Seven years ago, Louis Vuitton featured in its S/S 2016 advertising campaign a virtual model, Lightning, the heroine of role-playing game "Final Fantasy".
A few years later, a computer-generated model and an influencer arrived on the scene - Shudu and Lil' Miquela. The former was created by British photographer Cameron-James Wilson who was inspired by iconic beauties à la Alek Wek and Nyadak "Duckie" Thot and by a Barbie called Princess of South Africa.
Miquela, created by Trevor McFedries and Sara Decou, seemed less real compared to her: Shudu was more into fashion photoshoots, but Miquela had streetwear cred and looked like a character out of a video game like The Sims.
Both anyway had their own successes, collaborating with brands going from Balmain to Prada, proving digital models were another way to reach out to consumer and communicate fashion.
Time goes fast, though, and now there are also more imaginative digital models, like Zlu, a blue alien created by architect Ilian Gazut. Zlu has so far collaborated with brands like Pull & Bear and GCDS, but the most interesting thing about it is the way Gazut integrates the giant alien in cityscapes and in particular inside buildings, with windows that open up like curtains to reveal Zlu posing or trying to interact with passers by.
But there is a new revolution at the moment that may change the fashion industry forever - Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated models.
In mid-March Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) announced a new partnership with startup LaLaLand.ai, an Amsterdam-based digital fashion studio that creates customized AI-generated models and that has also worked with other popular brands such as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.
LaLaLand.ai was founded in Amsterdam in 2019 by Michael Musandu, who developed the software because he was unable to spot models who looked like him in fashion (born in Zimbabwe, Musandu was raised in South Africa, but studied in The Netherlands). LaLaLand.ai uses advanced AI to allow fashion brands and retailers to create hyper-realistic models of every body type, age, size and skin tone.
According to Levi's, the AI-generated models will start appearing on the brand's e-commerce website later this year. In an official press release on its site, Levi's highlighted that in this way the company wants to create "a more inclusive, personal and sustainable shopping experience for fashion brands, retailers and customers."
Levi's explained it wasn't replacing human beings, but wanted to offer a wider range of models on its site, considering that on the brand's website and app there is just one model for each product (that's the standards for most brands - one or two models per product) and consumers aren't told what size the model is wearing. The idea is to help the brand to represent all sorts of sizes, skin tones and ages, so that consumers would be able to see one product on a variety of models, developing in this way a personal shopping experience.
"While AI will likely never fully replace human models for us, we are excited for the potential capabilities this may afford us for the consumer experience," stated in a press release Dr. Amy Gershkoff Bolles, global head of digital and emerging technology strategy at Levi Strauss & Co.
Yet Levi's announcement about what the brand considers an "inclusive customer experience" didn't get a lot of positive feedback, in fact the announcement was met with a backlash.
On social media, people commented about the fact that a powerful brand such as Levi's should have the money to hire a diverse cast of real models rather than opting for several AI-generated avatar. But the company highlighted again in a note to the original press release that the pilot regards its website and the possibility to offer consumers better representations of their products, and that it is not scaling back their plans for live photo shoots, the use of live models, or commitment to working with diverse models. "Authentic storytelling has always been part of how we've connected with our fans, and human models and collaborators are core to that experience," the company concluded.
There are pros and cons in using AI-generated models (images 7 to 16 in this post represent examples of fashion models for an imaginary jewelry collection that I generated using Midjourney): from the point of view of a brand like Levi's, opting for them means to be able to cut on certain expenses and save money and time.
Famous brands usually have a wide range of products on their sites, in some cases products are added on a monthly or even on a weekly basis. In the case of denim brands, one product is often available in different washes or different fits and obviously sizes, so for one garment they would have to take several pictures. Hiring real models would mean to organize one or several casting sessions with proper photographers, stylists and hair and makeup artists. A fake avatar made by a digital studio would therefore represent a very appealing solution for such a brand.
That said brands must be extra careful at the moment: a few months ago, AI-powered text-to-image applications were more skilled at creating white models, probably because they were trained mainly on them.
