Vogue’s AI model ad sparks backlash – unrealistic beauty standards?

The iconic fashion magazine has made a historic first. Vogue featured an AI-generated model in its August 2025 print edition – sparking fierce backlash from readers, campaigners, and models alike.

Double-page controversy You can also find out more about Seraphinne Vallora’s AI agency created an advert that featured hyper-realistic women displaying the brand’s summer collection. The only way to tell she wasn’t real was by a small label.

“This is the direction AI should not be going in… wow,” wrote one shocked reader on X.

AI in fashion

Seraphinne Vallora was founded by Valentina González and Andreea Pâtrescu. They claim that the campaign had been commissioned by You can also find out more about co-founder Paul Marciano via Instagram.

“We created 10 draft models… he selected one brunette woman and one blonde that we went ahead and developed further,” Gonzalez told the BBC.

She also said that AI model creation is a complicated process and costs can reach as high as “low six figures per campaign”.

There is also a financial appeal. On its website, the company claims that it “eliminates expensive set-ups and MUA artists as well as venue rentals, photographers, traveling expenses, and hiring models.”

Felicity Hayward, a plus-size activist and model, called the move ‘lazy and inexpensive.’ She suggested that brands were chasing headlines instead of supporting real talent.

“It is very depressing and frightening,” she told BBC. “This will have a disproportionate impact on plus-size models.”

Hayward isn’t the only one who has criticized AI models. Critics claim that AI models are often digitally mastered and lack diversity in real life. This could reverse the progress made towards fashion inclusivity.

Dove launched a massive campaign in 2020 to highlight AI’s inherent bias. Asked to create “the most beautiful woman,” the AI generated thin, young, white, blonde figures – very similar to the AI You can also find out more about model.

Even Seraphinne Vallora acknowledges that its Instagram feed is lacking in diversity. Gonzalez stated that “we’ve posted AI pictures of women with different complexions, but people don’t respond to them.” “At the very end, we are just a business.”

The agency claims that it has not developed plus-size versions, because “the technology was not advanced enough to do so.”

Mental health and beauty that is misleading

Sinead Bovell is a former tech entrepreneur and model. Labelling not clearly visible AI content is “exceptionally controversial.”

“There are young girls getting plastic surgery to look like a face in a filter – and now we see people who are entirely artificial,” she told the BBC.

Bovell explained that “the magazine is seen as being the supreme court for the fashion industry.” “So, allowing the AI advertisement to run is a way of saying that they approve it.”

While AI models might be cheaper and faster to create, they raise pressing questions: What happens to real people behind the scenes – models, stylists, and makeup artists?

All the latest technology news.

All world news.