We’ve got the SheerLuxe girlies’ TikTok takeover to thank for our obsession with Ganni t-shirts, Sambas and wide-leg jeans.
The impossibly beautiful staff members who work at the online magazine have been a social media success: their TikTok pages @sheerluxe and @sheergen have a combined following over more than 800,000 followers.
So when they unveiled their newest team member, the internet was intrigued. Only, this employee was not like the others.
Fashion and lifestyle editor, Reem, is created by AI, and was introduced by the brand on Instagram this week.
We saw Reem adorned in Zara, Reiss and Mint Velvet, and a snap of the salad she bought for lunch.
But the reveal has been met with outrage by fans. While SheerLuxe has not been specific about Reem’s ethnicity, they have said that the AI company who created her is based in the Middle East, and that is therefore ‘reflected in her likeness’.
‘Am I tripping or did you create an AI woman of colour as a staff member instead of…hiring one?’ asked one user on Instagram.
Another said: ‘This is not it. Instead of hiring an actual woman of colour or a plus size woman, you’ve made a virtual one? Disappointing.’
And a third added: ‘This is incredibly weird and also insulting. It’s essentially taking away a job from an Arab woman when we are already under-represented and/or misrepresented in media.’
It’s not the first time SheerLuxe has been criticised for a lack of diversity.
When celebrity stylist Nana Acheampong, who has dressed the likes of Little Mix and Mel B, was employed last year, followers accused SheerLuxe of tokenism, with one commenter saying: ‘The recent feed is giving the same energy my school gave me when they put in a brochure 10 times to show they were “diverse”.’
Others have also said Reem is setting an impossible beauty standard given that she is, you know, not real.
‘Girls, we are out here trying to fight these impossible beauty standards for women,’ wrote another follower. ‘We are also out here trying to put talented and amazing POC in their rightful spotlight – and you do this?! Nah.’
A second said: ‘In a world of unobtainable beauty standards you just hit us with unobtainable AI to make us feel even less worthy.’
SheerLuxe responded to the backlash with a statement, which defended their decision to add Reem to the team, but suggested fans weren’t on board because SheerLuxe ‘didn’t explain [Reem] properly.’
The statement read: ‘Reem was born entirely from our desire to experiment with AI, not to replace a human role. She was created in partnership with an AI imagery creator from the Middle East and that is reflected in her likeness. She is an AI generated image only, and is not able to create content or articles.’
They continued: ‘No jobs were compromised in any way as a result of her creation and we would never publish any content that hasn’t had “human” involvement.
‘We’ll keep innovating, but we are listening and in future we’ll explain such newness better to our readers.’
The CEO and founder, Georgie Coleridge Cole, has also reshared LinkedIn screengrabs to her Instagram stories, featuring posts which praise Reem’s creation.
She also added that, while followers have been ‘vocal’ about what they think of the AI bot, she’s excited by what Reem will bring to the team.
Georgie said: ‘She’s got a sort of persona and a character that we can follow and be true to and hopefully some people might like what they see and like her recommendations.’
So, despite their critiques, it seems SheerLuxe are powering ahead with their plan.
Reem has her own Instagram page and said she was ‘excited’ to be joining the team…
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.