When readers opened the latest issue ofVoguemagazine, sporting Anne Hathaway on the cover, they were in for a nasty surprise—AI-generated fashion models. This quickly led to severe public backlash. But when the storm’s blown over, what does this mean for the future?
While Vogue didn’t directly include these models itself, this can be seen as a way to test the waters for various interested parties, and how we as the public react might have heavy implications for the fashion industry.
Readers Have Spotted AI Models in Vogue Magazine
The ads themselves seem to be the product of a company calledSeraphinne Vallora, which is “the world’s leading AI marketing agency for fashion and luxury.” It’s that company’s entireraison d’être, so it hardly seems like an experiment at this stage.
The Business Case for AI Is Clear
So, why even use an AI-generated model in a fashion campaign? The business case is pretty clear in my opinion:
Clearly, an agency that specializes in AI fashion ads is pretty good at making their AI models wear the real products that the client provides, and, honestly, looking at the example above, I’m guessing most people didn’t even realize these were AI-generated until someone brought it up. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason this came to the fore wasn’t through some obvious issue with the images.
Instead,Vogue’sreadership is one that’s interested in fashion for its own sake, and by extension have an interest in the people involved in the industry. So as soon as someone wondered “who’s that model?” and looked them up, they’d find that there was no model to begin with!
Using AI Models Misses the Point of Modeling
Using made-up people to advertise real products isn’t a great idea in any industry, but when it comes to clothing, makeup, and self-expression, it makes zero sense. People are looking for a human connection, and perhaps a way to see themselves in the model and a specific lifestyle. When we read books, or look at pictures, or absorb any media, it’s both a “bottom up” and “top down” process. In other words, your knowledge and perceptions alter how you see these media.
So just the mere fact that you know you’re not looking at a real person can devalue and diminish both the product that’s being waved before your nose, and your perception of fashion and artistry itself. There has been plenty of controversy in the past about using software like Photoshop to touch up models in magazines. Why did the people behind this think replacing the entire model would somehow be less of an issue?
Vogue Could Be Playing With Fire
To even attempt this as a test shows some pretty poor judgment on the part ofVoguemagazine, and the potential reputational damage definitely isn’t worth it, if you ask me. While there are plenty of sensible and appropriate uses of AI-generated imagery (and I use it myself all the time), this is one specific industry where people value authenticity and take an interest in the people behind the fashion (like models, designers, and photographers).
From that perspective, I thinkVoguewill learn a hard lesson from this, although who knows whether the effects of that lesson will change things in the long term? Usually, I’d think that the average person doesn’t care too much how their entertainment is made, so it won’t matter that much in the long run. However, people who are in the fashion industry don’t just care about the final product, they have a vested interest in the humans behind the final product.
When you have a world where someone cares about the story behind the photo, who wants to know what someone eats, or what their skin routine is, there’s nothing mroe jarring than realizing there’s no “someone” at all. I don’t think that’s going to fly, Vogue.
