Models Switching Agencies
- Thread starter jakeee
- Start date
too badToo bad for so many of Ford's top girls in the last few years...too bad about Natalia G, too bad about Cameron....and now Camilla. Any one of those three could have been developed into a superstar with the right amount of exposure and contacts...but no one takes the time to develop a model for more than a few seasons...it's always about the next new thing. You would think that the lessons learned from this fall's campaigns (the fact that many of the clients went back to starring top models from the past in their ads) would make them stop and think up a new strategy.
PrincesseDaria
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model mom, you're so right. I can only say that Ford did a good thing with Camila in the beggining of her career, but now they can't do more so I guess she moved in the right time. hopefully now she'll move to a better agency that will do big things for her now and in the future
Stealing Beauty
By Rachel Syme
Page Six Magazine / NYpost.com
It‘s not all air kisses and parties at Fashion Week-for model agents, it‘s a nerve-racking time to guard their territory (that is, their girls) from being poached by hungry competitors. And some big firms are even taking their turf fights to court.
The tables at Egg in Williamsburg are made for messy breakfasts; they are covered in simple white butcher paper, easy to replace. It is also a perfect surface for drawing, should a young and hungry model agent want to sketch out a map of the inner workings of their industry. “OK, so this is IMG,” he says, writing the name of the agency in gray crayon and circling it. “This is DNA, this is Women and this is Elite.” He goes on, doodling bubbles across the table with a bitchy smirk. “Over here is Ford, Next and Marilyn, and One Model Management. Wilhelmina is way over here but doesn’t count—they are just a commercial stock house. Not important.”
He selects another color—plum—to represent models. “Aggy,” the agent says, referring to the blonde British sensation Agyness Deyn, the closest thing fashion has to a new supermodel these days. “She should be with DNA here, but she is going with Women for Fashion Week.” He looks up as if he has said something devious. “People are saying she broke her contract early to go there. There was a huge dustup between Louie [Chaban], her agent, and David [Bonnouvrier], the head of DNA, and Louie went to Women and took Aggy with him…” The agent pauses to select another color, boxing off David’s name in red. “This color is for someone who is really, really pissed and about to lose a s--tload of income.”
By the end of the meal, the tablecloth bears a tangled web of interconnections: models who have left agencies, agents who have stolen each other’s girls, defectors, poachers, class acts and lowlifes. It could be a map of any high-pressure, backstabbing business—finance, nightlife, real estate—only more accelerated. The changes on the table, the agent says, have all taken place within the past year, and the players are continuing to hop around like bunnies. Naughty bunnies.
“There is simply no loyalty anymore,” the agent says. “There are more girls than ever before and everyone wants to see a fresh face. Agents want to work where they can make the most money with the most high-fashion girls. Models want to be with the managers who have the best connections. It’s about money and access.” And of course, about lives and careers, right? “That too,” he concedes. “But it’s mostly about money.”
Models jumping agencies is nothing new: Leggy girls with star power have been making transitions for as long as people have been wearing expensive clothes. Linda Evangelista (who was, at the age of 43, recently named the new face of Prada) famously switched from Elite to DNA in 2002—scandalous at the time because she was the ex-wife of Elite’s owner, Gerald Marie. Still, an industry veteran notes, “Linda did not want to move, but she was 100 percent loyal to her agents and bookers. When they left, she left. She has now been with DNA for six years. She is a very faithful model, which today is rare.” Echoing the agent’s comments from breakfast, this veteran cites a newly intense lack of loyalty among agents and models that is unprecedented.
In the year since last fall’s Fashion Week, the modeling world has become a messy revolving door, complete with lawsuits: Ford Models is currently suing Next over the so-called “poaching” of leggy Danish blonde Agnete Hegelund Hansen and Brazilian bikini model Natalia Andrade. Rising American star Karlie Kloss jumped from Elite to Next in April, also resulting in fierce ongoing litigation. Agyness Deyn, easily the highest-profile of the industry’s It girls, jumped ship this summer from DNA to Women. Magdalena Fracko*wiak, a Polish stunner, moved from Next to DNA last October, right as she started to land major deals. Daisy Lowe (Gavin Rossdale’s daughter and Mark Ronson’s current love) abandoned IMG to be a free agent in July after only seven months. Model/heiress and Page Six Magazine columnist Lydia Hearst jumped from One Model Management to Elite in April.
“A decade ago, a girl would last 10 years and she would stay with the same agent the whole time. They built a career together,” says one established agent (most agents asked not to be identified in this piece to protect their jobs). “Now, there are so many girls who come for one or two seasons and then they are done. Still, they think they should have these long careers; so they get restless if they are not working and want to move to another agency.”
It is true that most models are enjoying less staying power than they did 10 years ago. As one agent explains, “People want new, new, new. Designers want the freshest face to go with their new collection. It’s becoming black and white, and there are all these girls trapped in the gray area with nowhere to go.”
Where a solid runway girl in the ’90s might have worked for five seasons on her way to landing lucrative clothing and beauty campaigns, today’s designers want to stock their shows with green girls and megawatt stars. So a model like Natasa Vojnovic can get lost in the middle, despite having switched agencies three times over the last decade (Next, IMG, Supreme). Although Natasa was shot for W and Marie Claire Italy and a Mulberry campaign in March, she is not yet a recognizable name. Neither the freshest face nor a proven icon, she is an example of a model who continues to move and struggle for a break into the big leagues.“This is all a part of dealing with human beings,” assures Joel Wilken*feld, co-owner of Next Models. “Models come and models go. Some make it and some do not.”
But the recent high-profile lawsuits and the speed at which the revolving doors spin cannot be downplayed. “Agents are so wary now of someone stealing their girl,” says an insider from an established agency. “The cat is out of the bag that Next steals girls, and that girls are leaving DNA to follow agents to Women. It’s a massive shift, and we are all going to be on our guard during Fashion Week.”
“In this business there are two kinds of people,” says Louie Chaban, the agent who departed DNA to be the head of the board at Women in May. “There are the makers. And then there are the takers. There are agencies who love to say that they can get girls Vogue shoots and beauty contracts, but they can’t do it without taking models or agents from other houses. They don’t create and nurture the talent themselves.”
Louie is known for finding raw talent and molding it into greatness—he fostered the career of Karen Elson (the cover-girl redhead and wife of White Stripes rocker Jack White), and zeroed in on Agyness after she had been virtually ignored on the modeling scene for several seasons. “Agyness was the girl where you would open up an envelope and see her picture and say, ‘Ugh, not her again!’ ” says one industry insider. “No one would really touch her until Louie.” But Louie saw something else in her (“style and personality”) and—with the help of a severe hair chop and much peroxide—made her into a star. Now, she is one of the industry’s biggest players, inspiring gossip column items (with her rumored engagement to Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.) and slavish trend pieces about her short, spiky haircut and kooky style. She is currently the face of Giorgio Armani (“a big money job,” according to an insider) and endorses fragrances for Burberry and Jean Paul Gaultier, campaigns that mean millions in revenue.
Losing Agyness to Women will be a financial blow for DNA, especially because Louie is rumored to have taken several other girls with him, along with a few fellow agents (he has no comment on this). An insider explains: “The really big girls like Agyness are what keeps an agency afloat. If they score fragrance or accessories campaigns, that’s probably a million dollars. Imagine if DNA loses five of those girls to Women. That’s going to make a sizable difference in their revenue.”
In terms of visionary creativity, Louie is seen as a leader, as is Paul Rowland, who runs Supreme Model Management (Women’s sister agency, famous for breaking more offbeat, even alien-looking girls, like exotic South African beauty Behati Prinsloo). DNA is still going strong in the high-fashion world, with big names like Raquel Zimmerman, Doutzen Kroes, Karolina Kurkova and Natalia Vodianova (one of the highest-paid models in the industry last year, earning $4.8 million). IMG has the monopoly on superstars: Kate Moss, Gisele Bündchen, Jessica Stam, Lily Donaldson.
But among these fashion power*houses, agents leave with predictable regularity, often following trendsetters like Louie or heading to companies with more profitable girls and better campaign opportunities. “Moving is how you get anywhere,” says one agent.
