Tired models urge lawmakers to crack down on exploitation

Models have complained for years about rampant sexual and financial exploitation in their industry, from hidden agency fees and inflated prices for “model apartments” to unchecked sexual harassment during photo shoots and castings.

Now New York has passed the first law in the country to significantly regulate modeling agencies, ending a fierce two-year battle between modeling rights activists and the companies that represent them.

The Fashion Workers Act, sponsored by supermodels Karen Elson, Carré Otis and Beverly Johnson, passed the New York Senate on Thursday evening and was passed unanimously by the Assembly on Friday. The document now goes to Governor Kathy Hochul for her signature.

The bill was sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblywoman Karines Reyes and was written in collaboration with the advocacy group Model Alliance.

“New York has long prided itself on being the fashion capital of the United States,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “When the Governor signs this bill, models working in our state will finally have the worker protections they are entitled to, making New York the protection capital of fashion workers as well.”

Beverly Johnson is among the supermodels who supported the legislation.

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Model Alliance founder Sara Ziff, who has been bringing Sprinters full of models to the state Capitol to lobby for the bill for the past two years, said she hopes it will change fashion culture and improve the standard of treatment for models.

“I hope that with the passage of the Fashion Workers Act, models… will realize that they are operating in complete darkness, without any rights or protections,” she told The Daily Beast.

“Will this solve every problem? No,” she added. “But for the first time, models will have labor rights. There will be industry standards that never existed in the past, and I think that’s a big deal.

Sara Ziff of the Model Alliance

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The bill would introduce workplace protections, including mandatory meal breaks and overtime pay for work longer than eight hours, and would require agencies to implement a zero-tolerance policy for abuse.

It aims to crack down on financial exploitation by limiting agency commissions to 20 percent of a model’s earnings and requiring agencies to provide copies of contracts and agreements at least 24 hours before a shoot.

The legislation was supported by major industry players, including the Council of American Fashion Designers, SAG-AFTRA and the union representing workers at Conde Nast, the book’s publisher Fashion.

However, the proposals have also faced criticism from management companies who believe some of the wording goes too far. Top modeling agencies — including Ford, Wilhelmina, Next and Elite — formed a group called the Coalition for Fairness in Fashion to lobby against the bill last session and hired former Ford Models co-president Joey Hunter as a spokesman.

Hunter told The Daily Beast that agencies weren’t completely opposed to the bill, but had concerns about specific provisions, such as preventing agencies from forcing models to sign power of attorneys. He said Model Alliance has not consulted with his coalition’s agencies on the bill’s language and that they hope to make some “tweaks” before it goes to the governor for his signature.

“I think there are still some things that need to be improved and I know we will talk about them,” Hunter said. “But our problem was that this bill was created without the involvement of an agent or manager, and I don’t think that was fair. “

Ziff said Hunter’s coalition never called for a meeting, but the Alliance listened to the agency’s concerns through lobbying and made adjustments accordingly. She added that Model Alliance took into account the comment from the powerful WME-IMG agency, which was not part of the coalition.

She also praised models who spoke out in the face of industry opposition, including several who she said received threats or were even rejected by agencies for supporting the bill.

“It is not a trivial thing to risk your life to stand up for what is right,” she said. “It was very much a team effort and every model who spoke at the press conference, rode the bus to Albany or called an elected official really made this happen.”

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One such supporter is Ambra Gutierrez, the Italian model who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault during a casting her agent sent her to. The Fashion Workers Act requires agencies to exercise due diligence to ensure castings do not pose undue risk to their models and requires them to bring a chaperone – rules that Gutierrez said could have prevented what happened to her.

“After what I experienced, I try to prevent (such situations) as much as I can and also help models understand what they can do if something happens,” she told The Daily Beast.

Gutierrez said she thought the change in New York’s regulations would have a ripple effect throughout the fashion industry, adding: “This city (provides) the basis for what fashion should be.”

Ambra Gutierrez pushed for a fashion workers bill.

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The bill passed the New York Senate last year but failed to advance out of an Assembly committee. Since then, dozens of models have spoken out in support of the bill at press conferences, on lobbying trips to Albany and at a rally before the famous Met Gala last month. Many people shared personal experiences of sexual assault, racial discrimination and financial coercion.

The bill also gained widespread support from big names like Otis, the 1990s supermodel who publicly accused her former modeling agent of assault.

Otis told The Daily Beast that it’s high time to regulate the industry.

“This is not only an extremely important moment, but also extremely necessary,” she said. “We need to ensure basic human rights of financial transparency and safe workplaces free from sexual misconduct, (and) start holding this industry accountable for some very, very bad behavior over the decades.”