AI in the Fashion Industry Can Be Innovative, But Is It Ethical?

In the fashion industry, women of colour in positions of power are still a rarity. Which is why the introduction of Reem — a woman who to many commenters appears to be of Middle Eastern descent — as the new fashion and lifestyle editor of  U.K.-based media brand SheerLuxe initially seemed so exciting. The only issue? Reem isn’t a real person.

On July 16, SheerLuxe introduced their “AI enhanced team member” Reem in an Instagram carousel that leads with a photo of Reem with the brand’s editor-in-chief. The photo dump also included a headshot of Reem alongside the brand’s staff, a glimpse into Reem’s handbag and desk set-up (despite the fact that she can’t actually sit at a desk...) and an eerily realistic OOTD pic of the artificial editor in a chic pink linen co-ord.

The response was swift, with many followers calling out the brand for what was seen as a huge misstep. “Am I tripping or did you create an AI woman of colour as a staff member instead of…hiring one?,” one social media user commented. “ChatGPT please make the most perfect Arab looking woman, with the perfect brown skin and call her Reem. But don’t worry we will control the brown girls narrative instead of hiring one ?,” wrote another.

Among the criticism from social media users was the fact that SheerLuxe created a completely digital employee, in a job market that’s rapidly going down the drain. Another recurring observation of incensed SheerLuxe followers was the fact that said AI employee is a woman of colour, seemingly implying they’d rather create an entirely one-dimensional woman of colour — with no actual voice, opinions or ideas — than do the work of hiring a real one.

The use of AI in fashion isn’t surprising

Sinead Bovell, for one, isn’t surprised that SheerLuxe made the decision to explore AI. In a 2022 Tedx Talk on computer-generated imagery in fashion, the futurist and founder of tech education company WAYE, explored this exact topic. “AI and AI-generated people and avatars are coming, and they are going to be present in many industries,” Bovell tells FASHION.

The decision to push boundaries with tech and AI arguably makes sense in an industry like fashion, precisely because breaking down boundaries and pushing the limits is what so much of fashion is all about. “The fashion industry tends to be always exploring the new technologies, in comparison to other more traditional business, considering that it’s based on trends and social trends,” says Dr. Luana Carcano, a professor at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. “I do consider this phase of AI the natural evolution of the industry — and it’s a trial and error phase.”

Dabbling with AI is something the fashion industry has been doing, to varying degrees of success, for several years nows. In 2023, AI studio Maison Meta hosted the first digital fashion show, which included a competition for young designers to create entirely digital looks. The same year, iconic jeans brand Levi’s announced plans to experiment with AI on their website in order to increase diversity in size and skin tone; a decision that was met with backlash from consumers, upset that the brand wasn’t doing the work to actually hire diverse people. And brands like H&M and Zara have also implemented the use of AI to help predict trends.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s always ethical

Don’t get us wrong, there are pros to the use of artificial intelligence in certain aspects of the fashion industry, including when it comes to sustainability, like using AI for more accurate trend-forecasting, which can cut down on overproduction and waste. But, as Bovell notes, when it comes to the use of AI avatars — whether they’re AI fashion models or editors — and the demographics of characteristics we assign to them, “there are ethical, cultural and economic implications for those decisions.” While companies can still explore outside their own personal demographics, “it doesn’t mean people get to play identity dress up with AI without considering the ethical implications behind it,” Bovell says.

And there can be many implications; including the potential to exploit some often marginalized communities financially. Bovell notes it’s important for companies considering AI avatars to ask themselves: “Are certain communities being locked out of the opportunity to profit off of their own identity because somebody is using their an AI-generated version of their identity instead?"  Given how beneficial it is to companies to market their diversity, turning to AI to achieve this means "[companies] are profiting off of experiences and identities that [they] don’t actually pay for,” Bovell says.

It also means they’re potentially profiting off of experiences and identities that they don’t entirely understand — because implementing front-facing AI diversity doesn’t actually make a brand diverse if the people behind the scenes aren’t. In fact, it can just lead to misrepresentation of the communities being drawn from.

