Developing Images: Race, Language and Perception in Fashion-model Casting

Models, Measurement, and the Problem of Mediation in the New York Fashion Industry

“…Development not only teaches models how to perform a particular kind of creative labor, but is also a reflexive and collaborative process of commodification. Agents must find successful ways of talking about models so they are legible to potential clients as particular types or casting categories (Sadre‐Orafai ), and models must learn to relate to themselves as objects and images. It is a directed yet open‐ended process that includes photo shoots to gain experience working in front of the camera and acquire images for portfolios (and visa applications for working internationally); agency‐supervised “body‐work” and image direction; structured pedagogical interactions like runway walking lessons; and conversations between models and agents that take the form of directives and stories about other models and industry relationships.…”

Managing the semiotics of skin tone: Race and aesthetic labor in the fashion modeling industry

“…This article explores how race and aesthetic labor intersect, based on a case study of fashion models. The scholarly literature treating modeling has been growing (Entwistle, 2002(Entwistle, , 2004Entwistle and Wissinger, 2006;Entwistle and Wissinger, 2012;Haidarali, 2005;Maynard, 1999;Mears, 2008Mears, , 2010Mears, , 2011Mears and Finlay, 2005;Neff et al, 2005;Sadre-Orafai, 2008;Soley Beltran, 2006;Wissinger, 2007Wissinger, , 2009. While the literature on aesthetic labor is cognizant of the notion that race factors into the various demands of "aesthetic labor," with the exception of Dean (2005Dean ( , 2008, and Williams and Connell (2010), most studies treat it incidentally (Nickson and Warhurst, 2007;Nickson et al, 2001Nickson et al, , 2003Pettinger, 2004;Speiss and Waring, 2005;Warhurst and Nickson, 2001, 2007a, 2007b, 2009Warhurst et al, 2000;Witz et al, 2003).…”