Rachel Dodes has a story in this weekend's Wall Street Journal about the impact of globalization on modeling wages: Strike a Pose, Count Your Pennies (Feb 3 - subscription required).
The supply of models to European and American markets is shifting out:
The global economy is transforming the modeling world. Supply has soared, as aspirants from developing countries stampede into the field. At last season's New York's fashion week, the quintessentially American design house of Calvin Klein didn't send a single American down its catwalk. Twelve of the 22 chosen were from Russia and Eastern Europe.
"There's so many models now. It used to be the Americans, Europeans and Canadians. Then we got the influx of Brazilians, Russians, Eastern Europeans," says American designer Nicole Miller. "There are just thousands every year."...
Part of the change in the economics of modeling is attributable to the Internet, which allows talent scouts to comb through tens of thousands of new faces, looking for somebody an agency will sign. One such site, Models.com, gets 15,000 subscriptions per month from people in places like Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Mozambique.
Moreover, at the high end many candidates are being edged out because of a change in the qualifications:
What's more, the big ad contracts from famous cosmetics firms, the dream jobs all models covet, are harder to get. Many of these packages -- worth $1 million or more a year -- are being handed to celebrities instead.
Stars like Uma Thurman and Angelina Jolie dominate ad spreads and fashion magazine covers. Fashion magazines prefer celebrities, "because people have a sense that they know them," says Roberta Myers, editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, which features singer Gwen Stefani this month. Elle hasn't had a model on its cover since 2004.
On the other hand, at the lower end new communication technology is shifting out the demand curve:
...growing demand from Web sites, online advertising and catalogs has helped stabilize wages for the bread-and-butter work most models rely on to survive, pay has plummeted at the highest echelons of fashion -- the runway shows that feature top designers in Paris, Milan and New York....
FYI - You can access those Wall Street Journal articles for free with a netpass from: http://news.congoo.com
Andrew Tobias blogged about this last week, I thought it was a great tip
Posted by: Jason Silver | February 05, 2007 at 06:04 PM