Madrid Fashion Week 2016: Catwalk models: a lot of 'glamour', little salary | THE WORLD
Brave women are sought for sacrificed profession. Low salary, long working hours, constant risk of being judged and little possibility of being rehired. If explorer Ernest Shackleton had been tasked with leading a 21st-century fashion casting instead of an expedition to Antarctica in the early 20th, the famous ad he once posted in the Times would probably have been like that.
And it is that before the spotlights of the catwalks are turned on, there is a great job of 'scouting' behind, which is almost never talked about. And besides, salaries are going down: if in 1992 a top like Linda Evangelista earned an average of 40,000 euros per 'show', today the popular Karlie Kloss earns about 8,000. The economic crisis and the end of the decade of the supermodels of the 90s have meant that rates have been deflated in recent years: "We have experienced a very important crisis and, as everywhere, budgets have been adjusted," he clarifies Esther García, casting director of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid.
How to make girls like you: -be born with good looks -do anything you want basically, kill some people, whatever https://t.co/bmA3HfTUll
— Yamashiro Fri Jul 09 16:49:45 +0000 2021
Nobody in the industry dares to give an average number of Spanish models, because between the companions of the same parade there can be big differences: "It depends on the work they have done before," García recalls. The fact that Prada chose Mayka Merino from Jerez to open her show last September caused the cache of this 18-year-old girl to skyrocket. The Spanish Alazne Bilbao, chosen as the best model of the Cibeles Catwalk in 2010, knows what she is talking about. Six years after the award, she has starred in campaigns for firms such as Chanel or La Perla. "You have to recognize that when you start you are a young and inexperienced puppet. They send you to 'castings', trips and jobs without knowing anything about it, not even what the job consists of, the salary or how you should proceed fiscally, "he says. The young woman does not hide the need for the industry to better educate its workers: "I think a platform dedicated to training and advising models on their rights and obligations would be needed, since in most cases you learn with years of experience or thanks to the advice of other colleagues in the profession".
The catwalk is the least profitable destination for models, who tend to earn more from advertising campaigns. "The fashion shows are very rewarding, but also very demanding. You spend weeks seeing customers every day, running from one end of the city to the other, with no time to eat..." recalls Bilbao, who will not parade in Madrid this year. However, García assures that walking the catwalk is still a 'must' for any young person with a hunger for fashion: "Many of them love the direct show, being observed by the public and receiving applause". There are two minimum requirements for a young woman to try her luck at the big event in Madrid: to have a healthy weight and to be of legal age.
García also draws a B side of the profession that has nothing to do with glamorous parties. "The girls are very responsible and don't go out at night if they have to get up early." Of course, the casting director acknowledges that the vertiginous rhythms of fashion (which caused the designer Raf Simons to leave Dior) have also reached the Madrid catwalk: "New faces are constantly being sought". For this reason, many of the young women who debut this year at the Madrid event will not step on it again.
