As the recent effort to unite writers, editors and others at Condé Nast revealed, the reality of life in the fashion media is typically very different from public perception. “I’ve been a model for 25 years and there have been countless times where I’ve flown around the world and have no idea what I’m getting paid,” Karen Elson, who has appeared on more than 30 magazine covers and is involved with the Alliance , told me. “If I have to wait nine months at this point in my career to get paid, what happens to someone who is just starting out?” she said. “If you start now, you almost need a trust fund. And if you don’t have that, you have to work to the bone. You may have a Vogue cover, but your bank account may be zero.”
This is because models often have debts to agencies, which retain power of attorney, allowing them to receive payments and otherwise manage aspects of their clients’ financial lives. After receiving their commission, agents often charge questionable fees, and in some cases even charge for emails sent. Sara Ziff, founder of the alliance and a former model who later graduated from the Kennedy Schools of Columbia and Harvard, recently wrote about an experience she had years ago where money was taken from one of her paychecks to help an agency’s art purchase. finance . Management companies also often double as landlords, dorm-style apartment housing models, for which they can add fees to the market rent.
The Alliance has a support line, Ms. Ziff told me, and most of the calls are about scam agencies asking for nude photos, harassment, and late or non-existent payments. “I don’t think it’s anyone’s priority to introduce work protection for models. But when you connect the dots and see how vulnerable this workforce is, it becomes incredibly clear,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you’re talking about a largely female, immigrant workforce.”
This is not to say that men have worked in the industry with any great advantage. Ten years ago, Alex Shanklin, who now works in the real estate and construction industry in Houston, earned a modest income as a model in New York. “I never really made it big, but I’ve always kept my head above water,” he told me. At some point, as fashion imaging moved from art to commerce to an explosion of digital content, that got harder to do. In 2012, he noticed that paying his bills became more difficult. The desks seemed ‘shadowier’ to him. “Maybe money has gotten tighter,” he said, “but things have changed.”
In his case, too, the humiliations piled up. “I can tell you that as a black male model in New York, there were times when I was told to my face, ‘We’re not hiring black guys anymore.’ There were brands that would do well on inclusive representation, but when it came to agencies, they discriminated against people of color for years,” he said. Mr. Shanklin left New York in 2013, not long after seeing an underwear ad featuring his body on someone else’s face. He was sure his agency had been compensated for that, he told me.
