As brands tout the human labor behind their holiday campaigns, Dior's supposedly hand-drawn film has viewers questioning what counts as human-made craftsmanship.

Luxury brands have never been shy about advertising the work of human hands. From the thousands of hours spent embroidering couture gowns to the artisans hand-stitching leather handbags, craftsmanship has become as much of a selling point as the finished product.

But there’s a difference between handmade, hand-finished and something that simply looks handmade. For the most part, luxury houses have been able to use these terms without consumers questioning every step of the production process.

Just ask Dior, whose new holiday campaign is facing accusations of using AI, despite the fact that the French luxury house advertised it as entirely “hand-drawn.”

Dior tapped Oscar-nominated animator Sylvain Chomet, best known for “The Triplets of Belleville” and “The Illusionist,” to direct “Christian Dior’s Night in Color,” a six-minute Christmas film featuring the voices of Rihanna, Robert Pattinson, Greta Lee and several other celebrities.

The film debuted Wednesday and almost immediately attracted scrutiny from viewers who questioned whether generative AI had been used to animate Chomet’s illustrations. Some pointed to distorted hands, inconsistent lettering and peculiar movements between frames as possible evidence.

There’s no independently verified evidence that Dior used generative AI in the production outside of self-proclaimed animation experts in social media spaces. While WWD has not heard back from Dior on the topic, Chomet and Aton Soumache, the producer of the film, explained some of the process to Variety over the weekend.

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