Looking for a deal on a good model? You're in luck! According to Reuters, high-fashion models are having to settle for half-price at many of the shows this season due to shrinking fashion budgets and an overall belt-tightening across the industry.
That's right, poor little Eastern European upstarts in search of fame are finding that clients who used to pay something like $4,000 for a daily rate are now hovering closer to $2,000. Gone are the days, apparently, of Linda Evangelista famously claiming she wouldn't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. Heck, gone are the days (perhaps—our sources can't confirm) of Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen making such lavish demands about being paid in Euros instead of dollars. That's right, world, it's a recession everywhere.
Perhaps the waist-cinching in the modeling world is deserved: The space has been flooded with "American's Next Top Model" wannabes. We've certainly seen our share of teetering waifs strolling midtown toting skinny black binders containing their professional exploits. Shouldn't these girls be in school? Doesn't it seem odd to anyone else that models like Georgina Stojiljkovic are anxious that they might have to return to (gasp) a political science degree?! Horror of horrors! It might not be the worst thing to start bringing those high aims down a bit—though it does make that whole "return of the supermodels" fad in terms of fashion covers and advertising a bit awkward in retrospect.
