In the fashion industry, mere trust – not legal duty – has historically grounded the relationship between models and agents. To enter into representation, young models sign contracts granting disproportionate power to their agencies: agents control when models receive payments, with no enforceable timeline to ensure prompt compensation; they sometimes withhold financial details or impose hidden commissions; and they may terminate agreements without cause, while models attempting to do the same risk legal repercussions. This power imbalance is set to shift.
Taking effect in June, New York’s Fashion Workers Act imposes explicit fiduciary duties on modeling agencies. In doing so, the Act addresses the regulatory gap that allows agents to prioritize their interests over those of the models they represent.
A Legal Sea-Change: Agent Fiduciary Responsibility
The Fashion Workers Act enforceable fiduciary obligations, requiring agencies to prioritize the interests of their models. This means agents must now provide timely payment, upfront disclosure of fees, and complete transparency regarding financial arrangements with clients like brands and photographers. It also ensures safer working conditions and grants models greater control over the use of their digital images – a useful measure in a period defined by AI, deep-fakes, and digital manipulation.
Previously, most agencies drafted modeling contracts to skirt fiduciary responsibility to models, leaving many vulnerable to exploitation. High-profile controversies – from camouflaged commissions and delayed payments to sexual and physical abuse on unvetted sets – impress the urgent need for these protections. The Act now directly addresses such abuses, equipping models with clearly defined legal rights.
Potential Tort Liability for Breach
Beyond simply clarifying expectations, the Act’s fiduciary duties come with enforceable legal consequences. A breach of these duties opens agencies to potential tort liability, transforming abstract grievances into concrete legal claims. Models harmed by an agency’s undisclosed conflicts of interest, financial deception, or negligent representation will be able to seek redress.
Coming litigation brought under the Act will test the limits of the legal remedies available to models. Currently, aweighty judicial framework defines fiduciary standards in other professional contexts, such as attorneys representing their clients or financial advisors managing investments. If courts treat breaches of fiduciary duties by analogous professionals similarly to breaches by modeling agents, models may potentially seek not just recovery of lost wages, but also compensation for emotional distress and reputational harm. In severe cases, models may even seek punitive damages.
The Fashion Industry’s Reaction
The industry’s response to the Fashion Workers Act will likely be swift and substantial. Aware of increased litigation exposure, agencies will bolster internal compliance procedures and oversight mechanisms. Expect comprehensive revisions to modeling contracts, explicitly outlining fiduciary duties, financial transparency, and procedures for resolving disputes. Arbitration clauses – favored by companies that are intent on minimizing costly public litigation – will be standard.
Agencies will likely also seek expanded professional liability insurance, with insurers responding by raising premiums. Higher operational costs and increased compliance burdens may prompt agencies to become more selective, only signing models whose perceived earning potential outweighs the risks of owing fiduciary responsibilities to them. This selectivity may lead to greater industry consolidation, with smaller agencies merging or leaving the market entirely, unable to bear the new regulatory demands. Trusted, financially-robust agencies will likely gain greater market share.
Thinking globally given New York’s stature as a world-wide fashion hub, it is possible that the Act’s influence ripples internationally. Agencies in other fashion capitals – Paris, Milan, London – may oblige changing expectations, reshaping the global regulatory landscape and elevating fiduciary responsibility as an international standard.
The Fashion Workers Act Redefines Trust
Ultimately, the Act recalibrates the long-normalized power imbalance between models and agents. The trust inherent in agent-model relationships will no longer rest on unenforceable assurances – it will be anchored in clearly defined legal obligations. Agents must now serve explicitly as their models’ advocates, bound to transparency, diligence, and loyalty.
In the past, many models signed risky contracts that did not protect them. Today’s models will not need hindsight or formal legal training to guard their interests. The Fashion Workers Act transforms their trust from a gamble into a guarantee. This shift does not merely protect individual models; it signals a deeper cultural transformation within the fashion industry. The fiduciary standard promises to encourage respect and genuine collaboration in the agent-model relationship. Now models will not need to rely on faith; their rights are grounded in law. The Act’s most enduring contribution may be the fiduciary partnership it formalizes between models and agents – one defined by fairness and accountability.
Savannah Huitema is a writer, fashion model, and J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School. She will join Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as an associate.
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