Look Again: That H&M Model Showing Off a New Look May Be a Digital Clone

New York Times

28-03-2025

In two photographs taken for the fashion retailer H&M, the model Mathilda Gvarliani is seen posing in a white tank top and jeans. The images look like takes from the same shoot, but one of the photos shows the real Ms. Gvarliani, and the other is an artificially manipulated image of her.
Published this week in The Business of Fashion, an industry news outlet, one of the images shows Ms. Gvarliani clutching the waistband of her jeans, and the other shows her 'digital twin' with her arms crossed and staring into the camera.
Across the two images reads a quote by Ms. Gvarliani: 'She's like me, without the jet lag.' Ms. Gvarliani is one of more than two dozen models that H&M is working with this year to create digital replicas for use on the company's social media platforms and in its marketing campaigns, the publication reported.
H&M, a Swedish retailer, is the latest company to pursue a trend that has unsettled some fashion industry insiders. As the use of images generated by artificial intelligence spreads, critics have raised concerns about the impact on models and other independent contractors, such as hair stylists and makeup artists, who are part of the labor force that makes a photo shoot happen.
The company is in the exploratory phase of the project, said Hacan Andersson, a spokesman for H&M.
'We are merely exploring what is possible, and we are doing so in close collaboration with other creatives within the industry, agencies and the models themselves — who are in full control of when the 'digital twin' would be used, and will of course get paid when it is being used,' he said.
Jorgen Andersson, the chief creative officer of H&M, said that the company would retain a 'human-centric approach' in its use of the technology.
H&M was 'curious to explore how to showcase our fashion in new creative ways — and embrace the benefits of new technology — while staying true to our commitment to personal style,' he said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
The Fashion Workers Act, a new law that takes effect in June in New York State is expected to address some of the concerns about the use of A.I. by providing protections to models, including requiring pay transparency and control over digital replicas.
State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the labor law would 'protect fashion models from being financially abused and having their images used without their consent.'
Other states and some European countries have laws pertaining to the rights of individuals over their digital replicas, but the New York law is specifically geared toward models.
Some models have complained about discovering unknown faces photoshopped onto their bodies, or of not having control of their finances.
'I think part of what's striking about the H&M digital-twin campaign is that the digital representation of the model is indistinguishable,' Sara Ziff, a former model and the founder of the Model Alliance, an advocacy group, said on Friday. 'It really raises questions about consent and compensation and also has the potential to replace a host of fashion workers.'
The alliance, which provided input for the law in New York, said that there have been cases where models have had their generative A.I. images used without their knowledge or consent, and without receiving compensation. The new law says that modeling agencies cannot have the power of attorney over a digital replica, and must get a model's written consent for how it is used and remunerated.
A.I.-generated models are generally either fictitious representations of human models or digital replicas, which are images of real people repurposed by the technology, such as the H&M 'digital twins.'
The use of these digital forms in the lucrative fashion industry has been developing for years, as global retailers try to balance brand appeal with transparency and costs.
In 2011, H&M superimposed the heads of real models onto computer-generated mannequins for an online swimwear campaign. In 2023, the denim brand Levi Strauss said that it was going to use A.I. technology to publish more images of a range of body types, but added that it would not be scaling back on the use of live models.
Last year, the fashion brand Mango unveiled a campaign for a teen line of clothing, using A.I. technology that Jordi Alex, its chief information technology officer, said in an announcement 'will either make us more human or it won't.'
In its newsletter this week, the Model Alliance said that it was evaluating the H&M plan, which includes examples of other models next to their digital clones while featuring upbeat quotes, like the one attributed to Ms. Gvarliani about her digital twin being a version of her.
'Finally a way for me to be in New York and Tokyo on the same day,' the model Yar Aguer was quoted as saying while paired alongside her digital twin.
Asked on Friday whether the models had really said those words, an H&M spokesman said: 'I can confirm they are real quotes from the models.'