Digital Twins on the Runway: What AI Is Doing to the Modeling Business

2 min read

Nightlife Report · Fashion Desk · Lillith Magic · Directed by Anthony Perlas

Modeling’s newest competitor doesn’t need a booker, a call time or a plane ticket. A Reuters investigation published by The Business of Fashion on October 27 found agencies seeing bookings decline, photo studios closing and models losing a share of their livelihood as brands turn to AI-generated imagery (The Business of Fashion).

What did Reuters find?

Reuters interviewed 15 model-agency directors and reviewed more than a dozen confidential photo-shoot contracts in which brands including Diesel, Calvin Klein and L’Oréal set out proposed terms for AI alterations and future use of images. The requested terms included the right to swap a model’s face with another using AI, the creation of a digital clone with no extra pay to the model, and the right to use images of a model’s body to train AI. Those contracts were unsigned.

The pressure is hitting e-commerce work first. “Within a year, even the next six months, there’s going to be less jobs for models, especially our bread and butter, which is ecommerce,” London-based model Adot Gak told Reuters. The report says Zalando closed both of its Berlin photo studios as it adopted AI-generated imagery.

Is there any protection?

Some. New York State’s Fashion Workers Act has made it illegal since June 2025 for brands to create or modify replicas of models without their explicit consent. “The misuse of models’ images is not new, but with AI that problem is accelerated tenfold,” said Sara Ziff, founder and executive director of the Model Alliance, which backed the law.

The Nightlife Report take

Agencies were built to protect a model’s face and name. That was Eileen Ford’s idea when she founded Ford Models in 1946: the agency as the guardian of the talent, not just the booker. A digital twin turns that face into a file, and whoever controls the file controls the career. It’s also why we think a modern agency like OTTE has to put consent and ownership first. The models who come through this era well will be the ones who read every line of the contract and keep the rights to their own likeness.

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FAQ

Which brands were named in the contracts Reuters reviewed? Diesel, Calvin Klein and L’Oréal, among others.

What law protects models in New York? The New York State Fashion Workers Act, in force since June 2025.

What kind of modeling work is most at risk? E-commerce photography, according to the models and agency directors Reuters interviewed.

Your move: Want an editorial look built for your own night out? Book a Lillith Magic shoot, see the work at @lillithmagic, and catch the latest at Nightlife Report. Hear the full read on The Perlas Protocol.

Lillith Magic · Directed by Anthony Perlas · Nightlife Report

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