H&M Uses Computer-Generated Perfect Bodies To Sell Clothes
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H&M products modeled on computer-generated bodies.
Do these models look strange to you? That’s because they’re not models. They’re computer-generated (and perfect) bodies with real heads Photoshopped on.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet called clothing retailer H&M out last week for using computer-generated bodies on their website, and H&M responded, agreeing that that is—wait for it—exactly what they had done.
“It’s not a real body; it is completely virtual and made by the computer,” H&M press officer Hacan Andersson told Aftonbladet. “We take pictures of the clothes on a doll that stands in the shop, and then create the human appearance with a program on [a] computer.”
That technique might explain some past H&M Photoshop disasters, as well.
Andersson argued that H&M’s use of virtual models ensures that shoppers’ focus is on the garments and not the models’ bodies. But by creating a fake and computer-generated model’s body, H&M is doing just the opposite: putting the unattainable and idealized female body front and center.
“One issue is that they’re doing this and not making a disclaimer, essentially trying to pass off this digital body as a real one,” said Farrah Bostic, the creative strategist and founder of The Difference Engine digital strategy and design company. “Another is that it’s one stock body—suggesting there is only one ideal body type and shape, which is bad for already poor body image in young women.”
Feministing editor Chloe Angyal agrees:
We already live in a culture where the gap between what we’re told women’s bodies should look like and what women’s bodies actually look like is wide enough to drive a truck through. The practice of digitally slicing and dicing these models to cobble together a vision of female beauty that is literally impossible to achieve in real life is widening that gap still further.
In a statement to ABC, H&M spokeswoman Nicole Christie said, “It is regrettable if we have led anyone to believe that the virtual mannequins should be real bodies. This is incorrect and has never been our intention. We will continue to discuss internally how we can be clearer about this in the information towards our customers.”
H&M continues to defend their choice to use computer-generated models, though.
“This technique can be found in use throughout the industry,” Christie said. “This is not to be seen as conveying a specific ideal or body type, but merely a technique to show our garments.”
H&M’s fake computer models erase the reality of human labor in modeling and the fact that models are real people who often do not get paid very well—and why pay someone when you can digitally create their skill?
Regardless of what H&M claims they were trying to do, the company is telling women that bodies should be perfect—and that their idea of perfection is a fake idealized female body instead of a real one. Unfortunately, H&M is just one more company advancing the message that real women’s bodies aren’t perfect enough.
Dahlia Grossman-Heinze is a staff writer for Campus Progress. Follow her on Twitter @salvadordahlia.
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