Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling (18 page)

Her categorization of the model-agent relationship, while extreme, does reflect the nature of agency operations. Models are at the mercy of their agents, who are in control of their schedules and their earnings. Agents tell them which casting to go to and then negotiate modeling fees for any booked jobs. The model does not have any say in the matter and must follow her agent’s direction. The organizational structure of the agency system is such that models need agents and agents need models; yet, it is the model who is an easily replaceable body.

Agencies may include a number of conditions in their contracts. For example, a contract may require exclusivity from a model, i.e., a model may not work with another agency, whether for all types of modeling jobs or a specific type, e.g., fit or runway. A contract may stipulate that if a model is late to a casting or booking, she is then responsible for covering all the financial damages, such as fees for the photographer, stylist, makeup artist, location, and any financial loss for the agency. Other contracts specify that if a model decides to leave her agency, she must continue to pay the agency their commission rate on future work for clients originally booked though the agency for a specified term after the termination of the contract.

Agencies may also offer contracts to freelance models, provided they share revenue from preexisting clients. This happened to one model who had successfully worked freelance for a number of fit and commercial clients. When she approached a reputable agency, she faced a harsh reality:

The agent said I was too commercial, meaning not pretty enough. I told him the names of a few of my clients, and he sent me to the fit department. There they measured me, a perfect size eighteen, gave me a contract on the spot, and pushed me out the door . . . When I told them that I would sign with them but would not include my preexisting fit clients in the deal, they stopped returning my calls. They only wanted my clients.

This model spent three years developing a working relationship with these clients, who hired her regularly. Once this agency saw her client list they wanted to reap a financial reward without much effort on their part. Ultimately, the accumulation of modeling revenue can drive an agent to sign a model simply to gain access to additional clients.

When an agent goes beyond his or her professional capacities and ventures into a model’s personal matters, problems may emerge. Too much involvement can backfire. While agents assume that a more personal relationship with a model is necessary to advance both of their
careers, this arrangement presents a model with dilemmas. Where is the line drawn? Once crossed, how does each party maintain an appropriate level of professionalism? What to do if things go awry?

In this subtle intertwining of personal and professional, lines may blur between acceptable, constructive criticism and that which is unwarranted and destructive. For example, Janice’s agent called her at all hours, even in the middle of the night, with new ideas on how to boost Janice’s marketability. The agent suggested that Janice pursue a variety of body modifications, from changing her hair color to getting a chin implant. Then, when Janice asked her agent what a client thought of her after a casting, the agent simply replied that the client thought Janice was not “pretty enough.” Janice did not appreciate her agent’s bluntness.

This kind of model-agent relationship was not what Janice envisioned when she signed the contract. Instead of receiving reasonable, constructive criticism, such as “you need to work on your walk” or “that hair color washes you out,” she was encouraged to drastically alter her appearance by way of highly invasive procedures. “If there was so much that needed to be ‘fixed,’ why would she sign me?” Janice wondered. The agent also failed to respect personal boundaries by calling at all hours of the day to berate Janice. After two years, Janice hired a lawyer to rescind the exclusive modeling contract with the agency. Given her experience, Janice is understandably leery of agents.

A model is an independent contractor and therefore not covered under most federal employment statutes. This leaves a model without much recourse in the face of employment discrimination, wage disputes, or worker’s compensation and disability. If a relationship between a model and an agent sours, a model may spend hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars to hire a lawyer to break the contract. There is no professional labor union for fashion models that can collectively bargain to negotiate
compensation rates and working conditions, prevent exploitation, offer health benefits, or provide other workers’ protections.
⁹

If there were a modeling union, one model asserted, “Maybe 20-year-old models would not be jumping out of buildings!” This was in reference to the death of Russian
Vogue
cover girl Ruslana Korshunova, who leapt from her ninth-floor apartment in New York in 2008.
¹⁰
In the past several years, a significant number of straight-size models (women and men) have committed suicide such that blogger and former straight-size model Jenna Sauers wrote the headline, “Suicidal Models Are Fashion’s Worst Trend.”
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The insular environment of this industry that promotes bodily insecurity and disembodiment contributes to this alarming trend. For example, in 2009, Korean runway model Dual Kim hung herself in her Paris apartment. A few weeks prior to her suicide, she wrote in her blog that she was “mad depressed and overworked,” and in another entry posted that “the more i [sic] gain the more lonely it is . . . i [sic] know i’m [sic] like a ghost.”
¹²

While there have not been similar media reports of suicide among plus-size models in the past decade, studies find a positive correlation between increased body weight and suicidal ideation and attempts among adolescent girls; extreme perceptions of body weight appear to be significant risk factors for suicidal behavior.
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While many of the plus-size models that I met received a boost in their self-confidence from working as a model, some still struggled with the corporal demands placed on them by the industry and the overall cultural stigma of fat. Size fourteen/sixteen runway and showroom model Alice acknowledged the heavy emotional toll she faced while dealing with routine rejection:

I don’t even know why I don’t get jobs. They [the clients] don’t tell me. Am I too big? Too small? Too edgy? Not commercial enough? I’m lost. This is my passion but I really don’t know what to do to stop the rejection. Am I not good enough? I work hard, but sometimes I think I should give up.

