Economic Times and Modeling

[model_mom]

With fashion houses changing their venues or not having a 'show' at all and clients cutting their advertising...what are the chance that agencies will cut their losses and let their non money makers go and cut down on the signing of new faces? Any thoughts on this? Is it a good time to jump into the modeling world?

 

[fer19dog]

Thanks for starting this thread model mom. I've been thinking a lot about the same thing. Things are tough everywhere and the modeling world is not an exception. I've been reading a lot about bookers being let go and agencies letting some girls go. This season there aren't as many "new faces" as previous seasons in my opinion. This season in my opinion is going to be about less over the top runway stages, smaller tents, smaller collections etc designers are trying to save money to stay around.

 

[fer19dog]

Citing Poor Economy, Elite Cuts 60 Girls

Anyone watching Model.Live knows that in the fashion industry, “you have to spend money to make money.”
But spend too much and you end up stuck in the recession glut - a prospect making some agencies cut back.
A model at Elite told us that her prestigious bookers just slashed 60 girls, the ones it didn’t think could recoup on their plane tickets / apartment fees / etc.
Still on their roster, of course, is Coco Rocha, along with Australian up-and-comers like Alice Burdeau, Emma Beam, and Stephanie Carta, and socialite It Girls such as Harley Viera Newton and Victoria Traina. Damaris Lewis, is also still on their boards.
But what about all the newly signed Top Model rejects like Anya and Katarjyna? They’re currently listed as “out of town.” If they’ll ever come back, guess we’ll see…

fashionista.com

 

[Celler_door]

do you think many agencies will close?

Take 2 in London have shut down recently, and according to http://talesneartherunway.blogspot.com/, "1 MNGT in NYC is also going the same way"

 

[CharlottefromCA]

Elite slashing 60 girls?!?! Is that like 1/2 their roster?

 

[evedwards]

60 girls sounds like a lot, but elite is a huge agency with a bunch of divisions. Marilyn also dropped a lot of girls a few months ago when Chris Gay came aboard.

I think we will see fewer girls this season for sure. Agencies may concentrate on girls who can work full time and may be less likely to sign a 15 year old who will only work in the summers, rack up debt, and hope that she makes it big one day.

 

[model_mom]

Elite's answer to that one - nymag.com/the cut

Elite’s Model Cuts Aren’t About the Economy (Updated)

1/14/09 at 12:31 PM

Tanya DziahilevaPhoto: Courtesy of Elite

On Monday we reported Elite Model Management cut 25 models from its roster and let 3 bookers go. We've since learned the three bookers left of their own accord. Elite wouldn't comment on the bookers or confirm the number of models let go (though two sources tell us 25), but released the following statement: "Periodically every model agency reviews its roster and evaluates the performance and re-evaluates the potential of each model. Last fall, Elite conducted such a review and decided it was mutually beneficial to release several contracts."
A spokesman noted the cuts had nothing to do with the economy, and that Elite just took on three new models, including Dolce & Gabbana spring face Tanya Dziahileva, and could take on more newbies as soon as next week.
Earlier: Elite Modeling Agency Cuts Models and Bookers
Update: An Elite spokesman has confirmed two staff members left to pursue other interests. One was a booker, while the other worked in marketing.

 

[Filipe]

this global crysis is affecting the fashion world & I hate this fact!

 

[Paws]

This is an interesting thread,

thanks for starting it model_mom

 

[bvf32]

ahh its a scary time for me to be transitioning into new york. i hope i can get signed with how tight things are. hopefully as im starting to come up, things will be turning around.
17 years old, moving to the city to peruse my dreams, with this economy. talk about intimidating..

hey, things could be worse. hopefully this quite temporary.

 

[model_mom]

I know a lot of models visit this site....I would love to hear their take on this. They would know better than anyone what's going on as far as the job market goes.

 

[Afanasi]

Grayson - shouldn't next be able to place you with their NYC agency?

Model_mom: they are getting more selective, I can feel it. the experienced guys and gals even are under a bit more scrutiny. The newer people I know (including myself) are finding it difficult to really break in.

I'll update you as february rolls around.

 

[bvf32]

not guaranteed, but yeah pretty much.
but over all the meetings ive had with ron down here, weve pretty much decided next wouldnt be the greatest fit for me. they will be a large focus along with dna and major i think. but im also meeting with 4 others.

 

[Afanasi]

Jason will probably like you.

 

[bvf32]

that would be great haha.
hopefully the people at dna too.

 

[LOVEITALL]

Have heard that designers will be booking less girls for shows. Everyone is tightening up - they are booking less girls for jobs now. Show packages seem to have less girls than previous seasons? Is everyone is a little nervous.

 

[TraiT]

A post in nymag.com

It's Hard Out There For A Model
With advertising and marketing budgets slashed at media and fashion companies, models are feeling the pinch. Rates are being cut in half in New York and Europe. Companies that used to pay $4,200 pay a paltry $2,100, and models who once ran around backstage at fashion shows with genuine exuberance now only feign it, burdened with secret worry.
"I'm having some doubt now because of this situation. We all do it for the money so if there is no more money, maybe I should go back and focus on my studies," Georgina Stojiljkovic, a 19-year-old from Serbia, said backstage at the Christian Lacroix couture show.
Runway models like Stojiljkovic will take a harder hit than commercial models as agencies shift their focus to the latter, who attract a steady stream of low-profile catalog-y work. "The catwalk girls are not your day-to-day girls, they are anomalies, with measurements they had when they were 16 and still have at 18," one agent told Reuters. New faces will also have a tougher time, since clients will gravitate toward established models in the downturn, which might explain why Gisele is fronting spring 2009 campaigns for True Religion, Rampage, Christian Dior, and Versace, among others.
So a bunch of worried pretty things might trade the fabulous model life for college, the ease of capitalizing on their blessed genes for the mundane learning of things those of us with less-fortunate genetic makeups must endure. If we had to leave behind a job that involved wearing only the world's most fabulous clothes, we'd be depressed as all hell. But it doesn't sound like Pablo Ballay, a 23-year-old Argentinean model who walked the Dior Homme show, will cave to the life of the everyman. "A lot of models here are from Argentina, and when you live in that kind of country you live in a continuous crisis. So you see how well people live here and you say, what, this is a crisis?" Touché. Good thing he at least sounds smart already.

Very true I would have to say, and very depressed too...

 

[bvf32]

hopefully things will turn in the near future.
this isnt permanent.

 

[CharlottefromCA]

very interesting snippet, thanks!

 

[fritmayo]

well, for me, it would be a great thing if agencies "finnaly" takes less new faces, and less girls in town.
Why in Tokyo 80% of the models who go there 4 weeks can earn monney, and why in paris, it is the oposite, 80% of the models there who NEVER earns monney...

easy answer, in tokyo, MUCH less girls in town, and not much less job available.

so if one day, there are 50% models less in NY and in Paris, it will be positiv for everybody, including for the models who will have higher chance to work well and to make monney.