Model Alliance: Sara Ziff And Other Models Form Rights Group Ahead of New York Fashion Week

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Fashion models in the United States launched a rights group on Monday ahead of New York Fashion Week to seek workplace standards including backstage privacy to stop unauthorized nude photos and a program to provide confidential advice on dealing with sexual harassment.

Model Sara Ziff, 29, who has worked since she was 14, founded the nonprofit Model Alliance because she said she has seen the industry disregard child labor laws, evade financial transparency and tolerate sexual abuse in the workplace.

"Most models start their adult careers as minors and they labor in an unregulated business knowing that they are highly replaceable," Ziff said in a statement.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) said it had offered Ziff advice in starting the group. "Change comes from action and the Model Alliance can be a catalyst for change," said CFDA chief executive Steven Kolb.

Designer Diane von Furstenberg, president of the CFDA, is working with the alliance during Fashion Week, a high-profile global fashion event which starts on Thursday, to implement a rule that clears the backstage area of photographers and non-essential staff when models have to change clothes.

The alliance has also produced a draft bill of rights to empower models to demand fair treatment and is establishing a confidential service offering advice on how to deal with sexual harassment and abuse.

"The idea of models organizing may seem frivolous or, worse, downright funny - models are certainly not the people you picture when you think of child labor or bad working conditions," said former model and fashion writer Jenna Sauers.

"There's nothing funny about a work force that is overwhelmingly young, female and impoverished, working for some of fashion's wealthiest, most powerful brands," said Sauers, who is on the board of directors for the Model Alliance.

Ziff and Sauers said some U.S.-based models had complained about being told to lose weight, had suffered anxiety or depression and been sexually harassed.

"Many top designers pay their models in clothes-not cash. This doesn't have to be the case. We can do better. And we can start by giving models a voice in their work. This is a new frontier of women's rights, and workers' rights," Ziff said.

Some 90 designers are due to show their collections for fall/winter 2012 at New York Fashion Week to buyers, media and celebrities, with dozens more showing at other venues around the city to coincide with the semi-annual event.

Fashion Week in New York is followed by events in London, Paris and Milan. (Editing by Todd Eastham)

Comments

[Christinne Radu]

08:18 PM on 03/17/2012

MODELING = (DE LUXE) PROSTITUTION IN DISGUISE.

[NWOslave]

10:38 AM on 02/09/2012

The job of a model is to exist while wearing expensive clothing. Do tell? What's a fair price to pay girls/women to exist while wearing pretty clothing?

[tinker-the-cat]

12:08 AM on 02/11/2012

You clearly know NOTHING about the requirements of modeling and what the job involves - do report back in when you have some knowledge.

The physical strains of the job are many. Having so many manicures in a day during show weeks that your hands are raw and sometimes even bleeding - your feet are blistered and sometimes even bleeding too - Manolos are the least comfortable shoes in the world! Fatigue from running from one appointment to another combined with intense boredom from waiting for hours sometimes for a casting agent just to look at your portfolio.

Pay exploitation - the morally reprehensible fact that many designers pay just in clothes or nothing at all - telling the girls that 'if you do this gig - you'll get exposure....large multi-million dollar luxury companies, like PRADA!! that literally pay the girls nothing just to be associated with their brand. Muccia thinks she's doing the girls a 'favor' by getting glow from her product rather than pay the girls so they can eat!

Anna Wintour and Diane von Furstenburg are so far just blowing hot air on this topic - DVF hires underaged models last season - said she 'didn't know'. Her company takes 6 to 8 months to pay a model for work!! Anna WIntour doesn't support models at all - end-of-story...to flog her rag she uses celebrities on the cover of Vogue.

There's lots to be done in bettering conditions in the industry - Sarah Ziff should be applauded

[shortguy54]

05:07 AM on 02/08/2012

Well, all I can say is, "Good luck!" While the aims of this new organization are highly laudable, the operative term here is "highly replaceable". Collective bargaining is a fine thing, but it only works when power is more or less equally distributed. I don't see that here.

[PotatoPearl]

03:16 PM on 02/09/2012

Actors have been unionized for almost a century, and I would consider acting a field where one person is 'highly replaceable.' I don't see why models have to have it any differently.

[shortguy54]

03:31 PM on 02/09/2012

True. But it depend upon how much group solidarity they can muster!

[Pink birrd]

03:04 AM on 02/08/2012

This issues have bothered me for years. Teen girls can be bullied or taken advantage of. Fashion show people can seem sooo powerful and if your a new model, you can feel very powerless.
I am tired of seeing teens model clothes for adult women. Rebecca Romin said that there should be laws requiring models to be over a certain age. Supposedly they are supposed to be 16 but as you can guess, the rules are broken all the time.
I never thought it was appropriate for models to have to get used to creepy men waiting around while they were changing their clothes either. Many models are treated like mannequins.
The fashion industry should be held accountable for SOMETHING. I wish they would stop using 6 ft tall size 0-2 models. It's disgusting and offensive that women can only look good in their clothes if you look like a skinny transvestite. (I say that because the women are so thin they have very little breasts or curves to distinguish they are indeed female.

