New York model Francheska Pujols sued budget retailer Rainbow Shops on May 22 in New York Supreme Court, as the New York Post first reported. She says the chain shot her in its clothes against a plain white backdrop and then used AI to create entirely new images of her that she never posed for. Some, she says, are crude and suggestive, including one of her sprawled over a barstool and another with her head in a second model's lap, cocktail in hand.
Her contract allowed minor edits, not new pictures. She says Rainbow kept using her likeness after the deal ended in March, ignored her cease-and-desist letter, did not pay her, and harmed her standing as a higher-end model. Rainbow told the Post it used its images properly and violated none of her rights.
After first asking for a jury trial, she withdrew the suit at the end of May, and her lawyer says both sides want to resolve it privately. PetaPixel notes that some of the brand's Instagram posts also appear AI-generated.
Lawyers quoted by the Post say disputes like this are arriving fast. The article frames the case within a wider shift in fashion, where brands are using AI to produce cheap product images and cutting work for catalogue models and photographers. One fashion lawyer predicts supermodels and runway shows will survive, but that AI will take most of the everyday catalogue work that makes up the bulk of the business, leaving less-established models struggling to earn a living.
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