The Dark Side of Modeling
The Dark Side of Modeling
With its estimated annual revenue of $1.5 billion in the US and the global fashion industry valued at over $2.5 trillion, the industry offers significant financial potential.
Travel-
In a documentary, Reggie meets former model Valeria. Scouted aged 14, she traveled the world modeling for ten years. She shares with Reggie the realities of sending young girls from Russia across the world on modeling contracts “You are alone, in another mentality and another world. No friends, parents, you are a child.
Some girls are scared because they are told they won’t get their passports back to travel home.”
Karlie Kloss is quick to point out, “I’ve worked really hard to be in this position.” In the last five weeks alone [spring 2014], she’s traveled between jobs in New York, Zurich, London, New York again, Madrid, back to London, New York, London for the third time, St. Barth’s, back to New York, then Paris, and now back again. It’s the kind of itinerary that makes it easy to understand why, having kept such a pace for most of the last six years, Kloss had never really felt at home anywhere.
Usually models are responsible for their travel costs to agencies, though on a case by case basis the mother-agency might be willing to negotiate on that. Photo shoots usually contract out for models and promise to cover their expenses, though this can fall through depending on the validity of the client. Even if the agency does cover the travel expenses the model will be expected to pay the agency back once he or she starts working. “The agency is setting them up in the modeling apartment. They pay their flights. They don’t ever disclose how much they cost. They pay for your visa,” Reggie explains. “So you arrived and you’re like $15,000 in debt. And they remove this money every time you get a job. How would you be able to survive?”
Sources:
