Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling

by Amanda M. Czerniawski

  When I first met Bobby, he stressed that he required my full cooperation. He stressed, “Let me know what is up—your schedule and limitations, whether no nudity or not working on high holy days.” If we were to work together, I needed to be up-front about my level of comfort with different kinds of jobs, i.e., fit jobs, lingerie and swimwear, etc., because when he sent me to a casting, I needed to be prepared to accept the job. This was a condition that I understood. As a taller than average twelve-year-old, my acting manager would arrange auditions for me, often for the role of high school teenager. Many of the parts that I auditioned for contained profanity and sexual situations. One audition, in particular, involved the reenactment of a sexual assault. As a child, I was not comfortable with the scene and refused to audition. Afterward, my manager refused to send me out on auditions since she deemed me “unprofessional” and “immature.” Therefore, when Bobby said this, I understood the severity of the situation.

  In this partnership, agents work closely with their models to build their careers, getting to know them personally and involving themselves in more private aspects of their models’ lives, from searching for an apartment after a model’s boyfriend dumps her, to helping with mortgage payments, or walking a model down the aisle at her wedding. As one agent argued, this personal connection is necessary for the professional process to work. Without this complete immersion into every aspect of a model’s life, he argued, she would not become a star. This agent needed to be aware of everything that could have a possible effect on his model’s capacity to work. Given this ideological stance, some agents blur the lines between public and private, as well as between mentorship and control.

  In this close mentoring relationship, agents advise their models on how to present themselves to prospective clients. This, at times, involves learning the fine art of deception. Before my first casting for a fit client, my agent advised me to exaggerate the truth of my experience in fit modeling. If asked by the client about my previous fit work, the agent told me to mention that my grandmother was a seamstress and to overemphasize my past in theater by saying that I had worked as a fit model for costumes. While my grandmother occasionally made me dresses, blouses, and skirts which required multiple fittings, and I had been fitted for costumes throughout high school and college for various musical productions, this “experience” had not prepared me for fit modeling work. In recommending me to present myself as a fit model with experience, the agent taught me how to market my particular set of skills and experiences. These kinds of lies run rampant throughout the fashion industry. Models regularly lie about their age, ethnicity, measurements, and level of experience—often at the behest of their agents. In her ethnography, Mears writes about how her agents instructed her to subtract five years from her age and either stress or ignore her Korean ethnicity to potential clients.8 The truth of the body used in fashion imagery is inconsequential as long as she can pass as the desired body. In the end, the façade (and not the substance) is all that matters.

  Models and agents engage in an intimate working relationship, where private matters of the body are subject to public scrutiny. Individual body projects, such as a simple haircut, become subject to public debate. A model needs to present any desired body modification to her agent, who, in turn, evaluates the proposed change based on fashion trends and employment potential. Any physical changes that affect a model’s appearance need to be approved by her agency. She surrenders herself to a collective of aesthetic professionals who makes decisions about her body.

  Models are not only subject to an agent’s gaze on matters of the look of her body but also on what she does with her body. At my first meeting with Bobby, he warned me to refrain from drugs, alcohol, and salt, lest I become bloated for a photo shoot or casting. One of his former models failed to heed this advice. This lucky young woman booked an advertising campaign with a popular American retailing company. On the day of the photo shoot, she did not appear for her call time, which is the meeting time arranged by the client. After several frantic calls from the client to the agency and Bobby to the model, Bobby discovered that the model was too embarrassed to go to work because she had a hickey. Bobby urged her to go anyway, be friendly to the makeup artist, and pray that the shoot was a fall or winter scene involving scarves. Afterward, he dropped her from the agency due to her lack of professionalism:

  She must have been drunk, high, or willing to get a hickey the size of Rhode Island. I won’t work with someone who doesn’t treat this [modeling] as a job . . . She made me look bad. I take it personally if it doesn’t work or she’s not professional.

  This incident illustrated that a model’s behavior reflects back onto the agency that represents her. At each casting and booking, both the model’s and the agency’s reputations are in jeopardy. By signing a model, the agent is, in effect, betting on the model’s potential to book jobs. The agent, in turn, depends on the model to behave professionally at castings and bookings, namely by showing up promptly and ready to work at the scheduled call time. If a model fails to comply with these expectations, she will be asked to seek representation elsewhere. Modeling is a job, not a right, as Bobby explained during our first meeting:

  From my past experience, I like working with actors. They know how to do the business. Pure models think they are better than everyone else and privileged. Remember, this is a business.

  While I told Bobby that I was a sociologist, my educational credentials did not appear to affect his evaluation of me, except that he approved of the flexibility my academic schedule provided. He was more interested in my past as an actor and its similar emphasis on body work and aesthetics. Bobby highlighted the professionalism needed to work in fashion. It is not about being trendy, “cool,” or popular. Models do not just stand in a position and look pretty. Modeling, in his view, is work that requires trust in one’s agent, dedication to improving one’s bodily capital, and fearlessness to do what clients ask.

  Building a successful modeling career requires active involvement on the part of a model. Once a model signs with an agency, she needs to maintain a visible presence. As an agent from an exclusively plus-size agency recommended:

  You don’t want to fall through the cracks. You need to call or email to check-in with your agent at least once a week, just to see if anything is happening. Most of the time, there won’t be anything happening at the moment, but it is good to keep you fresh in your agent’s mind. It shows your interest in your career.

  Frequent contact with an agent boosts a model’s chances of getting sent out to castings. As one model recommended, “Be charming. Remember names. Send thank you cards and gifts. Most importantly, kiss ass!” In order to succeed, these women become entrepreneurs, commodifying their bodies and engaging in emotional labor to sell their product.

  Over the Line?

  As much as they promote the use of larger bodies in fashion, agents are not goodwill ambassadors for size acceptance. They are business professionals who rely on specialized management tools and practices, e.g., firm contracts, elusive accounting practices, and scheduling controlled by model bookers, to protect their investment. These institutional texts and discourses that coordinate the work processes within modeling agencies serve to connect the macro-level of the modeling industry with the everyday life of the plus-size model. They also serve to control their models’ careers. Ultimately, the model is subordinate to the agent.

  Agencies control the financial end of modeling work. They negotiate modeling rates with clients, process work vouchers, and schedule a model’s bookings and castings. Relying on a commission-based system of service, if the agent does not find the model paid work, the agent likewise does not get paid. In terms of the employer-employee arrangement, models are independent contractors. They are not employees of a modeling agency. Since models are self-employed, they do not receive health insurance or other employment benefits that usually accompany a salaried position. If contractually signed with an agency, the modeling agent becomes th
e authorized representative of the model and receives a negotiable 15–20 percent commission from the model’s earnings for services rendered. Their services include arranging “go-sees” and castings and negotiating terms of compensation with potential clients for the model. In this commission-based scheme, the agent receives a 20 percent cut of the model’s fee (the New York modeling market standard) and charges the client—the designer, advertiser, retailer, or other individuals or company that requires the services of a model—an additional 20 percent on top of the negotiated modeling fee. In total, the agent receives 40 percent for being a middleman. One model offered this frank illustration of the role of the agent as a middleman:

  Agents are pimps, the clients are the johns, and models are prostitutes. The clients don’t know what they want. They are just a bunch of out of touch higher-ups. Once they have a model, get used to her, they don’t want to change her. The models are used by the pimps, I mean the agents, who try to get more money out of her. She’s just a commodity. The agent collects 40 percent, for what? It’s me [as the model] that makes the connection with the client. [For agents] It’s all about the money.

  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.

  Institutional-Level Protections?

  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.”11 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.13 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. E
veryone 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.15 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: