'It's not innovation, it’s erasure': Top models speak out as AI threatens to reshape fashion

London’s top modelling agencies saw it coming.

Four years ago, Simon Chambers, the owner of Storm Model Management — the agency that launched the careers of Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne — and director of the British Fashion Model Agents Association (BFMA), began an investigation into how artificial intelligence might alter the face of fashion and threaten one of the world’s most envied occupations — the job of a model.

“We’ve been trying to learn as much as we can about it, because it goes back to the old saying: if it’s acceptable to the buying public and if it saves a lot of money, it will probably have wings,” he says. “The question has never been if. Instead, it has always been: ‘How will it be used, and to what extent?’ ”

The tectonic plates jerked forward at the end of March when H&M launched its “digital twin” campaign, in which models, including Mathilda Gvarliani, had AI replicas of themselves made.

Unlike the host of brands and media outlets, from Marks & Spencer to SheerLuxe, which have previously banked on creating completely false AI ambassadors, H&M’s pious pitch is that it will help 30 models create digital avatars of themselves this year. The models will own these, and any brand can pay to use them without the models themselves ever having to step onto set. “She’s like me, without the jetlag,” Gvarliani said of her new digi-likeness.

“What’s great is that we could be shooting a campaign IRL in New York with this girl and at the same time her avatar could be doing e-commerce shoots for us in Stockholm,” says Chambers. “If you’re a big enough name, you can almost certainly have your own avatar and it can probably do things. But that’s for the few, not for the many. The fear is that mainstream models will see less work.”

It also raises consumer questions: while the use of stylists’ bulldog clips have long been used to make garments look more attractive when shopping online, will AI-generated images be nothing but misleading for prospective customers?

Top models in a panic

“AI is here to stay but models should be part of the conversation, not casualties of it,” says Wallis Day, the model and actor who counts nearly half a million Instagram followers. She worries technological strides forward could leave the role of the model redundant. “If it’s done transparently and fairly, it opens doors to new income streams but the concern comes when brands bypass real people altogether and generate fake models to save costs. That’s not innovation, it’s erasure.”

“For me it doesn’t sit right at all,” says leading male model James Yates, who has walked for Giorgio Armani and fronted campaigns for Hugo Boss. “Brands, who are mega multinational companies, would be capitalising on years of artist creation to save money and effectively drive those artists out of work. It loses any creative individuality or the moments in between which are the true sparks in fashion.”

There are broader threats too, says Kai-Isiah Jamal, the pioneering trans model who has been the face of Burberry, Louis Vuitton and is this month's Elle UK cover star. “I question who is making these images. Is this just another way for white, cis, straight men to push their desire once more? Until we are at a state in which models from all identities, backgrounds and races and sizes and presentation can be booked then our focus is in the wrong place. Not hiring a dark skinned black model or a curve girl but ‘creating one’ poses many questions about the performative truth of our industry.”

What about everyone else?

David Gandy, one of the UK’s best-known models and founder of David Gandy Wellwear, sees unfairness on the horizon. While he believes “more established models who have trademarked their image and name may be less affected”, young models will struggle to break into the industry.

He adds that other creatives will be hit, too — especially if e-commerce shoots (for photos which show you how clothes look while shopping online) are wiped out by AI. “Creative professionals — photographers, stylists, art directors and hair and makeup artists — are at risk, as their roles may be diminished as brands cut costs,” he says. Indeed, when Sam McKnight, the renowned hair stylist who has worked with everyone from Princess Diana and Lady Gaga to today’s crop of supermodels, saw H&M’s AI campaign, his first thought was: “OK, our days are numbered.”

While he believes fashion “moments” cannot be generated by a computer, he understands photoshoots are expensive — and brands are struggling. The global personal luxury goods market lost some 50 million consumers last year. “When I see H&M are going, ‘Oh, but we’re using the real models and we have a deal with the model agent’, I’m like, ‘Bullshit’,” he continues. “Give them six months or a year before they start saying, ‘Oh, well, it’s not really her’. The big corporations don’t give a shit about the creatives, they only think about the bottom line.”

Hissy fits, tight guides and new priorities

Creating avatars is not as simple as pressing a button, explains Sarah Doukas, the co-founder of Storm management, who scouted Moss at JFK airport in 1988. “There is also another tricky situation; one well-known model had an avatar company make her image, and they were excellent — but she did not like it. It was a fiasco and the whole thing got panned. The company was absolutely incandescent,” she says.

Vanities aside, shoring up models’ rights is of chief concern. “As we navigate this evolving chapter, it’s essential that we protect our models,” says Miranda Cantacuzene-Speransky, Elite London Agency Director.

The AI Act will be introduced in the EU in 2026, requiring AI images to be labelled as such, while the British Fashion Model Agents Association will be imminently be publishing their set of guidelines which will warn that “without appropriate safeguards and ethics in place, unrestrained use of such technologies may significantly damage the careers of many models in the industry.”

As for the models themselves, it is advised that building a strong social media following will bolster their survival, as brands expect more when they part way with cash for real-life talents.

“Brands still want personality and they want a following — that matters a lot,” says Doukas. “Many, many people know models, like them and follow them online. That is a benefit that you get from working with a real person that you cannot get with AI.”