[traceymarie]

04:05 PM on 02/08/2012

and you end with a slam against tall thin women. disgusting

[Toni Goodman]

12:47 AM on 02/09/2012

I know a girl that doesn't model, but has the frame of a model. She doesn't strive for it, she's built that way. I hang out with her, and she eats a lot of food and barely works out. The ending of your rant pretty much insulted her for something she can't help.

[serene1234]

02:37 PM on 02/07/2012

This issue must be in the air. Found a video this a.m. that begins with a guy telling Demi Moore to "eat something". The point of his rant is to ask people to seriously reconsider the unforgiving standards for women. Check it out at.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn40ALCMDYk. Was surprised to find a guy talking about this issue.

[mary st george]

12:28 PM on 02/07/2012

I am very happy to know that someone is starting to look after the models' rights and options. Maybe this will help to encourage designers to work with more healthy looking women. We send money out of the country to help those with more meat on their bones than some of these models. Anorexia kills much quicker than obesity. These women should also not have to endure sexual harrassment for the sake of keeping a job. The average size of a woman in the US is a size 14, yet designers create around a size zero and then look for the bones that will suppport their designs. The entire fashion industry is way past ready for a complete overhaul.

[Sandra Muoz]

07:13 PM on 02/07/2012

I am starting a career in design and am planning to do just that. Eco friendlier materials and healthy looking women. It saddens me to read they are organizing to deal with harassment and abuse. Well what about the perpetrators/punishment?? no one should have to "deal" with criminal acts.

[tinker-the-cat]

12:16 AM on 02/11/2012

It's absolutely true. The designer samples are in the size 0-2 range.....the industry does not monitor itself even though Diane Von Furstenburg would like you to think it does...I spent part of this week running around with a model to castings....it's a very tough industry - can be demoralizing...the pressure on the girls to be anorexic-thin is still severe. My model friend's agent was called by a casting director this week and said that she was 'bigger' this season...her hips were 34.5" instead of the desired 33-34 in...it's insanity - not to mention dangerous...

[urface]

10:43 AM on 02/07/2012

Women relish picking apart models' bodies and criticizing their every perceived imperfection. They could care less about their rights because deep down they hate them.

[Chad Wheeler]

07:13 PM on 02/07/2012

Actually, I don't see that behavior from women. I see them being envious of models. I frequent boards that are populated only with women discussion fashion/beauty and never see those kinds of comments.

It's men that I see making the most hateful comments about women's appearances. Look at just about any story on this site about a female actress or model, especially if she is unconventional in any way.

[leskataus]

02:16 AM on 02/08/2012

I don't pick apart their bodies. I just wish the designers would use older women and not underdeveloped teenage girls.

[The Corporate Champion]

10:22 AM on 02/07/2012

Why do most modeling runway shows nowadays include Lady Gaga junk-style attire? It's not classy, stylish, fashionable, cute, impressive, or sexy. But I guess I can see why, considering who the targets for those clothes are - American women.

[Bianca S]

06:26 PM on 02/07/2012

LOL You remind me of the Mike Myers skit of the boy who does his "draw-rings" from the bathtub because that it the only view he has of life. In your case, it would be the tiny window in your mom's basement.

Go to Japan, Russia, Italy, etc and the women are much more daring and crazy in their fashion.

These runway shows you're talking about are avante garde couture and they have always existed, so it's not just "nowadays". Take a look through old fashion books from the 60's and you will see the same outlandish designs (4th pic down):

http://nickverrreos.blogspot.com/2011/01/paris-haute-couture-springsummer-2011.html

Sure, you'll see some American old (and new) money wearing this "Lady Gaga" clothing ( Alexander Mcqueen's Armadillo shoes and the like) in Galas in New York, but most of it is bought overseas from royalty-think Dubai and India. This kind of fashion doesn't have a "target" market, it's like art to them and they actually lose money off of it bc it's so expensive to produce.

As for runway shows that do "target" and are consumed by "American women"-think Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Rachel Roy, Tory Burch and Diane Von Furstenburg. It's just the women you attract are wearing "junk". Like attract likes.

[Callyson]

02:48 AM on 02/08/2012

That particular commenter takes any opportunity he can find to unleash hate on women, regardless of how convoluted the logic required to do so may be. Good reply, though.

[rlj13]

12:38 PM on 02/08/2012

I agree about everything in fashion being a Gaga ripoff. Why should Rihanna, Katy Perry and Nikki Minaj all always wear high wasted panties of various colors? They are supposed to look different from each other. Why would someone want to mirror someone else's iconic style? It's even gotten tired on Gaga.