'Hell' of exploited models to be revealed in landmark court case

Eight of the biggest modeling agencies in the world are going to court next month to fight a case that is going to show the horrors of the modeling industry, and if it's successful, thousands of models will cost te agencies an excess of $100million and change the way they do business forever. 

There are claims of thousands of dollars taken away from they paycheck for; extortionate rent charged for model apartments; late or missed payments and interest charged on advances that keep the most successful girls indebted and dependent on their agency.

The case is to be strongly defended by the modeling industry, who says that it would devastate them and that the claims are baseless. They say models get a fair deal, and that claims of financial wrongdoing are entirely untrue.

Louisa Raske was a model since high school who discovered her face on a box of L'Oreal hair dye in CVS, without her being paid, prompting her to begin what is now a large-scale action against modelling agencies.






"The same had happened to numerou girls" Louisa explained. "I contacted the other girls and we were like 'Let's do it'"

New York lawyer, Christopher Kercher, took on the case last spring.

'We realized this was about much more than just some agencies withholding payment. This was about the whole business model,' he said.

Rachel Blais, now 30, was 14 when she was spotted in her native Montreal. She was taken on by Canadian agency Folio and worked in Milan, Tokyo, Paris, New York and London.

'When I was 19 my agency asked me to have liposuction. That's how they also get you into big debts. They pay for it but then you owe them." Rachel explained.

'When I said I didn't want liposuction they said they had put together a little list of photographers I should be 'hanging out with,' wink, wink, sleep with.'

MY OPINION: 

I think that the modeling industry is a total lie to the everyone because we just see the result and not the process which is the most important and difficult part. We just see a magazine photo and not what this person is going through for appearing here. I think the way that this girls are being treated is horrible and this should be controlled. Also, to be a model you have to be very strong minded to support all the pressure that they suffer, because they have to be "perfect".

I just hope that they win the case so that they can work in better conditions and nobody else has to suffer the injustices that these girls have been through.