A UNIQUE WAY TO PROMOTE NEW    TALENT 

        What It’s Truly Like to Be a Fashion Model

For decades, modeling was a silent profession, where women were supposed to be seen and never heard. But in February, just as Paris Fashion Week began, a group of high-profile models — Jourdan Dunn, Edie Campbell, Leomie Anderson, Candice Swanepoel and Joan Smalls — voiced their support for James Scully, a casting director, who had taken to Instagram to condemn two colleagues, Maida Gregori Boina and Rami Fernandes, for keeping models in an unlit stairwell for several hours.

    “Thank you James, speak that TRUTH!!!” Ms. Dunn wrote.

A month later, models.com published results from a survey in which more than two dozen models discussed unprofessional working conditions, nonpayment and abuse in the industry. And in May, an Instagram post by the model Ulrikke Hayer in which she accused a casting director for a Louis Vuitton cruise show of telling her to consume nothing but water for 24 hours went viral. (The day after the water edict, she was informed that she would not walk in the show.) 

 Indeed, social media platforms have become part of their selling power, often included on their measurement cards. Many use these tools to express their belief that for all of its seeming glamour, the modeling industry remains overrun with problems that include labor exploitation, sexual harassment and body shaming. Below, women in different stages of their careers sound off on their experiences.

GORGEOUS LOOK MODEL

Precious Lee, 28, Atlanta

I became a model about 10 years ago when I attended an open call with a friend. I modeled throughout college, and after I graduated I moved to New York three days later. My first agent here changed my name from Precious to Victoria. I was Victoria Lee for three years. I am definitely more than likely always the only black model on set. Sometimes I’m the only black person on the entire set or on the entire floor. I’ve encountered some really interesting issues as pertains to my race. I had a casting for a client that was waiting to see me for a while. They asked me my background and I said, “Oh, I’ve shot for Macy’s and Nordstrom’s.” And they were like, “No. What’s your race?” I said, “I’m black.” They’re like, “Oh, you’re black? You’re just so pretty.’” And I said, “I didn’t know black didn’t come in pretty.” Needless to say I didn’t book that job. We don’t see enough black models, and we definitely don’t see enough black plus-size models. I am definitely more than likely always the only black model on set. Sometimes I’m the only black person on the entire set or on the entire floor.

People aren’t seeing different types of beauty because the publications, the designers, the people that are actually in the power to make it happen, aren’t making it happen. Fashion was always supposed to be the next new thing, the next trend. What’s more out of the box and progressive then having a size 14 or a size 16 woman on a cover of a magazine when there’s been a million straight-size women that have been on it? 

Ebonee Davis, 24, Seattle

I started modeling in my hometown, Seattle. I wanted to take my career to the next level, so I dropped out of college and moved to New York at 19. A lot of the agencies that I went to either told me they had someone who looked like me or there wasn’t room on their board for me, or they just didn’t get my look.

When I decided to wear my hair natural, at first my agency was totally against it. They told me that just-rolled-out-of-bed look isn’t going to work. And it wasn’t just-rolled-out-of-bed. It takes a lot of work. They told me I was going to lose the clients that I had and new clients wouldn’t want to work with me. But the crazy thing is that less than a month after the decision to wear my hair natural, I booked the biggest campaign of my life: Calvin Klein.

                                                                                   Silence is violence.

                                                                                                              EBONEE DAVIS