By Rachel Syme
Page Six Magazine / NYpost.com
It‘s not all air kisses and parties at Fashion Week-for model agents, it‘s a nerve-racking time to guard their territory (that is, their girls) from being poached by hungry competitors. And some big firms are even taking their turf fights to court.
The tables at Egg in Williamsburg are made for messy breakfasts; they are covered in simple white butcher paper, easy to replace. It is also a perfect surface for drawing, should a young and hungry model agent want to sketch out a map of the inner workings of their industry. “OK, so this is IMG,” he says, writing the name of the agency in gray crayon and circling it. “This is DNA, this is Women and this is Elite.” He goes on, doodling bubbles across the table with a bitchy smirk. “Over here is Ford, Next and Marilyn, and One Model Management. Wilhelmina is way over here but doesn’t count—they are just a commercial stock house. Not important.”
He selects another color—plum—to represent models. “Aggy,” the agent says, referring to the blonde British sensation Agyness Deyn, the closest thing fashion has to a new supermodel these days. “She should be with DNA here, but she is going with Women for Fashion Week.” He looks up as if he has said something devious. “People are saying she broke her contract early to go there. There was a huge dustup between Louie [Chaban], her agent, and David [Bonnouvrier], the head of DNA, and Louie went to Women and took Aggy with him…” The agent pauses to select another color, boxing off David’s name in red. “This color is for someone who is really, really pissed and about to lose a s--tload of income.”
By the end of the meal, the tablecloth bears a tangled web of interconnections: models who have left agencies, agents who have stolen each other’s girls, defectors, poachers, class acts and lowlifes. It could be a map of any high-pressure, backstabbing business—finance, nightlife, real estate—only more accelerated. The changes on the table, the agent says, have all taken place within the past year, and the players are continuing to hop around like bunnies. Naughty bunnies.
“There is simply no loyalty anymore,” the agent says. “There are more girls than ever before and everyone wants to see a fresh face. Agents want to work where they can make the most money with the most high-fashion girls. Models want to be with the managers who have the best connections. It’s about money and access.” And of course, about lives and careers, right? “That too,” he concedes. “But it’s mostly about money.”
Models jumping agencies is nothing new: Leggy girls with star power have been making transitions for as long as people have been wearing expensive clothes. Linda Evangelista (who was, at the age of 43, recently named the new face of Prada) famously switched from Elite to DNA in 2002—scandalous at the time because she was the ex-wife of Elite’s owner, Gerald Marie. Still, an industry veteran notes, “Linda did not want to move, but she was 100 percent loyal to her agents and bookers. When they left, she left. She has now been with DNA for six years. She is a very faithful model, which today is rare.” Echoing the agent’s comments from breakfast, this veteran cites a newly intense lack of loyalty among agents and models that is unprecedented.
In the year since last fall’s Fashion Week, the modeling world has become a messy revolving door, complete with lawsuits: Ford Models is currently suing Next over the so-called “poaching” of leggy Danish blonde Agnete Hegelund Hansen and Brazilian bikini model Natalia Andrade. Rising American star Karlie Kloss jumped from Elite to Next in April, also resulting in fierce ongoing litigation. Agyness Deyn, easily the highest-profile of the industry’s It girls, jumped ship this summer from DNA to Women. Magdalena Fracko*wiak, a Polish stunner, moved from Next to DNA last October, right as she started to land major deals. Daisy Lowe (Gavin Rossdale’s daughter and Mark Ronson’s current love) abandoned IMG to be a free agent in July after only seven months. Model/heiress and Page Six Magazine columnist Lydia Hearst jumped from One Model Management to Elite in April.
“A decade ago, a girl would last 10 years and she would stay with the same agent the whole time. They built a career together,” says one established agent (most agents asked not to be identified in this piece to protect their jobs). “Now, there are so many girls who come for one or two seasons and then they are done. Still, they think they should have these long careers; so they get restless if they are not working and want to move to another agency.”
It is true that most models are enjoying less staying power than they did 10 years ago. As one agent explains, “People want new, new, new. Designers want the freshest face to go with their new collection. It’s becoming black and white, and there are all these girls trapped in the gray area with nowhere to go.”
Where a solid runway girl in the ’90s might have worked for five seasons on her way to landing lucrative clothing and beauty campaigns, today’s designers want to stock their shows with green girls and megawatt stars. So a model like Natasa Vojnovic can get lost in the middle, despite having switched agencies three times over the last decade (Next, IMG, Supreme). Although Natasa was shot for W and Marie Claire Italy and a Mulberry campaign in March, she is not yet a recognizable name. Neither the freshest face nor a proven icon, she is an example of a model who continues to move and struggle for a break into the big leagues.“This is all a part of dealing with human beings,” assures Joel Wilken*feld, co-owner of Next Models. “Models come and models go. Some make it and some do not.”
But the recent high-profile lawsuits and the speed at which the revolving doors spin cannot be downplayed. “Agents are so wary now of someone stealing their girl,” says an insider from an established agency. “The cat is out of the bag that Next steals girls, and that girls are leaving DNA to follow agents to Women. It’s a massive shift, and we are all going to be on our guard during Fashion Week.”
“In this business there are two kinds of people,” says Louie Chaban, the agent who departed DNA to be the head of the board at Women in May. “There are the makers. And then there are the takers. There are agencies who love to say that they can get girls Vogue shoots and beauty contracts, but they can’t do it without taking models or agents from other houses. They don’t create and nurture the talent themselves.”
Louie is known for finding raw talent and molding it into greatness—he fostered the career of Karen Elson (the cover-girl redhead and wife of White Stripes rocker Jack White), and zeroed in on Agyness after she had been virtually ignored on the modeling scene for several seasons. “Agyness was the girl where you would open up an envelope and see her picture and say, ‘Ugh, not her again!’ ” says one industry insider. “No one would really touch her until Louie.” But Louie saw something else in her (“style and personality”) and—with the help of a severe hair chop and much peroxide—made her into a star. Now, she is one of the industry’s biggest players, inspiring gossip column items (with her rumored engagement to Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.) and slavish trend pieces about her short, spiky haircut and kooky style. She is currently the face of Giorgio Armani (“a big money job,” according to an insider) and endorses fragrances for Burberry and Jean Paul Gaultier, campaigns that mean millions in revenue.
Losing Agyness to Women will be a financial blow for DNA, especially because Louie is rumored to have taken several other girls with him, along with a few fellow agents (he has no comment on this). An insider explains: “The really big girls like Agyness are what keeps an agency afloat. If they score fragrance or accessories campaigns, that’s probably a million dollars. Imagine if DNA loses five of those girls to Women. That’s going to make a sizable difference in their revenue.”
In terms of visionary creativity, Louie is seen as a leader, as is Paul Rowland, who runs Supreme Model Management (Women’s sister agency, famous for breaking more offbeat, even alien-looking girls, like exotic South African beauty Behati Prinsloo). DNA is still going strong in the high-fashion world, with big names like Raquel Zimmerman, Doutzen Kroes, Karolina Kurkova and Natalia Vodianova (one of the highest-paid models in the industry last year, earning $4.8 million). IMG has the monopoly on superstars: Kate Moss, Gisele Bündchen, Jessica Stam, Lily Donaldson.
But among these fashion power*houses, agents leave with predictable regularity, often following trendsetters like Louie or heading to companies with more profitable girls and better campaign opportunities. “Moving is how you get anywhere,” says one agent.
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Attracting models from other agencies without poaching their agent is a more difficult battle. IMG even seems to have a secret weapon: a mysterious 50-something man known simply as Marlon. According to a highly connected agent, “Marlon lives in South Africa most of the year, except for show season, when he comes to the shows to stand backstage and poach girls for IMG. That’s all he does—talks to models and convinces them they should be with IMG.” A representative for IMG disagrees with the claim: “If that is what Marlon did, we would have a lot more girls on our roster. We hire him to secure the safety, well-being and success of our girls.”
