Let me back it up a little bit... Until now, all models (older or younger than eighteen) were treated the same way and were expected to work the same way. Twenty six year old women and sixteen year old girls were all being cast in the same runway shows, being photographed in the same print ads, were modeling the same way. But the tolls on young models had become increasingly more evident.
Since May of 2012, Sara Ziff (a model legend now 31 facing the end of her career) created the Model Alliance. This group advocates for better working conditions of younger models, Ziff understands how unhealthy and unbalanced a young model's life can be since she started her career at sixteen. Ziff reports that most young models aren't encouraged to talk openly about how difficult their blossoming careers can be, and that the designers and brand names that hire these young girls refer to their unhealthy lives as "touchy subjects".
Designers, craving for the newest, freshest face to parade their cloth confections down the runway, have been known to hire young girls while treating them like veterans. Young girls with thin frames and bright eyes hold more appeal than older women who've lost their joie de vivre.
Directly after these new laws were passed, however, Marc Jacobs hired a sixteen and seventeen year old for his upcoming show in New York's Fashion Week. Without following the new regulations, designers and companies could face up to $3,000 fines per violation. In addition to the monetary loss, the bad press over this type of incident would be horrible for sales.
So the questions and rumors circulating throughout New York this week add a layer of suspense to the shows boasting their hot trends for fall 2014. So, is it trends over teenagers? Or the other way around?
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