This is how a model agency works | Vogue Spain LargeChevron Menu Close Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Pinterest Facebook Twitter Pinterest Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Pinterest LargeChevron
During fashion weeks, everyone is visible: the models on the catwalk, the designers, the army of make-up artists and hairdressers, the press, the celebrities and the influencers; everyone is part of the show 24 hours as the week unfolds on Instagram. On the contrary, modeling agencies are probably the biggest player behind the scenes; their world is one of closed doors. As our era, driven by the digital and socially connected sphere, has changed our perception of models in recent years – from their Instagram presence to their welfare and working conditions – agencies have also been changing with the times. But the curiosity remains: what exactly do modeling agencies do?
As Fashion Month kicked off in New York, Vogue went behind the scenes of one of the biggest agencies – Ford Models – whose key figures shared with us how they work in 2018.
The boss is always attentive
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Nancy Chen, CEO
“I don't see the wellness of our models as a corporate initiative,” says CEO Nancy Chen from her minimalist office in Manhattan's Flatiron district. "It's always part of the management plan to sit down with each talent and understand what they need." Since becoming CEO in 2016, Chen has rushed to reposition the company that "had fallen out of favor with publishers and had gotten a little commercial... It needed to be restored." There is no question that Ford has an impressive pedigree. Its founder, Eileen Ford, discovered some of the most famous faces of the 20th century – Carmen Dell'Orefice in the 1950s; Jean Shrimpton in the 1960s; Jerry Hall in the '70s; Christie Brinkley and Brooke Shields in the '80s; and Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell in the 1990s. But in 2014, Ford lost its matriarch – Eileen died at 92 – and for a while the agency seemed to have lost its way.
Under Chen's leadership, Ford is undergoing an ambitious revamp, targeting the principles on which Eileen founded the company to respond to the 2018 environment. the models were treated as entrepreneurs, not as objects”. Ford was so protective of the models in her charge that legendary photographer Richard Avedon is said to have "dared not drag out a single minute of a shoot without first phoning Eileen." Looking after his models' interests, both financial and emotional, was central to Chen's plan.
