A group of former models have uncovered some of the most disturbing things going on behind the scenes in the fashion world.
Esmeralda Seay-Reynolds, who signed with world-famous agency NEXT at the age of 16, told Variety in a shocking interview about the struggles it took to lose weight and secure high-profile performances, including a career as a singer on Glacier in Iceland.
When Seay-Reynolds was 17, she was walking New York Fashion Week and flying to places like London, Milan and Paris.
Eventually she developed an eating disorder. And she said things got so bad that at one point brands complained that her clothes didn’t even fit her properly.
During her first year as a catwalk star, she recalled her agent telling her, “Cotton balls are organic, so it’s okay to just gulp them down to feel full.”
Model Esmeralda Seay-Reynolds entered the fashion world at the age of 16 and has weighed just 80 pounds throughout her career
In a shocking new revelation from Variety, Seay-Reynolds said she was told to eat cotton balls to feel full
At the same time, she said that she organized a ‘Lord of the Rings’ style photo shoot in Iceland.
“We reach a glacier over freezing, ice-covered water. And [the photographer] parks the car and says, “Get up!”
Seay-Reynolds and a colleague then scaled a glacier in heels and “sheer slip dresses” while weathering a hailstorm. The rest of the crew involved in the filming wore parka coats, she said.
She claims the two were also told to change at the top of the glacier because they were told the descent would take too long.
“The photographer even asked us to jump a crevasse on the glacier, which dropped at least 20 feet.” Luckily, the stylist said on the shoot, “That doesn’t happen. She’s going to die,” she added.
In the same shoot, Seay-Reynolds said she was also forced to traverse scalding hot springs, which could have exposed her to water so hot it burned her flesh.
At one point, Seay-Reynolds said she lived in a tiny apartment with eight other models and only Diet Coke was allowed in the fridge
Upon her return to the US, Seay-Reynolds said she was told the photographer overseeing the shoot was notorious for putting talent in such precarious situations.
In response to this claim, NEXT co-founder Joel Wilkenfeld told Variety, among other things, “We hope that this model would call us if faced with such conditions.” The unfortunate part is that we’re not on every shoot.”
Wilkenfeld also said that if Seay-Reynolds had informed anyone in management that he was being told to consume cotton balls, that agent “would have been fired on the spot.”
Seay-Reynolds also claimed that talent scouts have been known to scour eating disorder clinics and even refugee camps in search of new faces.
In addition, Seay-Reynolds said she and many others were financially exploited by agencies. In one instance, she recalled making only $130 for six weeks of “strenuous” work.
“I don’t know if I should have made that much or if my agency just took the money.” “I have no idea because you don’t get receipts,” she said.
In her early years, Seay-Reynolds says, she had to live with eight other women in a small apartment where “there was a scale you had to step on to get into the kitchen.”
“The only thing that’s ever in the fridge is Diet Coke,” she added. At one point in her career, Seay-Reynolds said his weight was only 80 pounds.
“No one cares about model problems because they sound like problems with pretty people.” They believe modeling Kendall Jenner gets $10 million for an Instagram selfie. But the reality is that the rest of us are literally living in The Hunger Games. Pun unintentional,” Seay-Reynolds said.
This type of financial manipulation leaves models vulnerable to predators like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, the article said.
Former NEXT agent Chris Brenner said Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein are regularly seen behind the scenes at modeling events
Model Ambra Guiterrez, who is from Italy, said she owed her agency $15,000 when she arrived in the United States for travel and visa expenses
Former NEXT agent Chris Brenner told Variety that Weinstein and Donald Trump are regularly seen behind the scenes at events where young models are changing.
“Harvey became a staple … Donald Trump certainly was.” I would see Donald Trump backstage [Fashion Week home] Bryant Park, and I’m like, ‘Why is he standing there when a 13-year-old is changing? That’s weird,” said Brenner, who once counted Milla Jovovich among his clients.
“The agency puts her up in the model’s apartment. They pay for their flights. They never disclose how much they cost. You pay for your visa. So you’ve arrived and you’re about $15,000 in debt. And they withdraw that money every time you get a job. How could you survive?” said model Ambra Guiterrez, a native of Italy.
The Variety article accused Weinstein of “playing opportunities” to models to lure them in.
Another model, Kenny Sale, told Variety that many of those who are now opposed to the Fashion Workers Act, a law designed to give models more rights, are the same people who have ignored the allegations against Epstein.
The late pedophile was known to be a regular face at NEXT’s New York offices.
Sale said in his interview that he was sexually assaulted by photographer Mario Testino in 2015, which Testino denies. The photographer was accused of sexual misconduct by 18 other men.
When Sale told his agent about Testino, he was told, “Maybe if you got on your knees you could have put some better photos in your portfolio.”
Model Mari Malek, a native of South Sudan and a former refugee, compared her treatment in the industry to what she endured growing up.
“I was disrespected, verbally abused, sexually harassed, underpaid and never paid for some of my work, and went to dinners and events more often than auditions just for eye candy,” Malek said.
She also described the racism she faced when she saw a sign at an audition that read “No black girls except by request.”
“I was told, ‘Just shut up and model’.”
Model Karlie Kloss, Mario Testino, models Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Jourdan Dunn on stage during amfAR’s 22nd Cinema Against AIDS Gala in 2015
Model Alliance founder Sara Ziff, pictured here, told Variety that refugee camps are actively recruiting models
Model Alliance founder Sara Ziff told Variety that refugee camps are actively recruiting models.
“In this new era of trying to promote diversity, models are now being scouted by agencies from refugee camps,” Ziff said.
“They actually hunt girls in refugee camps and then allow them to live in the model apartment, accumulate debt and then bring them back to the refugee camp,” she added.
It was previously reported that model scouts had gathered at the Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders to lure patients into the world of fashion.
Seay-Reynolds was discovered at a funeral, she said in an interview in 2021.
“Actually, that started a funeral.” There was an old woman in a wheelchair who kept staring at me, and I thought, “Am I being rude? Why is she staring at me, I’m not doing anything,” she recalls.
“She came up to me afterwards and said, ‘I’m the manager of a modeling agency, you have to model. You have to do this.”
She explained that things went “very, very quickly” after that and she started to lose control of herself.
“In a few months I was doing shows and campaigns for Marc Jacobs, as well as Chanel and Fendi. “It was kind of a mad hurricane,” she continued.
“Looking back, I was very young. As a very competitive person who is used to working very hard, it is very frustrating for me to work really hard and then get nothing.
“I think I felt like my body was the only thing I could control, so I just went insane.”
The photographer involved in the infamous Iceland shoot told Variety he was told at the end of the project that Seay-Reynolds was refusing to eat. He said his people had contacted NEXT “to express their concern” that she was suffering from a disorder.
“I was upset that their agency would send a model to every shoot with such concerns, let alone a target project,” he added.
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