Sartorial Adventure

Why the Fashion World Needs to Commit to an 18+ Modeling Standard

Stories of burnout—and worse—are rife in a modeling industry filled with vulnerable mid-teens. So isn’t it time for the fashion world to commit to working with models old enough to vote? asks Maya Singer.

www.vogue.com|Maya Singer

How did the fashion industry become so reliant on the labor of teenagers? What’s striking about Harulia’s story is how typical it is. ... Imaan Hammam was thirteen when she was spotted near an Amsterdam train station. Andreea Diaconu was an unusually tall eleven-year-old when scouts started circling. These girls are a few of the lucky ones; resilient Harulia signed with blue chip agencies in New York and Paris and walked for Miu Miu in March for the fall 2018 collection, but many of the roommates with whom she shared flats in unfamiliar cities were discarded or burned themselves out—“broken from the inside,” as she puts it.

... Early this year, in the wake of #MeToo revelations, Condé Nast, the publisher of this and many other magazines, issued a new global vendor code of conduct. Responding to stories about models both male and female being inappropriately touched, pressured for sexual favors, and even assaulted, Condé Nast established provisions aimed to ensure that all its editorial shoots are safe working spaces—harassment-free zones with private dressing rooms and allowances for model approval of both poses and clothing. Another set of provisions addresses the age of models: In recognition of the unique vulnerability of minors thrown into a career where they have little control and where abuse has been all too commonplace, the vendor code of conduct stipulates that no model under the age of eighteen will be photographed for editorial (unless he or she is the subject of an article, in which case the model will be both chaperoned and styled in an age-appropriate manner).

...Consider Naomi Campbell. The ne plus ultra of supermodels, Campbell was just shy of sixteen when she launched her career in the mid-1980s, when there were but a handful of twice-yearly fashion shows—a model could stay in school if she wished. Agencies signed very few names and invested in their long-term success by being selective with their bookings. Thus Naomi and her peers were sought-after. They developed close working relationships with designers, who would rigorously fit the variety of looks handpicked for them to wear on the runway. “It used to be, the fittings would take forever,” remembers David Bonnouvrier, cofounder and CEO of DNA Model Management in New York. “Now the girls are cast to fit the dress.”

“It’s a numbers game,” agrees Chris Gay, co-CEO of Elite World Group; it includes The Society Management, which represents Kendall Jenner, among others. “Brands want 40, 50 girls in a show, leaving less opportunity for designers to spend time with each talent. There’s no time for long fittings. But you know who fits those tiny samples?” Gay shakes his head ruefully. “Teenagers—girls who haven’t finished growing yet.”

If you want to understand why very young models became the runway norm, you have to look at the evolution Gay and Bonnouvrier have observed—from show samples’ being fitted to variously proportioned young women to young women’s being matched to size 0 samples. And to understand why the fix isn’t as simple as, say, cutting larger samples, you have to tease out the other factors at play, from the rise of the internet to the fall of the Iron Curtain. It’s a systemic problem. Its causes are diffuse.

... Diaconu’s early experiences in the fashion industry illustrate its perils for young models. “When I was fourteen, I’d have photographers asking me to go topless. There would be 20-hour days, taking green tea pills for stamina. Once, when I was about sixteen,” she says, “I had a booker tell me I had to socialize and go to clubs. It still makes me uncomfortable when I see models dressed as exotic parrots, hanging out at bottle service.”

...“These are children trying to understand and fit into an adult world,” observes Maria Bruce, LMHC, a New York–based licensed psychotherapist who specializes in working with high-achieving adolescents and adults, including athletes, dancers, and actors. Bruce says that the models she’s counseled struggle to navigate the mixed signals they get on the job. “They’re told to ‘grow up’ if they complain that they’re tired,” she says, “and yet in other ways they’re already treated as grown-ups.” This confusion, she says, leads teen models to feel too uncertain of their own authority to say no when they encounter dicey situations. Some muster the courage to speak up; most shut down.

“The teenage brain is sensitive to overload,” Bruce explains. “And some of the possible psychological consequences of dealing with these stressors include low self-esteem, obsessive-compulsive disorders, anxiety, and depression.”

... Myriad young models are flushed out of the industry when their adult curves emerge. Others continue to work but don’t do shows. Imaan Hammam is one of fashion’s current superstars, and she has the kind of healthy, toned body many women aspire to—but says she exceeds what some say is the regulation 34-inch hip and so is rarely spotted on a catwalk. “So many times I’d do fittings for shows and then they’d cut me at the last minute,” she says. “I tried to work out, eat healthy—but at a certain point, I had to say, Enough. This is who I am.”

... Unless and until the underlying dynamics of the fashion-show economy change, the conditions they’ve created will remain in place. Modeling will go on being a commodity business, with one new face easily replaced by the next. There will be exceptions, of course...but as Gay notes, “You can’t make policy around the exception.” The eighteen-plus runway initiative has the opposite aim: Jam the gears of the machine so it’s forced to rebuild itself.

...“We need to inject a labor consciousness into fashion,” says Ziff. “Models are not the people you picture when you think of workers’ rights, but the fact is we are doing a job and deserve to be treated fairly—just like anyone else who works for a living.”

“The age of models is just one component of a big conversation,” agrees Stella McCartney. “If you have a business that employs people, you have to be mindful of their conditions of employment—period. There’s no reason fashion should think it’s above that.”

A black, transgender and disabled model just landed her first major magazine cover

Aaron Philip, the first black, transgender and disabled model to sign for a leading agency, has achieved another trailblazing feat: her first major magazine cover.

www.cnn.com|Natalie Prieb and Brian Ries, CNN

"There's still a great lack of visibility and attention towards people with disabilities in fashion," she said in the CNN interview. "As of right now, I'm one of two physically disabled models in the entire industry, next to Jillian Mercado.

"It shouldn't be the responsibility of anyone who is marginalized to amplify their voice when there are so many voices that can amplify (it for) them," she added. "But it's just the way of getting to where you need to be. So I'll do it. And hopefully I'll do it so that other girls in my position don't have to -- they can just live and do their jobs."