Marlon (whose family surname is Stolzman) has described himself as a caretaker for the models backstage during the Fashion Week frenzy, helping them remember their schedules and making sure they have everything they need to power through the week. He keeps them out of trouble and safe from the dangers of too much partying. One can see how the doting attention he lavishes on his girls could attract models from other agencies—who may feel neglected in the chaotic hustle of the week—to want to join IMG. Marlon has said: “You have a bunch of mostly teenage girls from all over the world from different backgrounds and cultures.… They have to cope with unusual and extreme situations and they often don’t have the tools for it, and I’m here to help them find their way with a smile. A lot of what I do is just being there. I do nothing.”
A different major agent disagrees with this claim: “He doesn’t do nothing. You see him backstage, and agents know to tell him to stay away from their girls. Young models are really vulnerable. I tell all my bookers to keep on top of who the girls are talking to at all times, and we try to nip the situation in the bud before a girl wants to leave.”
And it’s not just Marlon that agents have to watch out for: “I have been at Fashion Week parties where more than one scout has approached a model who is with me when I’m standing right there,” says the young agent from breakfast. “Wilhelmina agents are famous for that. They are like used car salesmen.”
Louie, on the other hand, plays it laissez-faire with his models, preferring a cool-distance tactic that sounds right out of The Rules. “I don’t babysit my girls. I usually go to only one or two shows a season,” he says. “If you have an honest bond with a model—if you are good at what you do—you have nothing to worry about.”
This year, the catfights are taking place in the courthouse. Two cases were brought against Next Model Management (one from Ford Models in April, and another from Elite in August), an agency that one insider says, “is getting quite the reputation for taking girls who are doing well and were built up by another agency. It is one thing to convince a girl to join you when her contract is up or her agency is failing her. But to take girls whose agencies have pumped money into them with results—there is nothing right about that.”
Like Agnete Hegelund Hansen. The 20-year-old has the icy Danish look that editorial photographers love, but a roundness in her cheeks and a vulnerability in her pout that make her commercially relatable. She scored her first Vogue Italy cover, shot by Steven Meisel, in February, and appeared in fashion shoots for W, Dazed & Confused and Harper’s Bazaar over the summer. Everything seemed to be going well with Ford, her agency since 2006. Then, on July 8, she informed Ford that she intended to break her contract and move to Next. A legal battle is still raging.
The lawsuit Ford is bringing against Next concerns the “poaching” of Agnete and the attempted poaching of Brazilian swimsuit model Natalia Andrade. Ford also claims that Next hired away three of their agents, including Craig Lockner, Agnete’s point person, in order to sway the models into leaving Ford. Agnete insisted on breaking her contract to make the switch, a move that befuddles some watchers. “Ford was doing absolutely nothing wrong with that girl,” says an agency head. In the lawsuit, Ford alleges that the agency had groomed Agnete to the point where she was “poised to…break into big money territory with beauty product and fragrance company contracts that are the coveted prizes in the modeling world.”
Ford also insists that they built Agnete’s career from scratch, bringing her to New York from Denmark and introducing her to “a who’s who of the fashion industry.” The agency argues that it was “instrumental and critical to Ms. Hansen’s growth and success in the modeling industry.”
But when Craig—who started as an assistant at Ford in 2002 and rose through the ranks to become a booking agent—resigned on July 4, Agnete sent an e-mail to Ford four days later, bowing out as well. Ford attempted to hold her to her contract. That is when Agnete’s “mother” agency, 2pm, in Copenhagen intervened and said that she would be leaving Ford, period.
Mother agencies, another modern-day phenomenon, are a key factor in the rise in controversial agency switches. In the early heyday of major agencies (Ford and Elite solely competed for dominance in the ’70s before upstarts like DNA and IMG came along), New York agents would scout abroad themselves, securing the rights to foreign girls from the beginning. Now, agents in areas of the world where many popular models are born and bred—Eastern Europe, South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom and even far-flung middle regions of the U.S.—have wised up and started signing girls at the local level, becoming their “mother agents,” and essentially earning ultimate control over who else a model signs with.