Using AI for diversity can lead to more harm IRL

This is something we’ve seen before. In 2017, model Shudu Gram, a dark-skinned African woman, started popping up on social media feeds, in ads for Christian Louboutin and on digital magazine covers. In many of her original posts, she dons dzilla, copper or brass neck rings often worn by married women in Ndebele, South Africa. The thing is: Shudu isn’t a real person; and worse, she’s a digital avatar of a Black woman created by a white man, photographer Cameron James-Wilson. “That was a Black woman, but she was created through the eyes of a white man,” Bovell says. “So her features, her hairstyle, the choice to use very sacred neck rings in some of the images, that’s beauty through the eyes of a white man.”

And as Bovell notes, having a white man create a Black AI-generated woman perpetuates the expectations in society about what Black women and Black beauty “should” look like.

"I haven’t seen [AI] used in a way that promotes diversity without taking opportunities from real life people who embody [it],” says tech journalist Takara Small.

While one side of the online debate tends to fall into a camp of people who feel that any representation, whether real or virtual, is a step in the right direction, “I think we are at a stage where we really need that representation to also reflect a real person for it to have a long lasting impact,” Small says. “Because if it’s someone who’s AI, you can change their shape, you can change the colour of their skin, their hair, at any point in time — or you can delete them, you can remove them.” Essentially, we’re sending the message that they are easily expendable. “Having a real flesh and blood person and giving them opportunities to voice and to share their experiences is important,” Small says.

Diversity behind the scenes still matters

This decision is especially vital when it comes to the fashion industry, given its historical treatment of people of colour; and the initiatives and campaigns that have happened to change this. The fashion industry has long been pretty non-inclusive, with Black and Brown folks experiencing racism and discrimination across the industry, from facing micro-aggressions as retail employees all the way to a lack of visibility in positions of power — all while the industry continues to profit off POC’s labour and ideas.

Given this history, Small says it would be interesting to know the decision-making process behind SheerLuxe’s AI venture, specifically the decision to make her a woman of colour. “Is it easier to create a woman of colour than it is to hire someone to be in that role full-time?" Small says. “I would like to know, if you [were to] reach out to them, what they would say.”

For their part, in a statement released on July 17, the SheerLuxe team apologized for not properly explaining the concept of Reem, stating: “No jobs were compromised in any way as a result of her creation and we would never publish any content that hasn’t had ‘human’ involvement.” The outlet also stated that Reem’s opinions and choices come “directly from the diverse team we are so proud of at SheerLuxe.” As for Reem’s appearance, the sams statement noted: “She was created in partnership with an AI imagery creator from the Middle East and that is reflected in her likeness.”  [FASHION has reached out to SheerLuxe for comment. This article will be updated with their response.]

But, as Carcano notes, some of the specific decisions that go into this kind of technology aren’t up to AI,  but rather the people using it. Carcano uses the example of chatbots for online messaging between businesses and customers. While the chatbot function itself is the product of artificial intelligence, how companies want to present themselves within said function — everything from the tone of voice to the aesthetic of the chatbot — is up to them. “The decision to have a chatbot that has certain racial characteristics is the decision of the company,” Carcano says.

SheerLuxe seemingly tried to make light of the Reem situation on July 30 when they posted to the AI-enhanced editor’s own Instagram account with a photo featuring the editor wearing a white “SAVE REEM” t-shirt. In the caption, the editor (or whoever generates her content) wrote: “Two weeks in the wilderness, do I stay or do I go?"

The future of AI in the fashion industry isn’t all doom and gloom

That doesn’t mean it’s all darkness. While it may feel like AI is coming for our jobs right now, eventually, Bovell says, more jobs will be created once we figure out how to leverage this new technology. “It’s not just about replacing existing processes, that’s one very small element that can happen, but the bigger change that usually happens over time is [tech] leads to new experiences and new markets that previously didn’t exist or weren’t possible.”

While the industry — and consumers — are trying to figure out just where AI fashion models land in the greater scheme of things, the growing pains of this technology might eventually lead to something even greater and more beneficial down the line. “Is there a world in which AI allows each person to be the model in their own clothes?" Bovell asks. “Because technology can now enable that, do I actually need to even see somebody else that some historical society has decided is arbitrarily beautiful or do I just need to see me, empowered in my own clothes and me as the star of my campaign?" That, Bovell says, is a new experience that tech can enable.

“We create what we imagine, and we move towards the futures that we think about,” Bovell says. “So I try to encourage people [to consider]: How can we deploy [AI in fashion] in a way that actually benefits most people?"