In May, a judge extended the company\u2019s protection from its creditors until September as it continues to go through a court-supervised restructuring process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last Monday, the company\u2019s visual production department, composed of about a dozen photographers, retouchers, and makeup artists, was nearly entirely laid off and will largely be replaced with artificial intelligence-based imagery, according to the former Ssense photographer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The photographer, who spoke to The Gazette on the condition they not be named, said the last ones left standing in the department are the stylists, who will take basic photos of the models.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI is going to take the image of a garment that\u2019s on a mannequin, and then superimpose that with the information of the model. (Ssense is) more paying for the model\u2019s image rights. The model doesn\u2019t need to be there for the full day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until now, shooting one clothing collection would involve a full day\u2019s work with a model, a photographer, a stylist and a makeup artist, they explained.<\/p>\n
The photographer said news of the layoffs came very suddenly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe meeting\u2019s about three minutes long. They just say, due to the nature of how well the AI that they\u2019ve been testing has performed, and the fact that it\u2019s surpassed their expectations and the speed of the quality of the images they\u2019re generating, they\u2019re letting go of the photography, retouching, and makeup teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether the layoffs are due to AI, Ssense did not deny the allegation or explicitly confirm if it plans to adopt AI, but said it is combining \u201cnew technologies\u201d into its approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSsense is evolving our studio operating model to increase agility, accelerate content production, and further strengthen the product storytelling that defines the brand,\u201d a company spokesperson wrote in an email statement. \u201cThis evolution builds on our long-standing approach of combining our creative expertise, editorial perspective with continuous innovation and new technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of this transition, a number of studio roles are impacted,\u201d the statement continues. \u201cWe are grateful for the contributions of our departing colleagues, whose work has helped shape the Ssense brand identity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an email sent to employees in early June, reviewed by The Gazette, the company wrote that they are building an \u201cAI-native operating platform where AI is embedded in how we work every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAI is here to augment our work, reduce the tedious parts and help us focus on higher-value activities, enabling our teams to apply their expertise, judgment, and creativity in even more impactful ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A digital display screen showing fashion images at Ssense in Montreal, on Friday. Allen McInnis \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n
A widespread industry crisis<\/p>\n
With more fashion brands turning to AI images to save on overhead, an existential crisis looms for many models, fashion photographers and makeup artists as the future of their creative careers comes into question.<\/p>\n
Last month, Canadian fashion retailer Suzy Shier faced intense backlash upon publishing an AI-generated campaign of their summer collection. The Instagram ad, which has since been deleted from the company\u2019s page, signalled that the long-standing threats of AI replacing creative professionals are coming true in the fashion world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just makes me want to push back in my own practice,\u201d the former Ssense photographer said. \u201cThere is a sort of uncanny valley to a lot of the AI imagery, as good as it might be, I think also people, even if they know it looks good, I feel like there\u2019s a sense of duplicitousness about the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Canadian freelance makeup artist who has lost contracts to AI, Kim Creton, says even if AI images are convincing, they can never match the value or honesty of a photograph.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes away from how the garment, or the item, actually fits on a human,\u201d said Creton, who has freelanced for Ssense in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially if brands aren\u2019t stating that it\u2019s AI, like, why are we omitting this information? There\u2019s clearly some unspoken shame about it. Because otherwise people would say it loud and proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the photographer and Creton expressed frustration that their hard work over several years is being used to train the AI that is replacing their jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no sense of copyright or this or that, it\u2019s just everything is sponged up into this machine,\u201d the photographer said. \u201cThe public was never consulted, or there was never a referendum on any of this stuff. We\u2019re constantly told, \u2018oh, this is just the way of the world, this is inevitable, nothing we can do about it,\u2019 but these are generally the heads of companies, these are generally tech CEOs that are spreading this gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n
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