“The problem with mother agents,” says a young agent from a prominent U.S. house, “is that they can basically move girls wherever the f--k they want, and so American agents are at their beck and call. Except for Jen Ramey at IMG, who handles Kate Moss and Daria Werbowy—she is so fierce no one can touch her—few agents can overrule the mother.”
So in Agnete’s case, 2pm from Denmark made the decision that she would move to Next, and some suspect there was a large monetary sum involved. “Next supposedly paid 2pm a lump sum to get the girl. That is not so kosher,” says an insider, insinuating that Next is resorting to bribes to win girls. Joel from Next says that this allegation is “100 percent untrue and unfounded.”
Many industry insiders also believe that Karlie Kloss’ mother agent was responsible for her move from Elite to Next in the spring, despite the fact that Karlie had been enjoying wild success with Elite (four Teen Vogue editorials, the See by Chloe campaign). “With Karlie,” says one vet, “you have to be suspicious. She was doing so well with Elite when she jumped.” Elite filed a lawsuit against Next over Karlie in April, stating that “Next offered her ‘improper compensation’ to lure her.”
Joel from Next again denies this, stating, “There wasn’t a penny paid to anyone. Karlie was unhappy and wanted new management, end of story.”
No matter who is telling the truth, one thing is clear: This is a vicious, fast moving business, and staying neutral can have its advantages. “Fashion is a fickle industry,” says model Lydia Hearst. “People swap agencies just as often as color palettes and silhouettes change on the runway. So Ford Modeling agency suing Next is unfortunate because everyone always ends up working with each other again. Everyone shares clients, so it’s important not to burn any bridges.”
Sounds nice, but back at Egg, the model agent says it’s not so much about protecting your bridges as it is learning to swim with the sharks. “The sacrifices you make in pettiness and bitchiness are worth it to work in fashion,” he says. “To be at the heart of it, though, you have to cope with some ruthlessness.”
http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20080907/Stealing+Beauty?print=true1
Marlon (whose family surname is Stolzman) has described himself as a caretaker for the models backstage during the Fashion Week frenzy, helping them remember their schedules and making sure they have everything they need to power through the week. He keeps them out of trouble and safe from the dangers of too much partying. One can see how the doting attention he lavishes on his girls could attract models from other agencies—who may feel neglected in the chaotic hustle of the week—to want to join IMG. Marlon has said: “You have a bunch of mostly teenage girls from all over the world from different backgrounds and cultures.… They have to cope with unusual and extreme situations and they often don’t have the tools for it, and I’m here to help them find their way with a smile. A lot of what I do is just being there. I do nothing.”
A different major agent disagrees with this claim: “He doesn’t do nothing. You see him backstage, and agents know to tell him to stay away from their girls. Young models are really vulnerable. I tell all my bookers to keep on top of who the girls are talking to at all times, and we try to nip the situation in the bud before a girl wants to leave.”
And it’s not just Marlon that agents have to watch out for: “I have been at Fashion Week parties where more than one scout has approached a model who is with me when I’m standing right there,” says the young agent from breakfast. “Wilhelmina agents are famous for that. They are like used car salesmen.”
Louie, on the other hand, plays it laissez-faire with his models, preferring a cool-distance tactic that sounds right out of The Rules. “I don’t babysit my girls. I usually go to only one or two shows a season,” he says. “If you have an honest bond with a model—if you are good at what you do—you have nothing to worry about.”
This year, the catfights are taking place in the courthouse. Two cases were brought against Next Model Management (one from Ford Models in April, and another from Elite in August), an agency that one insider says, “is getting quite the reputation for taking girls who are doing well and were built up by another agency. It is one thing to convince a girl to join you when her contract is up or her agency is failing her. But to take girls whose agencies have pumped money into them with results—there is nothing right about that.”
Like Agnete Hegelund Hansen. The 20-year-old has the icy Danish look that editorial photographers love, but a roundness in her cheeks and a vulnerability in her pout that make her commercially relatable. She scored her first Vogue Italy cover, shot by Steven Meisel, in February, and appeared in fashion shoots for W, Dazed & Confused and Harper’s Bazaar over the summer. Everything seemed to be going well with Ford, her agency since 2006. Then, on July 8, she informed Ford that she intended to break her contract and move to Next. A legal battle is still raging.
