The “Glamorous Façade” of High Fashion: A Path Towards the New York’s Fashion Workers Act

Photo: Courtesy of Google, Emerson Scheerer

In the early 2000s, Sara Ziff was beginning her modeling career and soon found herself on Tommy Hilfiger billboards and walking for Marc Jacobs, Prada, Chanel, and Christian Dior in New York Fashion Week. Several years later, Ziff graduated from Columbia University with her Bachelor’s degree before partnering with the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University School of Law to form the Model Alliance (“MA”).  As a nonprofit, MA advocates for labor protections for models and was instrumental in helping pass the New York’s Fashion Worker’s Act (“NYFWA”). New York City is the center of the fashion industry that generates nearly 900 million dollars in revenue for the state, and even though the models are the face of the industry, they have not been granted basic labor protections until the recent passing of the NYFWA.

Operation of Traditional Modeling Agencies

The organizational structure of modeling agencies (“agencies”) in New York has historically operated as management companies as opposed to the traditional talent agency. Management companies are exempt from the licensing and regulatory requirements that talent agencies are required to adhere to. This has been exploited as a legal loophole that made it easier for agencies to manipulate the models they represent, especially for those who are young and new to the industry. For example, a traditional contract between the parties is auto-renewing and spans several years. Additionally, the agency is granted a blanket “power of attorney,” allowing it to accept payments on behalf of its models, deposit checks and deduct expenses, book jobs, negotiate the model’s rate of pay, and permit third parties to use the models’ image.

This kind of power has allowed agencies to cultivate a debt-bondage payment system. For example, agencies will fly models to another country, hire a driver to take the model to an apartment that was provided by the agency, and set up beauty appointments. However, the agencies turn around and charge the model for those services. Most of these models are barely making anything from their assignments, if they’re even getting paid at all, so those charges turn into debt. To bring this full circle, since the agencies have a power of attorney over their models, the agency would often take the money paid from the client (a company that uses an agency to hire the models) and deduct that from the model’s “debt” instead of providing direct payment to the model.

France Provides a Legal Framework

Getting paid as a model is also restricted by being paid in trade, where their labor is being exchanged for products rather than cash. Some designers do not pay their models for walking in New York Fashion Week but are required to compensate them under French labor laws during Paris Fashion Week. Despite New York and Paris fashion weeks having nearly equal amounts of influence, the disparity in a model’s experience is because France has implemented several employment protections for models. To illustrate, models must have a formal work contract that outlines working hours, pay, and the conditions to be expected for the job. Additionally, French modeling agencies must be licensed, provide their models with transparent financial agreements, and cannot deduct unfair commissions or fees.

With France providing a framework, the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, signed the New York Fashion Workers Act on December 20^th, 2024. The Act will go into effect in June 2025 and will require modeling agencies to establish a fiduciary duty to their signed models. This is “a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will close the legal loophole by which model management companies have escaped accountability, and create labor protections for models.” Beyond the fiduciary duty, the Act requires modeling agencies to register with the state, pay a $50,000 surety bond, provide models with a copy of the final agreement between the model and a client at least 24 hours prior to the start of the model’s services, notify a model in writing if the company collects royalties for a model they no longer represent, and obtain clear written consent for the creation or use of a model’s digital replica.

There are a handful of big-name models like Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Gigi Hadid, Ashley Graham, and Kendall Jenner who are making millions in their supermodel careers. However, this is a rare, narrowly shared experience among models. The Fashion Workers Act is aimed at closing this economic disparity and granting equal protection for all models. Under the Act, model management agencies will no longer be allowed to collect any fee upon signing a new model or impose a commission greater than 20%. “In a world of fantasy, nothing ever comes that easily without a catch”—but with the Fashion Workers Act, models can finally stop paying the price for an industry built on illusion.