About the survey: We sent an anonymous, online survey to 241 working fashion models based in New York and Los Angeles. 85 responded. Their average age was 26, indicating that our sample skewed towards older, more experienced models. We are working to reach out to younger models at the beginnings of their careers. We chose to focus this survey on women models, because male modeling is a much smaller market, but in the future we would like to survey men. Our respondents have worked in over a dozen countries, and several high-profile supermodels completed the survey.
We found that the majority of models begin their careers very young — most start working before age 16.
Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford y Tatjena Patitz (circa 1990). Peter Lindbergh.
“En el arte el concepto de belleza va asociado a valoraciones personales; se trata en la mayoría de los casos de una búsqueda individual. En publicidad, sin embargo, el concepto de belleza está siempre ligado a lo colectivo, no existe la búsqueda interior, si no la representación de los sentimientos colectivos de las sociedades de cada momento. Esta diferencia entre los dos lenguajes se hace muy evidente en la actualidad. La publicidad parece más empeñada que nunca en construir un modelo de belleza único."
- Juan Carlos Pérez Gaulí, "El cuerpo en venta" (2000).