This year, fashion retailer Guess became the first brand to feature an AI-generated model created by London-based AI marketing agency Seraphinne Vallora in Vogue’s print edition. This ignited a debate—one of the many raging debates—about AI’s role in the industry.
The founders argued that their work was no different from traditional retouched advertising, when some models expressed concerns about job security and beauty standards. Vogue clarified that the ad was a paid placement, not editorial content, but that did little to assuage public unease.
Vallora created two different “models” for the latest Guess campaign, a blonde model dubbed Vivienne and a brunette model dubbed Anastasia.
Both Guess and Vogue were called out by netizens. “The fact that they are using fake women in their magazines — speechless,” lifestyle creator Payton Wickizer said in a TikTok video, according to ABC News.
AI has slipped into fashion’s bloodstream. Global labels and online retailers increasingly outsource creative work to algorithms that can generate campaigns and catalogs in a fraction of the usual time. Efficiency wins out, but not without consequences. The industry now faces uncomfortable questions about authenticity, accountability, and whether technology is sidelining the people who once defined its look.
Several major fashion players have already moved from trial phases to full operational deployment. H&M rolled out digital twins of real models, speeding up photo shoots while retaining control over image rights, according to Vogue Business.
Zalando reported that 70 percent of its late 2024 editorial imagery was AI-generated. In 2025, it is leaning even more heavily into digital-first catalogs, reducing the logistics and expenses associated with traditional production. “We are using AI to be able to be reactive,” Matthias Haase, vice president of content solutions at Zalando, told Reuters. He added that using generative AI cuts the time needed to produce imagery to around three to four days from six to eight weeks, and reduces costs by 90 percent.
Mango launched a teen campaign created entirely with AI and now uses templated AI ad variants to scale its creative output across regions. The fashion brand said the launch was part of the Earn lever of Mango’s Strategic Plan 2024-2026, which “aims to create value through technological development, data management and operational excellence”.
It added that with a strong commitment to innovation, Mango has developed more than fifteen machine learning platforms (MLE) since 2018 that apply AI at different points of its value chain, such as pricing and personalization, among other areas.
