What: Fashion brands including Diesel, Calvin Klein and L'Oréal have sought AI rights over models' likenesses in photo-shoot contracts, while retailers such as Zalando and About You shut photo studios and switch to AI-generated models.

Why it is important: Zalando, Zara and Ssense have already moved production to AI. This article shows the legal cost side of that shift, which the earlier IADS coverage on efficiency and creative labour does not address.

AI-generated fashion models can cut image-production costs by 90% or more versus human-model shoots, while regulation of digital twins remains scant. Reuters interviewed 15 agency directors and reviewed over a dozen unsigned, confidential contracts. Diesel's release sought face swaps and body alterations, Calvin Klein's draft allowed images to train AI tools at no extra pay, L'Oréal's asked for broad AI usage rights, and skincare brand Reale Actives sought to own AI replicas of models for a year without further compensation. Diesel's parent said its release was campaign-specific, L'Oréal said it only uses standard post-production tools, and Reale Actives blamed a production partner.

Zalando closed both its Berlin photo studios and cut more than 340 jobs, though it retained some of those employees in other roles. Its subsidiary About You is launching Scayle Studios, which has 130 brand clients and generated 190,000 outfits in the last month.

The New York Fashion Workers Act has made it illegal since June 2025 to create or modify model replicas without explicit consent. Britain and Europe lack binding rules, relying on an agents' code of practice.

IADS Notes: Fashion retailers have been replacing shoot-based production with AI-generated imagery for the past year. BoF reported in December 2025 that Zara digitally dresses real models in different outfits, with compensation aligned to industry standards. Drapers noted in May 2026 that generative AI governs about 90% of Zalando's on-site marketing content and powers more than 170,000 product videos, with AI-generated models replacing child talent in kidswear. Cost pressure has pushed the shift further: the Montreal Gazette reported in July 2026 that Ssense cut most of its visual production team during its court-supervised restructuring and will combine garment images with model likenesses using AI. Rules and consumer response are still unsettled. Reuters reported in June 2026 that Eurocommerce asked the EU to exempt non-misleading AI-generated retail ads from AI Act disclosure requirements, and a Harvard Business Review study from September 2026 found that AI-made video ads trailed human-made ones on sales potential and brand equity even though consumers could not tell them apart.

Fashion's AI era: face swaps and digital clones