Young models are starving for attention from their talent agencies, say some of the furious fashion plates involved in a lawsuit against some of the industry’s biggest names.
“We had 12- to 14-hour photo shoots outside and weren’t given anything to eat,” recalled Vanessa Perron, a 31-year-old model who is one of the plaintiffs who filed a class-action suit in Manhattan Supreme Court claiming six New York-based agencies mistreated them and ripped them off.
“When we asked [to eat], we were told, ‘Oh, you’re a model, you’re not supposed to eat,’ ” Perron said, adding that she was constantly told to change her appearance after she started modeling for Next Model Management in 2002.
The 5-foot-11 Perron weighed just 110 pounds at the time.
“It was very hard on my self-esteem to be told all the time that I needed to lose weight,” Perron said. “My teeth weren’t white enough, I was told to diet and hire a personal trainer, I was told to go tanning because my skin was too white, to color my hair because it was too dull. And of course all this was at my own personal expense.”
Carina Wretman, 48, who also is suing, said she, too, was forced to foot the bill during her modeling days.
“There needs to be a change. They charge us for everything!” the Swedish model said. “It’s frustrating. They make more money than we do!”
Wretman claims her former talent agency, Wilhelmina, was one of several agencies known to make money off young models by charging them for everything from hair products to airfare to photos for their portfolios.
“It’s annoying. We give them a 20 percent commission fee, and they get 20 percent from the client, and then they charge us for all this stuff,” she said.
Perron — who has done work for Elle, Vogue, Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein — said she once had to cough up $2,000 for plane tickets to Australia after Next booked the flight and refused to reimburse her.
“Modeling is not all glam and glitz,” she said.
Attempts to reach the agencies for comment were unsuccessful.