Glam girls get bum deal

Samantha Harris will feature in 18 shows during Fashion Week. Photo / Martin Sykes

It might be New Zealand's showcase fashion event but overseas models are earning the big dollars.

Fashion Week starts on Tuesday and international models including America's and Australia's Next Top Models Krista White and Alice Burdeu will strut their stuff on the runway.

And Australian Vogue's first Aboriginal cover girl Samantha Harris is to feature in 18 shows during the five-day event.

But while they are earning $900 a show, some New Zealand models will be paid only in clothes.

World designer Denise L'Estrange Corbet said the practice was "rife" in the industry.

"That's just the way it is. Sometimes an agent will say to a model that it will be good for their career, so they should do it for free," she said.

L'Estrange Corbet said it was her personal policy to always pay models.

"You get what you pay for. If you go into a shop and buy something cheap, it's going to look cheap."

August Models director Erin Ashby said many local models were studying or had other jobs, so getting paid was not that important.

"Sometimes the girls want to be paid in clothes. Quite often they want to have that incredible jacket because otherwise they'd have to go and buy it.

"But, generally, agents will push for pay. I can't pay my Telecom bill with a designer scarf."

Showroom 22's Murray Bevan, who represents Karen Walker, Twenty Seven Names, Sera Lilly and The Department Store, said contra deals had been going on in the industry "since the beginning of time".

"The age of the model who gets $10,000 just to get out of bed is dead in the water."

Bevan added: "Every New Zealand designer I know has done it."

Fashion Week director Myken Stewart said she disapproved of the practice. Models should be paid "an absolute minimum" of $150 for each show which was two to four hours' work.

"If they go below that, it's just rude. There are a few designers who do contra deals but it puts the industry in jeopardy. It's their reputation they are damaging," she said.

"But the designers do what they want, we can't control it."

Mandy Jacobsen, an agent for Red 11, insisted the practice was not "a bad thing".

"If I said you could have $100, which would translate into around $60 after commission and tax, or you could have a beautiful $300 dress, what would you choose?

"We don't look at Fashion Week as a way of making a lot of money. We just want to support the industry; it is already very expensive for the designers to put on a show."

Stewart said international models called for a higher pay-rate because they tended to be more experienced and attracted international media.