With the Harvey Weinstein scandal blowing Hollywood’s cover on sexual abuse, insiders in acting’s sister industry of modeling are laying bare the all-too-common violations against models’ bodies and dignity. Top model Edie Campbell wrote an Open Letter on Model Abuse in WWD, stating: “…We operate within a culture that is too accepting of abuse, in all of its manifestations. This can be the ritual humiliation of models, belittling of assistants, power plays and screaming fits.” She highlights that part of the problem is that “there is no line between the personal and the professional. Work, to me, does not look like work: I undress in front of the people I work with, I travel with these people, I get drunk with them, they ask me who I’m shagging, we tell stories, we giggle, we gossip and we become part of ‘the gang.’ It’s a school trip for all ages. When an industry becomes as informal as this, it becomes harder to define what is appropriate behavior for the workplace.”

Edie Campbell

It’s true. The line in the modeling world is blurrier than in perhaps any other (legal) industry on the planet. Part of a model’s job is often to look and act sexy. I knew many models who carried that behavior beyond the runway and set to their everyday demeanor. In some cases, it makes good business sense. If a client is going to book you to model bikinis or haute couture and look alluring, oozing sex appeal at the casting may help seal the deal. If you are on a trip and hoping to be booked again, keeping up the Marilyn Monroe act 24/7 could help. Photographers and clients might interpret this behavior as a personal invitation to explore the bod beneath the bikini; sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t.  (Edie Campbell’s choice of top—or lack thereof—in the photo at the LOVE x Miu Miu London Fashion Week Party, embedded in the link above, begs the question: when does provocative fashion cross the line to offering up your body on a platter. Or am I old-fashioned?)

Edie Campbell

Plenty of models play the required role while posing and revert to girl-next-door normalcy as soon as they step off set. This, along with maturity, self-esteem, and limits on what you’ll do to succeed, lessens the chance of harassment. However, almost every model—male and female—has a story of an agent or photographer who tried to wield power to get in their pants.

Here’s mine (an excerpt from my modeling memoir):

“Jill! Welcome. I’m Willy,” said a fifty-something man with an Israeli accent. He wore a cheap suit and strong cologne and met my gaze at eye-level. He was no John Casablancas. No doubt he hoped the airy loft space and power to scrawl a New York agency logo across young girls’ images could make him a Casanova, even if nature hadn’t been so generous in the looks department.

“It turns out the model apartment in Battery Park City is full,” said Willy, after Victoria explained that I could relax today while she made comp cards and a copy of my book for the agency. “You can stay at my apartment.”

Oh, boy, here we go again.

I had the suitcases with me that I had lugged on a bus from the airport. Willy offered to have his driver take me up to the east 80s, where he had a bland one-bedroom apartment. It was a step up from Andrea’s in Milan, but clearly Willy was sitting on a worn mushroom-colored couch, not a fortune.

I sat on that sofa for much of the afternoon, paralyzed by the view from the seventeenth floor of the bustling city below. There is nothing lonelier than being alone among Manhattan’s six million residents.

A collage from my early modeling years in NYC. Stay tuned for my next blog post, when I’ll reveal the more revealing shots I cropped out!

A crammed schedule of  nine castings paid off the following day. At 6 PM I made my third and last pay-phone check-in call to the agency. “You’re booked for Bella tomorrow,” Vicky told me. “Be at the Granata studio at 10:30 AM, clean/clean. You’re shooting in Long Island, so it will be a long day. The rate is $125. Hold on, Willy wants to talk to you…”

“Jill, congratulations—a booking already! Sorry I have not been a good host,” said Willy. “A car will pick you up at 9:20 tonight and take you to Bice. We will have dinner with some friends of mine and celebrate.”

I had been enjoying my space at Willy’s and pondered arguing for beauty sleep over dinner. I better not. His agency had me working on day two. I owed him.

A non-model couple joined us for dinner. Willy sat too close to me and clearly meant for me to be his date. He smoked and drank too much, while I sipped my wine so as not to risk a hangover. “Come on, Jill, I will order another bottle, the best they have! Drink up,” Billy urged, as he swished the last of his wine in his glass and downed it with a cheeky grin. He was trying to channel Johnny Casablancas, and it just didn’t work. He was neither charming nor attractive.

“I have to work tomorrow, remember Willy,” I reminded him. “I’m a very responsible model, you know.”

“Ah, well, a responsible model must take care of her agent,” he said, winking.

