Rich models sook about their status

AI is reshaping the fashion industry. Today, artificial intelligence can create lifelike videos and images that convincingly replace human models on the catwalk. These AI-generated figures are often indistinguishable from real people. This week, several top UK models publicly criticised the unlicensed use of their likenesses and called for regulation to protect their faces from being used in AI content. They also warned that virtual “catwalks” threaten the livelihoods of everyone involved in bringing designs to the public: fit models, stylists, photographers, videographers, make-up artists, creative directors, wardrobe managers, talent bookers, producers, PR professionals, lighting specialists, and seamstresses.

At first glance, one might dismiss these protests as the complaints of the privileged, fearful that their lucrative careers are under threat. Yet their objections highlight deeper, longstanding flaws in the industry. Modelling has a poor record on worker protections: jobs are insecure, payments often delayed, expense allowances meagre, and safeguards against harassment weak. Because fashion trends shift rapidly, a model may be in demand one season and unemployed the next.

The industry also promotes narrow and sometimes harmful ideals of beauty. Success often depends on genetic luck, yet aspiring models are rarely told how rigid—and toxic—those standards can be. Designers who try to create clothing for “real” bodies face steep barriers: only established brands can typically afford the army of professionals needed to stage the kind of high impact shows that draw attention.

AI mannequins could change this balance. Digital models allow even small, resource-poor designers to showcase their creations without the cost of hiring and staging live talent. If a client can virtually alter a design’s colour or texture or superimpose their own body measurements onto an AI image before a garment is ever sewn, the result is a more efficient, more inclusive way to present fashion.

Rather than clinging to old assumptions about runways and models, the fashion world—and its audiences—would do well to explore these possibilities. AI offers not only new creative tools but also the chance to challenge the industry’s long-entrenched inequalities.