"Model" and the Behind-the-Scenes of a Beauty Empire

Anyone who has ever been a university student knows that sometimes you stumble upon secondhand bookstores full of forgotten books. Lately, I’ve been enjoying spending time in these places. I always dig through the fashion boxes, searching for curiosities or hidden gems, until one day I came across a large, beautiful book in English: Model by Michael Gross (pictured above). I decided to buy it, and I can say I have no regrets. What first caught my attention was its premise of revealing the backstage world of the fashion industry and its elegant cover: a mix of history, investigative journalism, and revelations about power, contracts, and the lives of supermodels, subjects that always spark my curiosity, both from a cultural perspective and for the legal implications that can emerge from this reality.

Behind the glamour lived power, silence, exploitation, and business strategies that shaped generations. The book Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women pulled back the curtain on this stage in 1995 and remains relevant today, especially when revisiting its pages in light of the waves of accusations that have shaken the fashion system in recent decades.

Gross was not just a curious journalist: he lived fashion from the inside. In the 1980s, he wrote the “Fashion Notes” column for The New York Times and attended the front rows of Paris and New York runway shows. As he recounted in a recent interview (2022), he stumbled into this world almost by chance —“rock stars dated models, and that led me to fashion.” What seemed like a peripheral field, in fact, turned out to be a territory of power, manipulation, and fabricated images.

Behind the aura of catwalks, million-dollar campaigns, and magazine covers that shaped collective imagination throughout the 20th century, the fashion industry always hid a darker side. That was the world Michael stripped bare in his book. More than a chronicle of the rise of models, the book is a powerful investigation into the workings of major agencies, the backstage abuse, and the logic of power that kept the beauty machine running. This is the lens through which we explore the book in another feature for Maizon Magazine.

The Agency Game: Ford, Elite, and Absolute Control

Agencies like Ford Models and Elite Model Management didn’t just discover promising faces—they created a system that turned teenagers into financial assets under their control. Gross details contract clauses that read more like traps: charges for housing, clothes, meals, and even travel were deducted from earnings, leaving many models in debt before they even debuted on the runway. This cycle of dependency amounts to a form of economic coercion, a matter relevant under criminal law in cases of exploitation of vulnerable persons and crimes against individual freedom.

In the United States, similar practices may fall under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000), which criminalizes forced labor, servitude, or sexual exploitation of vulnerable individuals, with penalties ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment, depending on the severity and the victim’s age.

Internationally, conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), such as Convention 29 on Forced Labour and Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, oblige member states to prevent and punish coerced labor and child exploitation, recognizing that abusive contracts and imposed submission by agents can amount to serious crimes of exploitation, subjecting offenders to both civil and criminal sanctions. Thus, the absolute control exercised by agencies over models is not merely an ethical issue, but also a violation of both national and international protection standards.

Beyond the financial aspect, these companies wielded near-total control over the personal lives of young foreign women. They were often housed in overcrowded apartments paid for by the agencies, sometimes without access to basic resources, making them vulnerable to coercion and physical and psychological abuse. The conduct of agents who manipulated careers and personal decisions of models borders on crimes of exploitation and abuse of vulnerability, with direct implications for child and adolescent protection laws, even when some victims were legally adults.

The Hidden Sides:

What the author calls “the ugly business” goes beyond abusive contracts: it involves, among other things, the use of drugs as a form of control and intense psychological pressure. Models were forced to maintain strict physical standards under the threat of losing opportunities, and were often drawn into private parties and coerced relationships with powerful men in the industry. Such behavior falls under criminal classifications of harassment, coercion, and sexual exploitation, while also raising questions about the civil liability of the agencies..

Gross also recounts interactions with organized crime figures and political interests, showing how runway shows often masked illicit transactions and secret deals. From a legal standpoint, such practices can amount to corruption, money laundering, fraud, and violations of labor rights.

In the U.S., legislation such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO, 1970) punishes criminal organizations that profit from illegal activities, including exploitation and fraud schemes. Internationally, instruments like the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the Palermo Convention on Human Trafficking set accountability standards for individuals and corporations participating in illicit networks, showing that the glamour of fashion does not exempt the industry from legal accountability. The scenario Gross describes is not just scandalous, it is fertile ground for analyzing economic crimes, exploitation, and systemic coercion.

The Question of Power: Supermodels and Structural Inequality

More than a book about fashion, Model is a study of structural power imbalance. Photographers, designers, editors, and agents exercised overwhelming authority over girls barely out of adolescence. The promise of fame worked as a trap: leaving the system without damage to one’s career or emotional health was nearly impossible.

Supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, and Christy Turlington were symbols of a billion-dollar market sustained by unequal contracts and enforced silence. This dominance over vulnerable individuals, combined with economic and sexual manipulation, makes the book’s insights highly relevant for criminal law and the protection of individual rights. Revisiting these stories reveals how aesthetics became power, and how fashion’s structures still reflect ethical and legal challenges that remain current.

Why Does This Book Still Matter?

Published in 1995, Gross’s book remains strikingly relevant. Its revelations echo in recent scandals, from the #MeToo movement in fashion to investigations of harassment and exploitation of underage models. Even today, the debate over fair contracts, representation, and the protection of young fashion professionals is urgent. The lingering question is: has anything really changed? While there has been progress and more mechanisms for reporting abuse, the market seems to have merely refined its methods of control.

The logic of power still exists, perhaps more discreetly, but no less present. Today, as the market seeks a more transparent and diverse narrative, Gross’s legacy reminds us that behind the spotlight, there have always been deep shadows. And exposing those shadows remains an act of resistance.

Epilogue: the price of beauty

Model is not just a book about the fashion industry. It’s about how dreams of beauty turned into nightmares of control. And above all, it’s about those who dared to tell the truth in an industry built on appearances. The ugly business of beautiful women lies in the structure that continues to value appearance above all else, turning lives into capital.

In the end, the book reminds us that behind every perfect image lies an imperfect story, and that beauty, so celebrated often demands too high a price from those who carry it as a profession.

Original feature based on: Gross, Michael. Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. 1995, U.S. Legislation: Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), 2000; Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 1970, International Labour Organization (ILO): Convention 29 on Forced Labour; Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), 2003; United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention), 2000 and finally, an interview with Michael Gross on the backstage of the fashion industry and agency power, by Diane Pernet (2022).

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_Model_ e os Bastidores de um Império de Beleza

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