I started feeling uneasy. I had to go back to this man’s apartment. I thought about my trip to visit New York agencies as a high school senior. Maybe I was lucky they said no then. I recalled a senior at my high school who spent two months living at the Ford’s brownstone before she fled back to Rochester, homesick. Maybe I had a few wrinkles now, but I had wisdom too. I could handle this. I scanned Willy’s arms to assess how strong he was. What if he tried to force… I chased the image of Hilde in Paris from my mind.

By the time we left Bice, Willy was slurring and trying to put his arm around me. I was sober and able to evade him and make light of this little game. Willy laughed along until we stepped into the elevator at his building and the doors closed. His face got serious and he looked at me like a cat might at a mouse when the playful batting game concludes and he goes in for the kill.

He cornered me and put his face to mine, so that the red wine on his breath flowed freely into my assaulted nostrils. “Willy,” I said, “I’m going to bed, you know. I have to get up early.” I pretended to be calm and nonplussed, to not appear like the mouse beneath a clawed paw. The elevator doors opened and I ducked under Billy’s arm to exit this trap and make my way toward the next.

Willy fiddled with his keys and, after three tries, got the right key in the lock. I thought about turning back to the elevator and escaping, but where would I go? No, it would be OK. We were two grown adults, I could handle the situation.

The ensuing proposition was hard to forget. As Willy swayed me toward his bedroom, he slurred, “Come on, thish’ll be really fasht.”

I might have laughed at his pathetic come-on line, if it weren’t for how scared I felt, with no place to go but his sofabed. Or his bed—the direction I guessed would lead to more bookings.

I didn’t want success badly enough to sleep with the boss, a trade-off many supermodels have made, with coercion sometimes playing a role. Thankfully, Willy left me alone, but as I lay awake into the night, anticipating my early dawn alarm, I decided I needed a different living arrangement. 

When I moved to my friend Leslie’s place, I worried about Nicole, the fourteen-year-old Canadian who had been sharing my sofa bed at Willy’s. Nicole had a full decade less life experience than I had but a full C cup—a dangerous combination. Anyone that young should not be in New York alone.

Stay tuned for a post on nudity. Do models often have to strip down in front of male models and production people? Are models expected to shoot topless? I’ll answer those questions (hint: one response is “yes” and one is “no”) and more.

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Fashion photographer Debra Somerville has experience on both sides of the camera. She started her career as a model in New York and Paris. To hear from someone who knows what it’s like to model and knows what photographers like in models—well, it doesn’t get any better than that, so listen up!

How did you get into modeling? I went to Hicksville High School in Long Island, and Lorraine Bracco was in my grade. She got into modeling. We were good friends. She said, “You can do it too. You should come with me.” She told me she made $500 doing a fashion show. I thought, Whoa! I graduated and went directly to New York. It was hard for me. I was short. A lot of agents wouldn’t look at me, but I persevered. Back then some models were 5’6″; they were called junior models. You could be a little shorter if you were really thin. That’s not the case anymore. I was with Zoli first and then I went to Ford. They sent me to Paris right away. I was 17. Lorraine was in Paris too—we ran into each other in the street.

Which agency were you with there? John Casablancas was just starting his agency in Paris. He picked me among three or four girls to come. Eileen—all the agencies—used to send new models to Paris. There are a lot of magazines in Europe, so if you needed tear sheets, you could get a book together really fast. I worked there for about year.

Tell us about John Casablancas. Are all the rumors true? Johnny—he’s slimy, I’ll tell you that. He basically would take all the models’ money and put it into one pool. Some models worked a lot and some not much at all. Everyone got a certain amount of money each week, through Johnny. It was like waitresses pooling tips!

Did you work well? Did you like it, aside from the agent shenanigans? I worked a lot, especially in Germany; they paid cash, so I loved it. I traveled all over on jobs. I went to Morocco on a magazine shoot. Then I was with Models One in London. When I went back to the States, I left my voucher book in Paris. Johnny owed me a lot of money. I went to Eileen Ford for help. She told me: “You left without your money. That was stupid. I can’t get your money.” It was all under the table then. It was very seedy. I was so young and naïve. I didn’t question a lot of things. But it was a great time.

Did you keep modeling in the States? I went to Nina Blanchard in California. She was such a nice woman and really took me under her wing. I didn’t work much in New York; I wasn’t tall enough.

When did you stop modeling?  When I was 20, I got into acting. Eileen kept trying to send me to Paris. She wanted to get rid of me because I wasn’t a moneymaker for her. I was very commercial looking and very aggressive so I started getting TV commercials. I started studying acting and taking dance, voice, movement lessons—every class I could take. It was a great life. I made a ton of money and commercials supported me through residuals. I didn’t really want to stop, but I grew into a different type— I couldn’t do teen stuff but also didn’t fit as a young mom.

