New York's new model law making a change for NYFW
Protecting underage girls in the fashion industry
The Model Alliance – which lobbied for the new law – hopes it will discourage the many designers from employing models under the age of 18 during New York Fashion Week. Model Alliance board member Susan Scalfidi states "the easiest way to avoid fees, paperwork, monitoring, and potential penalties is simply to use models 18 and over".
Many journalists were quick to celebrate, announcing that there was less underaged models at NYFW. Still in its premature stages, the new law seems to be a positive change,even though there was still a presence of underage models in top shows including Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Anna Sui, DVF, Coach and Proenza Schouler.
With designers still getting use to this new law and the fact that going back at least a decade, roughly half of the models who have been labeled as 'top newcomers' for the season are at the young age of 16 and 17, shows that the problem runs deep within the veins of the fashion industry and that progress is just beginning.
