AI-generated fashion models: innovation, illusion or a step too far?

Fashion has always sold aspiration. Long before artificial intelligence (AI), it relied on carefully constructed images of beauty through styling, lighting, makeup and, more recently, digital retouching.

While consumers may have understood that these images do not reflect everyday reality, they continued to engage with them. They followed fashion trends and they bought the products being advertised.

The industry is now moving beyond enhancing images of real people, however. It is beginning to generate the people themselves.

AI-generated fashion models and digital twins (virtual replicas of real models) are becoming increasingly common. Brands like Balmain, Levi’s and H&M have experimented with the technology, arguing that it offers new opportunities to increase diversity, improve efficiency and reduce costs.

But despite consumers’ familiarity with edited and idealised imagery, these developments have sparked a much stronger backlash. So, why does creating a model with AI feel fundamentally different from editing a photograph of a real person?

As a researcher in digital consumer psychology, I have become increasingly interested in this question. And a pattern is beginning to emerge. Consumers appear less concerned about whether an image is perfect than whether there is a real person behind it.

From retouching to creation

AI-generated models represent an important change because they move beyond alteration and into creation. Rather than modifying an existing person, brands can now generate entirely synthetic individuals. And they can create digital versions of real models that can appear in campaigns without ever stepping in front of a camera.

Supporters argue that this technology offers some advantages. AI models can be produced quickly, adapted for different markets and used across multiple campaigns.

They can also be designed to represent a wider range of ages, body types and appearances than those traditionally featured in fashion advertising. So, in theory at least, this could help address some of the long-standing criticisms directed at the industry.

But consumer reactions to AI-generated models have been mixed. Some research suggests that synthetic models may reduce harmful social comparisons. Because consumers know they are not real people, they may be less likely to compare their own bodies with them. Other studies have found that AI-generated imagery can increase feelings of envy and reinforce unrealistic appearance standards.

These contradictory findings highlight a broader issue. Consumers have become accustomed to artificiality in advertising, but they often react differently when that artificiality becomes explicit.

Part of the explanation may lie in how people understand authenticity. Fashion images have never been entirely “real”, but they have traditionally been connected to real people. Consumers may recognise that a photograph has been heavily edited while still believing that a human being exists behind the image.
AI-generated models disrupt that relationship.

Authenticity

Research suggests consumers’ responses to AI are shaped not simply by appearance, but by perceptions of humanness and authenticity. Brands increasingly rely on authentic storytelling, making that distinction especially important in fashion marketing.

Although synthetic models can be designed to look diverse, they do not possess the life and experience of a human being. They can’t speak about navigating life in a larger body, overcoming barriers as a disabled person or experiencing discrimination as a member of a marginalised community. They can simulate appearance, but they cannot replicate personal history.

As a result, authenticity may depend less on what a model looks like and more on whether consumers perceive them as genuinely human. This helps explain why some consumers remain sceptical of AI-generated models even when they support greater representation in advertising.

This debate extends beyond consumers too. Models, photographers, stylists and other creative professionals have raised concerns about the effects of AI on employment across the industry. Those concerns are understandable. AI-generated content can often be produced more quickly and cheaply than traditional campaigns.

Fashion has played a powerful role in shaping ideas about beauty, identity and aspiration. AI-generated models may offer opportunities to challenge some of the industry’s limitations, but they also risk creating new forms of distance between brands and consumers.

In my view, the most responsible path forward is one in which AI enhances opportunities rather than replacing people. Used thoughtfully, it could help expand representation and support more inclusive forms of marketing. Used carelessly, it could simply create a new generation of unattainable ideals.

Hannah Marriott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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