Nowadays, you can get very credible images of Asian or Black models as well, so these applications are getting better as they are being trained with more images. Yet, brands may commit some mistakes by creating an imbalance including AI-generated Black models in their website, but then favouring white models in adverts or runway shows. For some critics of AI-generated models, there are also risks of appropriation when white people create Black models: when Shudu first came out, some expressed their criticism, noting that she was an idealized Black woman created by a white man.
Brands will also have to be careful of how far they can push their AI-models: in 2019 consumers didn't enjoy Lil Miquela being featured in a Pride ad by Calvin Klein that showed her kissing Bella Hadid as they perceived it as queer-baiting, embracing a minority and exploiting queerness to get more viewers. So this is another aspect they may want to avoid.
There is something, though, that maybe fashion brands opting for AI-generated models would be able to avoid - a class action. Many companies in the last few years adopted augmented reality (AR) technology to help consumers visualize how clothing would look on their own bodies.
But virtual try-ons (extremely popular during the pandemic) offered by brands on their own sites or through Snapchat, were recently at the centre of class actions with users complaining about how companies possess and retain the biometric data captured using virtual try-on tech (especially when it comes to products that go on or around a person's face, such as makeup, jewelry, and eyeglasses).
At the same time, these companies would meet new dilemmas with some links to the legal field and in particular to copyrights especially if they use body scans of real models to generate AI models.
This practice poses a question: should models receive a fee every time their scan is used not just to create an AI-model but to train an algorithm? (But how will they be able to prove it? And will brands be honest enough to actually state next to a product that the AI-model wearing it is based on a real model and provide us with their name? Unlikely). Maybe model agencies will have to start adding specific paragraphs to model's contracts regarding body scans that can be used for AI-generated models.
Another point is that, while it is perfectly fine to unlock the technology's potential to showcase fashion on diverse bodies, AI applications may still find it difficult to produce a wide range of bodies (yes, the technology progresses quickly, but at the moment it excels mainly in the production of models with a slim silhouette or an average body type).
At recent runway shows there were fewer plus size models and with the industry obsessed with Ozempic, there are concerns that thin models will be in again. And what if rather than real plus size models, the industry started favouring their AI-generated counterpart?
Last but not least, with AI-generated models we risk of creating impossible beauty standards: we don't even need to use special filters or Photoshop to make the models look more beautiful as Artificial Intelligence is capable of generating perfect people (well, it is still has some problems when it comes to hands, especially when you try and portray a crowd of people like a front row at a fashion show, but it is getting definitely better).
When Sonar announced last year it was creating an AI-generated campaign moving from pics of previous editions of the famous Spanish music festival, all the distortions featured in the adverts made you wonder if there would have been changes in beauty canons. Yet, a few months after the campaign was unveiled, Artificial Intelligence reached an incredible level of detail and precision.
So, this may mean that an unattainable level of perfection will be sought in fashion images, something that may greatly damage our collective perception of beauty, already altered by the use of Photoshop and of filters.
While there is no immediate solution to all these dilemmas, at the moment we are experiencing a rapid proliferation of AI-modelling agencies: you can now easily find a fashion model or an avatar for your business communications for a reasonable monthly fee.
The site Deep Agency allows you for example to get high quality images of AI-generated models just by typing in a description, and a subscription grants you access to models of various races (then again, they are all in their 20s and 30s and definitely not plus size).
So what will happen to models? Will they join the list of people whose jobs are at risk because of the progresses of Artificial Intelligence? Time will tell, but AI has the potential of transforming several industries, fashion in particular.
The best thing for brands and fashion houses at the moment would be to use both real and AI-generated models in a responsible way: as you may remember from a previous post, when Louis Vuitton opted to have Lightning as the protagonist of its ads, the company also included real people such as Korean actress Doona Bae, rapper and actor Jaden Smith and models Sarah Brannon, Rianne Van Rompaey and Jean Campbell. Fashion is about fantasy and reality, after all, and playing with these two levels - and doing so in an ethical way - seems to be the most reasonable option.
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