H&M’s latest campaigns feature not flesh-and-blood models, but AI-generated characters, digital copies of real people. And this opens a whole new chapter in fashion visualisation.
Why is it worth it for the brand?
✔️ Faster, cheaper content production
✔️ Multiple body shapes, skin tones, ages can be displayed AT ANY TIME
✔️ Models receive royalties for digital presence
But in the meantime…
❌ What about photographers, stylists, make-up artists?
❌ Real diversity or just idealised perfection?
❌ Greener campaign = more sustainable brand? Not sure.
AI will of course create new types of jobs: prompt makers, visual curators, art directors working with artificial characters, but it’s a different kind of presence… and of course, other jobs are being taken, transformed.
The question is not whether AI can be diverse. The question is whether brands are consciously using it. Will they dare to ask for wrinkles, freckles, real character traits, or will we stick with artificially manufactured perfection?
Is a twin really a twin? And wasn’t it like that in the old days? Are we celebrating the uniqueness of the human model and therefore the AI model, or did we go back to the time and are we still going to the time?
Artificial intelligence has moved from the background. It’s already working with us .. now it’s our turn to show what we can do with it. Consistently, assessing both the risks and the benefits. Let’s not (continue to?) mould the image of a template world.
Because visuality only really works if it also makes you feel. Not by being perfect, but by being human. Even if it is AI generated.
💬 What do you think: exciting development or lost credibility?
Aletta Nagy-Kozma
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