Models' Rights and Fashion Weeks: A Conversation with Model Alliance and Fashion in Progress between New York and Milan

New York Fashion Week, and Milan Fashion Week, spotlight new fashion collections but, also, new and recognized faces - the models who wear the clothing and help to create the glamorous lifestyle and aura that brands sell to their consumers. Not all modeling work is glamorous, however, especially if a model finds herself (or himself) at a disadvantage under the contract they have signed with their modeling management agency. To solve the incongruence and opaqueness of modeling contracts and the often problematic conditions in which models work and labor, organizations like Model Alliance in New York and Fashion in Progress in Milan, advocate, raise awareness, and also help to shape new legislation, like the Fashion Workers Act. In this episode, we speak with Sara Ziff, the founder and executive director of Model Alliance in New York City, with Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, vice-president and co-founder of Fashion in Progress in Milan and a board member of the Model Alliance, and with Alessio Di Pietro, who is an Italian lawyer and Counsel at the “LAW”P firm in Milan, as well as the president and co-founder of Fashion in Progress in Milan. The conversation focuses on their fight for models' rights in the fashion industry and the work of their organizations.

Disclaimer: This episode includes discussion about the dangers of sexual assault in the modeling industry and how financial insecurity can lead to the human trafficking of models and other abuses. Listener discretion is advised.

To learn more about the Fashion Workers Act, the Model Alliance, and Fashion in Progress, visit the following links:

• Model Alliance, https://www.modelalliance.org/
• The Fashion Workers Act, New York State Department of Labor, https://dol.ny.gov/fashion
• Kayleigh Ristuben, The Fashion Workers Act: Closing the Regulatory Loophole in the New York Fashion Industry, 33 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 908 (2023).Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol33/iss4/4
• Fashion in Progress, https://www.instagram.com/fashion_inprogress/?hl=en