The model Vilma Sjöberg is crossing the street in New York in the evening sun. White shirt, white pants. Her blonde shoulder-length hair is moving in the wind, a yellow taxi is passing behind.
The image has never been taken, but for the human eye, it is impossible to determine if it is AI-generated or not.
It's an image of me. But it's not me. It was interesting to see how good it actually was, says Sjöberg to the industry site Business of Fashion, and describes the experience as both exciting and somewhat uncomfortable.
Own Twin
&M is behind the initiative. 30 models are to be scanned with the help of the Swedish startup Uncut and get a "digital twin", an avatar, which the model themselves own the rights to.
&M produces thousands of images for its various marketing and sales channels, a number that has increased dramatically over the past decade.
In line with the growth of e-commerce over the past ten years, the need for images as a marketing tool or sales instrument has dramatically increased in the world, says Jörgen Andersson, who is the overall creative director at &M, to TT.
Generative AI is storming into the fashion world.
We want to open up the moral and ethical part of this and say: How do you do this in a proper way?
The twin can, in theory, do everything the real model can. It can quickly dress in a multitude of different clothes or be placed in any part of the world. It is never tired or jet-lagged, does not age, and its body does not change. The idea is that the person behind the model should get paid when the clone works.
Changing Industry
Lotten Breitholtz at the agency Mikas, which Vilma Sjöberg is affiliated with, writes in an email to TT that "we as actors in a global industry must relate to a rapidly changing, technological reality".
"The AI's entry into all types of labor markets can come to mean major changes. In our industry, many creative professions are at stake, and several job roles will be affected by automation".
Digital twins are a way to protect models from having their identities used without permission in AI-generated material, she reasons.
"Our hope is that the entire industry will be needed and jobs will be retained; even hairstylists, makeup artists, stylists, and others will be needed in the work and get paid when the AI-generated material is used".
Jörgen Andersson primarily sees the clone being used in the online store, which is mainly used on mobile phones, in what he calls "display window images".
Images that people will only turn and turn to make a purchase. Then maybe the real model can be used in a large image production for images that are meant to be seen out on the street instead.
Created Levi's Model
The AI's advance in the fashion industry has raised concerns. The Dutch company Lalaland.ai offers fashion companies entire AI-generated models, dressed in the company's clothes.
As a black person, I never saw models that looked like myself. We wondered why fashion brands couldn't show more models in different sizes, of different ethnicities and ages, says CEO and founder Michael Musandu.
The company was founded in 2019 and claims to have built a partially own tool, trained on images they have bought the rights to. Among the customers are, among others, the jeans giant Levi's.
You would be surprised if you knew how many brands are already using AI models because you simply can't see the difference, he says.
Actors who have wanted to be at the forefront have faced criticism. Musandu says that something that challenges an industry will raise reactions.
The fear and concern are justified, and we have tried to address it. But it's about complementing rather than replacing. None of the companies we work with have scaled down on traditional photography, he says.
Real models and photography will be needed in the future, and believes, like Jörgen Andersson, that it is primarily the last step – when the customer is to buy the products – that AI will come into the picture.
Jörgen Andersson also emphasizes that AI will need to be controlled by creative humans, that professionals need to learn it – just like they learn other new tools.
I have absolutely met concern and I understand the concern. My advice is to embrace AI. I believe that this is the beginning of a human renaissance when it comes to creativity and culture.
Passion and Speed
When the digital clones can appear in &M contexts is unclear. Jörgen Andersson emphasizes that it's not about "H&M models" but that the fashion giant is a client.
We approach this issue with incredible respect, and we will not release or do anything that we – models, creators – are not 100 percent satisfied with. We are driving this with great passion and full speed ahead, but it's hard to say when we are satisfied, he says.
Companies like Deep Agency, Lalaland.ai, Botika, and several others offer AI models for various assignments. It can, for example, be about uploading images of clothes and seeing how they look on a model.
The AI technology's entry into the fashion world raises questions about what happens to the models and all the surrounding professions that are currently required to take fashion pictures. Several companies that are at the forefront have faced strong criticism.
In 2019, supermodel Bella Hadid was seen kissing the AI-generated influencer Lil Miquela in a campaign for Calvin Klein. The move was not well received by everyone, and the company admitted that the campaign could be perceived as "queerbaiting" (simplified: trying to attract LGBTQ+ audience without actually portraying anything queer).
In 2023, the jeans company Levi's would introduce AI-generated models to increase diversity, including when it comes to skin tone.
In 2025, &M announced that they are experimenting with AI technology and collaborating with the modeling industry to create digital clones of models, which the original models will own the rights to.
