Casting Director Slams Designers for Treating Models ‘Like Animals’

Before the Victoria’s Secret fashion show in Paris last December, a series of feel-good videos featuring social media’s biggest models was circulated, offering an inside look at the making of the televised program.

Hundreds of models vie for the opportunity to walk in the show, adding pressure to an already high-stakes go-see, in industry parlance. One model, Leomie Anderson, appears in the video to offer soothing advice to anyone who goes on a casting.

“You just have to relax — they’re all lovely people, they’re all smiling; you kind of just have to shake off the nerves and have fun with it, basically,” Anderson advises.

Even Gigi Hadid is made to walk for the agents and producers, in an America’s Next Top Model-style tryout. A few seconds and short strut later, the anxiety-ridden casting process is over for Hadid when she’s offered a spot on the VS runway. In the Victoria’s Secret world, castings really don’t seem all that bad.

But that’s not the case at most fashion shows. In fact, that’s the exception, not the rule, as longtime casting director James Scully wrote in a scathing Instagram post on Feb. 27.

Scully’s post lambasted the casting agents who handle bookings for major fashion houses like Balenciaga, Elie Saab and Lanvin, specifically for how the agencies treat models. It was sparked by an incident on Feb. 26 in which more than 150 women were forced to wait in a stairwell for hours with the lights off, unable to leave for other Paris Fashion Week castings.

“Balenciaga casting Madia & Ramy (serial abusers) held a casting in which they made over 150 girls wait in a stairwell told them they would have to stay over 3 hours to be seen and not to leave,” Scully wrote. “Most of the girls have asked to have their options for Balenciaga cancelled as well as Hermes and Elie Saab who they also cast for because they refuse to be treated like animals.”

Scully also criticizes a fashion house, which he did not name, for trying to illegally cast underage models. You must be at least 16 years old to work in France.

“And another big house is trying to sneak 15 year olds into paris!” he wrote. “It’s inconceivable to me that people have no regard for human decency or the lives and feelings of these girls.”

Several people who commented on Scully’s Instagram post seemed to confirm the event. One said her friend waited seven hours to walk for casting agents.

Balenciaga provided the following statement to Yahoo Style, which acknowledges the incident and suggests that the casting agency responsible for the treatment was fired:

“On Sunday, February 26th Balenciaga took notice of issues with the model castings carried out on that day. The House reacted immediately, making radical changes to the casting process, including discontinuing the relationship with the current casting agency.

Additionally, Balenciaga sent a written apology to the agencies of the models who were affected by this specific situation, asking them to share it with them.

Balenciaga condemns this incident and will continue to be deeply committed to ensure the most respectful working conditions for the models.”

A spokesperson for Elie Saab, a brand also mentioned in Scully’s post, said: “ELIE SAAB takes the health and well-being of models seriously. ELIE SAAB is and always has been a brand that respects and supports women.”

Scully also rebukes French house Lanvin, and said in the Instagram post: “On top of that I have heard from several agents, some of whom are black that they have received mandate from Lanvin that they do not want to be presented with women of color.”

Lanvin, whose Paris Fashion Week runway show is scheduled for March 1, did not respond to Yahoo Style’s request for comment. In its last womenswear show, Lanvin’s cast included two black models and three Asian models in a cast of 49; for the show before that, Lanvin cast five black models and one Asian model. It’s worth nothing that Lanvin’s mostly white cast reflects a lack in diversity virtually synonymous with Paris Fashion Week, though the shows have included a more diverse pool of models in the last year.

Of course, labor abuse of models is not new. At Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 4 show on Roosevelt Island last year, for example, some models fainted after standing for hours in the heat waiting for West’s show to begin.

While Scully has called the issue to attention before, he’s hardly done so as aggressively or explicitly. Then again, it doesn’t help his cause when Victoria’s Secret glamorizes the casting process.

Read more:

Cindy Crawford Stars in Peter Lindbergh-Hosted Supermodel Reunion

Did the ‘Kate Middleton Effect’ Cause the Downfall of This Designer Label?

Hot Mugshot Guy Is Now Walking the Runway

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Alexandra Mondalek is a writer for Yahoo Style and Beauty. Follow her on Twitter @amondalek.