Model Alliance
| Founded | February 2012 |
|---|---|
| Key people |
Sara Ziff, President Susan Scafidi Coco Rocha Milla Jovovich |
| Country | United States |
| Website | http://modelalliance.org/ |
The Model Alliance is a not-for-profit labor organization for fashion models working in the American fashion industry.
The organization was founded in February 2012, by model Sara Ziff with the support of other models.
Though the Model Alliance is not a union, it works in partnership with Actors Equity and the American Guild of Musical Artists.
In addition to providing a discreet grievance reporting service for their members, the Model Alliance advocates for the enforcement of existing child labor and contract laws, promotes financial transparency and redress for issues of sexual harassment, recognizes that all models have the right to complete their compulsory schooling, and encourages a safe and healthy work environment that protects models’ mental and physical wellbeing.
The Model Alliance seeks to improve the American modeling industry by empowering the models themselves. According to their mission statement, "By giving models a platform to organize to improve their industry, the Model Alliance aims to enhance the vitality and moral standing of the fashion business as a whole. Correcting these abuses starts with seeing models through a different lens: not as dehumanized images, but as workers who deserve the same rights and protections as anyone else."
Churn in the industry has made models much more vulnerable to exploitation, given that they start much younger and are employed less securely than in other professions. Individual models, too, are more like commodities than supermodels like Cindy Crawford, whose brand was able to protect them better.
Models who serve on the Model Alliance's Advisory Board include Coco Rocha, Milla Jovovich, and Shalom Harlow.
In June 2013, the Model Alliance announced that New York State Senators Jeffrey Klein and Diane Savino had proposed legislation that would afford child models the same protections as all other child performers working in New York.
In October 2013, the Model Alliance announced that Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the child model bill (A.7787/S.5486) into law in New York State. In November 2013, the child model law was enacted and affords child models the same protections as other child performers working in New York State.
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