Ahead of the Met Gala, our Joint Board’s General Manager, Julie Bracero Kelly, joined The Model Alliance to rally for the Fashion Workers Act – a pro-labor bill that would establish essential labor protections for models working in New York’s fashion industry.
Models, often perceived as symbols of glamor and prestige, find themselves in a starkly different reality behind the scenes, often subjected to a multitude of exploitative practices. The fashion industry notoriously operates without significant regulatory oversight, leaving models vulnerable in the hands of their management companies. Modeling agencies too often subject their talent to unfair contracts, wage theft, sexual abuse, and discrimination, and face hardly any accountability.
The Fashion Workers Act is a pro-labor bill that would regulate predatory management companies in New York that currently operate without oversight in the fashion industry – ensuring models and content creators have basic protections and autonomy in the workplace.
New York is a labor state, and we cannot leave the fashion industry and models behind. Albany must take action this year, and finally pass the Fashion Workers Act!