While Alice responded to the stresses of the aesthetic labor process by contemplating her professional exit from the fashion industry, plus-size
model Tess Munster blogged about the “dark side of modeling” and her suicidal thoughts:

Modeling, and especially living your life in the public eye, is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You see a different side to people, a very dark side. People use you to get places, they lie to you, manipulate you, then turn around and “love” you all in a day sometimes. I’ve lost friends, respect, and countless jobs because of my looks, beliefs, or just plain bad luck. Everyone thinks that they know me, therefore judging every move I make constantly . . . For six months last year (and part of this year) I was suicidal, and thought every day that there was no way I could deal with another day. I didn’t really tell anyone because I was embarrassed . . . my life looks so glamorous sometimes, and here I am barely able to get out of bed. Still to this day, I’m told what I “should” look like, how I “should” dress, what I “should” or “shouldn’t” be eating . . . basically, how I need to be living my life.
¹⁴

Munster faced an overwhelming pressure to conform to an image of beauty dictated by others. The objectification she experienced as a body in fashion became too much of a burden, and she contemplated suicide in order to avoid the abuse.

As independent contractors, models fend for themselves in an industry that preys on insecurity and naiveté. The field is structured such that a model cannot hope to further her career without an agent, leaving her alone and vulnerable. Ultimately, she is dependent upon her agent and a field built on desire and fantasy. However, there are a number of initiatives in the works to address these labor concerns. For the first time, in 2007, fashion models were allowed to join Equity, a trade union for professional performers and creative practitioners in the United Kingdom.
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The union, partnering with the Association of Model Agents, the British Fashion Council, and the Greater London Authority, works to improve working conditions and fight against exploitation in the modeling industry. In 2010, Equity established set minimum rates of pay for
London Fashion Week shows that increases depending on the number of seasons that the designer has presented his or her collection. Equity models also developed a ten-point code of conduct, historically signed by British
Vogue
in 2013:

Models hired by companies signed up to the code of conduct . . . get assurances on hours of work, breaks, food, transport, nudity and semi-nudity, temperature, changing rooms and prompt payment. Plus, models under sixteen years of age will not be used in photo shoots representing adult models.
¹⁶

As members of Equity, models also receive worker’s benefits such as legal advice and injury compensation.

These standards established by Equity set a precedent for the kinds of benefits and reforms necessary for models working in the United States and inspired efforts to unionize American models. In 2012, straight-size model Sara Ziff founded The Model Alliance, a not-for-profit labor group for all types of models working in the American fashion industry.
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According to Susan Scafidi, member of the Model Alliance’s Board of Directors and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School:

The fashion industry needs to reject images of beauty that are created through truly ugly means. Shining a light on those unsavory backstage practices is really going to allow the fashion industry, and the modeling industry, and all of the related industries together to create something more beautiful.
¹⁸

The Model Alliance’s goals include:

Provide a discreet grievance and advice service. Improve labor standards for child models in New York. Promote greater financial transparency and
accountability. Provide access to affordable health care. Draft a code of conduct that sets industry-wide standards for castings, shoots and shows.
¹⁹

Ziff and Scafidi hope to give American models a voice in the fashion industry and continually work to earn the support of the cultural tastemakers—designers, photographers, and agencies—to improve working conditions.

In the next chapter, I look into the creation of this fantasy through the images used in retail marketing campaigns. A reluctance and resistance to accept the plus-size niche plagues the retail clothing market. Designers with “skinny vision” fear an association with plus size and, accordingly, limit their size offerings; however, an increasing crop of retail clothing brands recognize the purchasing power of this underserved population. How do these designers contend with a growing segment of consumers who do not fit the standard mold, whose bodies come in a variety of shapes? Beyond matters of size, consumers demand proper fit and on-trend styles that flatter the curves of a larger body instead of hide them. The frustration over the paucity of clothing options is moving more fat women to enter the field as designers. This provides the unique case where the plus-size design niche is a market molded
for
and
by
its own. These designers aim to challenge hegemonic beauty standards and expose the fat body.

Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” caused a stir in the summer of 2005 when it used real women who showed their curves in simple white bras and underwear to introduce its line of firming products. On billboards across the nation, the morning news program circuit, and
The Oprah Winfrey Show
, these women flashed their pearly whites while showing off their rounded bellies and bottoms. Media critics heralded these unaltered and un-retouched images of women ranging from a size four to a size twelve (and not the typical size zero or size two of the fashion model) as a progressive move by the company to appeal to the ordinary woman;
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yet, others doomed Dove as “the brand for fat girls.”
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Dove’s advertisements promoting its new line of firming lotion, cream, and body wash reassured women to “celebrate the curves you were born with,” as long as these “real curves” were smooth and dimple-free. While size does not determine your beauty status, according to Dove, firmness, as in “beautifully firm skin,” does.

Similar images of confident and exposed plus-size models and “larger” women continue to saturate the media landscape. In an episode of
Grey’s Anatomy
, plus-size Sara Ramirez uninhibitedly danced in her underwear. A television ad for Lane Bryant’s lingerie line, featuring size sixteen model Ashley Graham, went viral after both the FOX and ABC television networks initially refused to air it due to “excessive cleavage.”
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Even reality television programs, such as TLC’s
Big Sexy
and NuvoTv’s
Curvy Girls
, featured plus-size models as they worked in the field of fashion.