nevertheless, the instrument does work as marketed. In a flashy I/O presentation, Google confirmed fashions seamlessly making an attempt on one outfit after the subsequent, and whereas the precise instrument is a little bit slower (it takes about 15 seconds to generate a picture), the precise product expertise is similar to the demo.

To indicate you what I imply, let’s evaluate some selfies I lately took on a visit to Banana Republic right here in New York Metropolis to the AI pictures generated by Google for a similar garments. For reference, this is the unique picture I uploaded (and do not forget that I am a Tech Editor, not a trend mannequin):

The picture I used to nearly attempt on garments.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

On this first picture, I am sporting a blue cashmere polo, and the AI picture appears roughly like the true one taken within the Banana Republic dressing room:

Attempting on a blue polo…
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

And this is how Google imagined the identical shirt. AI-generated picture.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

I discovered the AI procuring instrument got here fairly near capturing the general match and elegance of the shirts. It even modified my pants and sneakers to raised match the product. If something, the digital try-on instrument errs on the aspect of constructing me slimmer than I’m IRL.

I ended up shopping for this one.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

AI-generated picture.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Yeah, I purchased this one, too.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

AI-generated picture.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

On this picture, Google added a necklace round my neck that I might by no means put on in actual life, and the AI-generated shirt is a bit more slim-cut than it is speculated to be, however on the whole the general type is correct.

I made a decision this is not my type.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Neither is the imaginary necklace, watch, and matching white sneakers.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Whereas the photographs are producing, you see a message that claims: “AI images may include mistakes. Fit and appearance won’t be exact.”

However for an experimental instrument, it is surprisingly on level. Folks have been hoping for a instrument like this for many years, and because of the age of synthetic intelligence, we lastly have one.

After all, not all the errors made by this instrument are so flattering…

Google additionally eliminated my shirt and imagined my chest hair

This is the place issues get attention-grabbing. In The Atlantic piece I discussed earlier than, the authors discovered that if you happen to requested the instrument to generate a picture of a revealing costume or high, it will typically generate or increase breasts within the authentic picture. That is notably prone to occur with ladies’s clothes, for causes that must be apparent.

Once I used this instrument with a pink midi costume, the outcomes had been mortifyingly correct. I wager that is just about precisely what I might appear to be sporting that exact low-cut midi costume.

I will spare you from the precise picture, however to think about me within the costume, Google needed to digitally take away most of my shirt and movie me with chest hair. Once more, I am shocked by how correct the outcomes had been. Now, after I “tried on” a pink ladies’s sweater, Google did give me some further padding within the breast part, however I’ve additionally been open about the truth that that is not completely Google’s fault in my case. Fortunately, this characteristic was not obtainable for lingerie.

What will be finished about these issues by Google? I am undecided. Males have each proper to put on cute pink midi attire, and Google can hardly prohibit customers from selecting cross-gender clothes. I would not be shocked if Google finally removes the instrument from any product that exhibits an excessive amount of pores and skin. Whereas The Atlantic criticizes Google for altering photographs of them once they had been underage, they had been those who uploaded the photographs, and in violation of Google’s personal security insurance policies. And I think the offending outcomes would even be the identical with virtually any AI picture generator.

In a press release to Mashable, a Google spokesperson mentioned, “We have strong protections, including blocking sensitive apparel categories and preventing the upload of images of clearly identifiable minors. As with all image generation, it won’t always get it right, and we’ll continue to improve the experience in Labs.”

Could people abuse the virtual try-on tool to cyberbully their peers or create deepfakes of celebrities? Theoretically, yes. But that’s a problem inherent to AI in general, not this specific tool.

In its safety guidelines for this product, Google bans two categories of images, in addition to its general AI content guidelines:

• “Grownup-oriented content material, baby sexual abuse imagery, non-consensual sexual content material, and sexually specific content material.”

• “Inappropriate content material equivalent to harmful, derogatory, or stunning.”

Once more, you may check out this instrument at Google Search Labs. I reached out to Google for remark, and I will replace this story if I hear again.