The lawsuit Ford is bringing against Next concerns the “poaching” of Agnete and the attempted poaching of Brazilian swimsuit model Natalia Andrade. Ford also claims that Next hired away three of their agents, including Craig Lockner, Agnete’s point person, in order to sway the models into leaving Ford. Agnete insisted on breaking her contract to make the switch, a move that befuddles some watchers. “Ford was doing absolutely nothing wrong with that girl,” says an agency head. In the lawsuit, Ford alleges that the agency had groomed Agnete to the point where she was “poised to…break into big money territory with beauty product and fragrance company contracts that are the coveted prizes in the modeling world.”
Ford also insists that they built Agnete’s career from scratch, bringing her to New York from Denmark and introducing her to “a who’s who of the fashion industry.” The agency argues that it was “instrumental and critical to Ms. Hansen’s growth and success in the modeling industry.”
But when Craig—who started as an assistant at Ford in 2002 and rose through the ranks to become a booking agent—resigned on July 4, Agnete sent an e-mail to Ford four days later, bowing out as well. Ford attempted to hold her to her contract. That is when Agnete’s “mother” agency, 2pm, in Copenhagen intervened and said that she would be leaving Ford, period.
Mother agencies, another modern-day phenomenon, are a key factor in the rise in controversial agency switches. In the early heyday of major agencies (Ford and Elite solely competed for dominance in the ’70s before upstarts like DNA and IMG came along), New York agents would scout abroad themselves, securing the rights to foreign girls from the beginning. Now, agents in areas of the world where many popular models are born and bred—Eastern Europe, South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom and even far-flung middle regions of the U.S.—have wised up and started signing girls at the local level, becoming their “mother agents,” and essentially earning ultimate control over who else a model signs with.
“The problem with mother agents,” says a young agent from a prominent U.S. house, “is that they can basically move girls wherever the f--k they want, and so American agents are at their beck and call. Except for Jen Ramey at IMG, who handles Kate Moss and Daria Werbowy—she is so fierce no one can touch her—few agents can overrule the mother.”
So in Agnete’s case, 2pm from Denmark made the decision that she would move to Next, and some suspect there was a large monetary sum involved. “Next supposedly paid 2pm a lump sum to get the girl. That is not so kosher,” says an insider, insinuating that Next is resorting to bribes to win girls. Joel from Next says that this allegation is “100 percent untrue and unfounded.”
Many industry insiders also believe that Karlie Kloss’ mother agent was responsible for her move from Elite to Next in the spring, despite the fact that Karlie had been enjoying wild success with Elite (four Teen Vogue editorials, the See by Chloe campaign). “With Karlie,” says one vet, “you have to be suspicious. She was doing so well with Elite when she jumped.” Elite filed a lawsuit against Next over Karlie in April, stating that “Next offered her ‘improper compensation’ to lure her.”
Joel from Next again denies this, stating, “There wasn’t a penny paid to anyone. Karlie was unhappy and wanted new management, end of story.”
No matter who is telling the truth, one thing is clear: This is a vicious, fast moving business, and staying neutral can have its advantages. “Fashion is a fickle industry,” says model Lydia Hearst. “People swap agencies just as often as color palettes and silhouettes change on the runway. So Ford Modeling agency suing Next is unfortunate because everyone always ends up working with each other again. Everyone shares clients, so it’s important not to burn any bridges.”
Sounds nice, but back at Egg, the model agent says it’s not so much about protecting your bridges as it is learning to swim with the sharks. “The sacrifices you make in pettiness and bitchiness are worth it to work in fashion,” he says. “To be at the heart of it, though, you have to cope with some ruthlessness.”
http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20080907/Stealing+Beauty?print=true1
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Plato's_Cave
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How surprising. She disappeared from the Milan board as well actually...
We just will have to see when the rest of the Paris cards come out...many of the big agencies have already released their cards, but there is still Marilyn, Silent, City, Success, and other ones.
1FashionVictim
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I wonder if Tanya will join Viva in Paris and then move to DNA in New York.
