Guess Who’s Not Real: Why AI Has No Place in Vogue

The August print edition of Vogue has officially landed, and from the glossy pages of the bible, this fall's latest trend is…AI? 

Yes, correct. Real humans – bruises, freckles, curves, tan lines, all the marks of life have suddenly been cast as outliers. And who do we have to thank? None other than Guess, who just debuted their latest muse: an airbrushed, 5'10 blonde, with a personable smile, and an entirely fabricated genetic makeup, because she's 110% AI. 

Yes, you read that correctly. 

Guess the fashion brand.  Submitted an ad. With an AI-generated model.  TO Vogue! 

AND VOGUE PRINTED IT! 

Now, I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Social media has already trained us to contort ourselves into filtered, “perfect” versions of reality. From finding the right angle to face-tuning entire jawlines, we’ve been taught to idolize “perfection” — a fictional concept, btw. But even at its most curated, there was still a human being on the other side of the photo.

Instead, what I actually find most disheartening isn’t the AI model herself, but what her presence represents: an industry built on celebrating uniqueness and individuality, turning its back on the very muses who brought couture to life. 

Fashion, at its core, is meant to be lived in, loved, shared, worn — Brought. To. Life. Or am I wrong?

Now, Seraphinne Vallora, the advertising agency behind Guess’s AI models, claims campaigns have simply become too costly — especially on-location shoots with multiple models. They argue that AI enables brands to produce more content, faster.

Fair enough. But here’s the kicker: when Guess asked them to create their “model,” the agency spent over a month building out ten different AI options, from which Guess “cast” two to work with. 

Now, surely, Guess didn't waste a month and a budget just to play Sims because that smells like a virtual reality casting call to me? 

If you want to plug an AI model into a car insurance commercial, fine — that’s intangible, transactional, a stand-in. But fashion is not that. Fashion is an art form built on photography, individuality, and human expression. Clothes are designed to move with bodies, to carry memory, to exist in the real world. 

And for that reason, there is absolutely no room for AI muses in Vogue.