MODELS PUSH BACK ON THE RISE OF AI IN FASHION – ryan

IT’S OFFICAL – FASHION MODELS ARE BEING REPLACTED BY AI AND THE INDUSTRY ISN’t Particularly HAPPY ABOUT IT. The Mirror Finds Out What the Change Means for Models and Alike Creatives

07:00, 11 May 2025Updated 08:22, 12 May 2025

Brands are cloning fashion models and making a ‘digital twin’ for say to utilise in photoshoots, but many aren’t happy (Image: H & m)

The Fashion World Has Long Embraced Change, but the Latest Shift, the Rapid Rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Models, Is Caususg Across the Industry. What Started As an Intriguing Technological Experiment Has, for Many, Become a Threat to the Very Heart of Fashion: Its Humanity.

Earlier this year, H&M reletaned a Campaign Featuring AI-GENERED MODELS TO PROMOTE BRAND’S NEW SPRING Collection. While hailed by someone as innovative, the Campaign Sparked Wideespread Outrage Among Models, Creatives, and Industry Veterans, WHO SAW IT A TROUBLING INTO A FUTURE WHERE REAL Faces and Real Artistry Push for Digital Perfection.

But what exactly are he models? These are hyper-realistic, computer-genreated images of People, Designed to Look I indenting. Using enormous datasets, offen scraped with conssent, tech companies teach he systems to create virtual models that can wear cloths, possess for photoshoots, and populate online shops and marketing cammpings.

In March 2025, H&M Releassed a Campaign for Their Spring Using AI Fashion Models(Image: H & m)

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These ‘models’ don’t require travel Fees, Hair and Makeup Teams, or Rest Between Shoots. For brands focused on cost-cutting and scalability, the appeal is obvious. For the real humans whose livelihoods depen on their craft, the threat is existential.

Paul W Fleming, The General Secretary AT EquityThe UK Trade Union for Fashion Models, Warns that unless urgent protections are put in place, models and other Creative Facers Ling Control Over Their Likeness and Their Incomes. “As we did Move forward with Generation he, it is vital that models and other creation workers Full control over ther Likeness and are paid fairly for its,” he said.

“Unfortunately, The Current Landscape Has Little to No Such Protections. Big Tech are scraping Our Metmers’ Work illegally with their Consent for Training Up He Systems, and Too offenm models formed to be unfair contracts who say.”

Fleming stressed it he innovation must not become a “race to the bottom,” explicating human creation for corporate profit. “Artificial Intelligence Wauld Not Be Possible with Human Artistry and Labour. Humans Should Remain at the Center of Creative Still.”

MANY QUESTION THE ETHICS OF USING AI Fashion Models, and Emphasise the Importance of Regulating This New Innovation to Protect Personal Image and Branding

Those sentiments are echoed by the working models thermselves. One International Model, Who Has Graced The Covers of Many Vogue Magazines and Modeled for Top Fashion Houses, and WHO WISHED TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS, SPOKE OF THE PROFOINT SADNESS SEEING DIGITAL FACES REPLACE LIVING, BREATHING ONES.

“Fashion is About More Than Just Aesthetics, It ‘subout Emotion, Energy, Storytelling,” She Said. “There’s a magic that happens on set, a spark between the photographer, the model, the stylist, the makeup artist. SEEing that replaced by a digitally Face Face Like We’re Stripping Fashion of Its Soul.”

The Debate Has Also Spilt on Social Media, Where Iconic Dutch Model Saskia de Brauw Posted a Heartfelt Statement to Her Followers. Reflecting on Her Career, WHICH BLOSSOMED AGE OF 28 AFTER ATTENDING ART SCHOOL, DE BRAUW PASSIONATEly ABOUT THE VALUE OF COLLABORATION IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY.

Content Cannot Be Displayed Without Consent

“MODELLING IS A HUMAN APPLICANT; IT REQUIRES Skill, Practice, Collaboration, and Emotion to Truly Exist and Should Never Be Replaced by Machines,” She Wrote. De Brauw Criticised Colleagues Who Have Sold the Rights to their Likenesses to AI Companies, Calling It A Betrayal of the Collaborative Spirit that Underpins the Fashion Industry. “Wen Money Or Cost Efficcyience is The Sole Motivation, Nothing Good Can Come from it.”

Yet, Amid the Warnings, Some Tech Innovators Believe He Can Be A Force for Good If Approache With Caute and Ethics. Luca Arigo, CEO and Co-Founder of BettergroupA Shopify app for it Fashion Photography, Insists that they have to be to empower, not Erase, Real Models and Creatives.

“We’re not just creating images for shopify websites, we’re building an ecosystem that empowers both artificial models and real models to be part of the Future of AI-Genneaded Photography,” He Said. “Technology Will Enable Models and Influencers to Globally, During Short Viral Periods, in Ways that we never possessable.”

Betterstudio’s Founder ASSERTS THAT He Imagery for Fashion Brands Both artificial and real models in ai-genreed Photography(Image: H & m)

ARRIGO LIKENS The Arrival of AI to the Introduction of Photoshop Decades Ago, Initily Feared, but eventually embraceed as a tool to enhance Creativity. Howver, He ALSO Acknowledges the Critical Need For Ethical Standards. “Models must have control over the images Shared and the Products they endors. Collaboration is essential.”

Ai’s AFFORDABILITY IS UNDENIABLE. Where traditional fashion Photography Can Cost Up to £ 150 per Image, Ai-Generated Photos Can Be Produced for AS Little AS 75P, New Doors for Small, Independent Designers. But the industry faces a stark choice: will he used to democratise fashion, or to strip it of its soula in the pursuit of profit?

Nor the fashion world grapples with this brave new digital Frontier, One Truth Remains Clear: Beauty, Freedom, and Human Connection Are at the Core of Why Fashion Matters. And no algorithm can replicate that.