A class-action law suit has been filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by models who are alleging that six New York-based modeling agencies routinely mistreated them.FindLaw.com is reporting on the suit filed by eight models who are suing their former agencies for a variety of abuses.
“We had 12- to 14-hour photo shoots outside and weren’t given anything to eat,” Vanessa Perron, a 31-year-old model who is one of the plaintiffs, told the New York Post. “When we asked [to eat], we were told, ‘Oh, you’re a model, you’re not supposed to eat’.”
Perron, who worked for Elle, Vogue, Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein, says she was constantly badgered about her appearance by Next Model Management in spite of being 5’ 11” tall and weighing just 110 pounds.
“It was very hard on my self-esteem to be told all the time that I needed to lose weight,” Perron said. “My teeth weren’t white enough, I was told to diet and hire a personal trainer, I was told to go tanning because my skin was too white, to color my hair because it was too dull. And of course all this was at my own personal expense.”
Former J. Crew model and lead plaintiff Alex Shanklin says "There's nothing beautiful about the way the modeling industry in New York City treats its models."
Shanklin revealed that models are put up in apartments, sometimes eight or more to one place and forced to sleep on bunk beds, and then charges them each $1,850 a month for rent.
A Swedish model named Carina Wretman, 48, who is also suing, said she was forced to foot the bill during her modeling days with the talent agency Wilhelmina. The agency is known to make money off its young models by charging them for everything from hair products to airfare, the Post reports.
“There needs to be a change. They charge us for everything!” Wretman said. “It’s frustrating. They make more money than we do!”
“At the heart of this complaint is a claim that agencies push girls to do dangerous and bizarre things in order to be thin and to be seen with the right people,” FindLaw reports. “One woman was told to break up with her boyfriend serving in the military in Afghanistan and to find a man who can advance her socially and professionally.
Only one of the accused agencies has commented publicly on the case. A lawyer for an agency named Click told FindLaw that the models involved in the suit were “wannabes whose stars never shined” and said all of the agencies involved in the suit have moved to dismiss the case.
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