Professor Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute, was quoted in Women’s Wear Daily to provide insight into the impact COVID-19 is having on employment in the modeling industry.
Modeling agencies are having their share of problems as they cope with the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.
Like most industries, their challenges range from slow payments to layoffs to little or no work for their models. The situation also extends to makeup artists, hairstylists and photographers who, like models, are considered independent contractors. But agencies say they’re doing a lot more digitally to get their models work during this time, a trend that will likely continue as the world enters this new, abnormal normal.
According to Susan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, under the CARES Act, “models along with the other independent contractors who make up the fabric of the fashion industry — photographers, stylists, makeup artists, and so on — can apply for special Pandemic Unemployment Assistance guaranteed by the federal government and administered by each state.” She said that even models who are non U.S. citizens but are working here legally may be eligible.