How did you get into photography? All my friends were in the business, and they all needed pictures. I started shooting them and I just loved it.

Tell us about your fashion photography experience. I always just wanted to shoot fashion. I loved fashion and was comfortable in that area. My first boyfriend was a pretty famous fashion photographer at the time. He taught me a lot, and I took a course at the International Center for Photography. I really wanted to learn what I was doing and work in the dark room and all that. I veered off into fine art photography and really studied photography. Printing was amazing—I loved it. Then I started assisting fashion photographers. I assisted Robert Farber, among others.

What inspired you to launch your modeling “Images Workshop”? There really wasn’t fashion in Connecticut, so after moving here from New York I was shooting family and children for years. I applied a fashion approach to my kids’ portraits, so the photos looked like they came from a fashion magazine. I put up pictures at a coffee shop and got a huge response. Everyone wanted me to do pictures of their kids. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to go back to my roots. Stores like Wish List needed pictures but didn’t have a budget for models, so I’d scout out girls at the mall and teach them what to do and develop them. I started getting calls from parents, wanting me to hire their daughters. I realized there was nothing in Connecticut for young girls who want to get into modeling. They don’t know how to do it. Images Workshop is a soft landing before going into New York, where the industry can be really harsh. If I had a young daughter, I wouldn’t let her go straight to New York. I’d love to send my daughter to me!

Michel Ann, Project Runway model discovered by Debra Somerville

What does your Images Workshop entail? It’s like a real shoot you’d do in New York. You come to studio, have your hair and makeup done, and I help style the looks. I have a very supportive approach. We have a great time. A lot of these girls won’t be models but they want to know what it’s like. It’s glamorous!

Is Images Workshop for aspiring models only?  No. A lot of girls are attractive and they want to give it a try. I’ve even had moms give it as a gift to daughters who aren’t feeling so good about themselves. They’re having a hard time in school with jealous, catty girls, and they need a self-esteem boost. Ninety percent of the girls can’t be models. A fashion model is 1 in a million. But there’s commercial modeling too, which most of my girls go toward. I’ve developed two little boys and one teenage boy also.

Model Sam Gold, shot by Debra Somerville

Walk us through an Images Workshop. Before the day of the shoot, I meet with the mom (if the child is young) and the child, see their look, analyze how to shoot them, and talk about clothes. Sometimes a stylist will work with me, but the girls bring most of the looks. I have them drop the clothes a few days before so I can have everything organized ahead of time. I like to do five shots, as that’s typically what you need to put together a comp card. At minimum, you need a headshot, body shot, and a shot that shows personality. On the day of the shoot, the model comes clean/clean (meaning clean hair and a clean cosmetic-free face).  With the first look, we’ll do more of a clean plain look and then build on that. The hairdresser/makeup artist stays the whole time to do different looks with each outfit. Most of the time, girls have no clue what to do in front of the camera. I work with everyone. Sometimes I physically actually show them how to pose, and they all come out looking beautiful. If the weather is nice, we’ll go on location for a couple shots. I edit down the photos a bit and email them a couple of days later. I guide them through selecting photos to print. If they want to go further and do a comp card, I help them with that, and if they want a list of agents in New York, I can provide that.

Debra in Action

What is the cost? $500. They get all the photos. I can help with prints, but that is a separate cost.

Tell us about your upcoming Modeling 101 Workshop on April 28? Modeling 101 is an introductory workshop for anyone interested in modeling or fashion. It will be about 15 girls. They’ll get to see what a shoot is like. Pia, from PIA (Personal Image Artist) salon, will do hair and makeup on one girl and she’ll give the group tips on makeup application and the best products. Michel Ann, a Weston native who has modeled on Project Runway, and Sam Mae, who models internationally, will be coming to talk about their experiences. Agents from the Johnston Agency in New Canaan are coming to speak, and, who knows, maybe find their next new face! There is an enormous amount of work in this area, and they are the only agency around here.

I’m looking forward to attending, interviewing the special guest models, and scouting for Modeling Mentor Model Search contenders! After spending an afternoon with Debra while she shot my 9-year-old son’s acting headshot, I can promise all the girls—all of us—will have a great time!

Modeling 101 Workshop

Sunday, April 28, $75, 1 pm to 4 pm

Age 12 and up 

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