AI-generated fashion models can cut costs for brands by 90% or more compared with photo shoots using human models, according to a Reuters report published Oct. 28.
For models, the technology raises concerns about unpaid use of their images and the risk of being replaced by fully synthetic models. There is little regulation covering who owns or controls digital twins.
Reuters interviewed 15 model-agency directors and reviewed more than a dozen confidential photo-shoot contracts. Brands named in the contracts included Diesel, Calvin Klein and L’Oreal.
Brands Seek Wide AI Rights in Contracts
The unsigned contracts included requests to swap a model’s face with another using AI, create digital clones without extra pay, and use images of models’ bodies to train AI. Some terms used broad legal language that could let brands use AI in almost any way.
A Diesel casting sheet asked models to agree to “swapping of faces among the participating models” and “superimposition of the Participant’s face onto another person’s body.” Diesel’s parent company OTB said the release was drafted for one campaign and does not reflect its usual agreements.
Skincare brand Reale Actives, launched this year by social media personality Alix Earle, sought rights to create AI replicas of models and use them for a year without further pay. The company said it uses real models and that the language came from a partner production company.
A Calvin Klein draft contract asked models to accept, at no extra pay, that the brand could use “reasonably unrecognizable images” of them to train AI tools. A spokesperson said the brand is “testing and learning in this fast-moving space.”
L’Oreal sought the right to use AI for modifying products, packaging, shades and retouching. The company said its standard AI tools in post-production do not affect a model’s image.
Lawyer Melanie Howard of Loeb & Loeb said sweeping contract language “is dangerous in its ambiguity.” She said it makes it hard for models to challenge unapproved use of their images.
Retailers Cut Costs as Rules Lag
Model agencies report fewer bookings, and some photo studios have closed. London-based model Adot Gak said e-commerce work, a main income source for models, could shrink within six months to a year.
Spain’s Mango has already rolled out AI-generated models at scale. Moncler said it does not currently use AI models, and Gucci did not respond to requests for comment after posting AI images on Instagram this year.
Zalando, Europe’s biggest online fashion retailer, closed both of its Berlin photo studios last year. About You, which Zalando acquired in July last year, also closed its studio, and Zalando cut more than 340 jobs overall.
New York’s Fashion Workers Act has banned brands from creating or modifying model replicas without explicit consent since June 2025. The British Fashion Model Agents Association has an AI code of practice, but its head John Horner said models remain at risk without binding rules in Britain or Europe.
“We are saving so much money,” said Julian Jansen, vice president of marketing at About You. He said AI has brought e-commerce imagery to “a completely different scale.”
About You is now launching Scayle Studios, which makes AI-generated model imagery for other retailers and promises production cost cuts of more than 90%. A spokesperson said Scayle has 130 brand clients and generated 190,000 outfits in the last month.
