Polina Yudina, Russkiy blesk: “There have been no such cases in my practice so far, but this is not the norm in any case. All issues of future trips, referrals, etc. should be resolved only through the mother agency! If such a fact has occurred – write to foreign agencies, explain that such actions are illegal. All direct correspondence to the model should be stopped. An exception can only be to wish someone a good holiday.”
Nelly Malysheva, Nelly Models: “Everything depends on the situation and on the model. For the director to correspond directly with the model – I have never had such a thing. As far as I know, directors prefer to work with directors — this is professional ethics. But bookers, yes, I have seen this. This is especially different in China, as the freelance market is very developed there. Based on my own experience, the reason why this often happens, or rather, it happened in China, is this: An experienced booker, after working for a couple of years in an agency, later opens his own agency and calls familiar models to him — it’s easier than recruiting new ones. Or he works for two camps: for the agency and for himself, gathering his army of freelancers. Thus, one of my models broke her contract with me and then went to China as a freelancer.
I hope that this practice will become a thing of the past, since everything has become much tougher with the issues of visas, and during the pandemic many agencies closed down, unable to withstand a lockdown. A kind of evolutionary selection has occurred. As for my partners in other countries, this has never happened in my 25-year practice. I always find out if they write to models directly, and if they do the situation becomes awkward. So why test the trust built up over the years? It does not seem logical.”
Katerina Mironova, Index Models: “Yes, there were such cases, and once it caused a break in relations with a foreign agency. The partners wrote to the model directly: if she leaves earlier on an export flight during the pandemic, they will fine her a certain amount, since there are already a number of booked jobs. They did not say a word to the mother agency about this fine, this clause was not spelled out in the contract. The model at that time was busy with tickets for an urgent flight and decided that she would then give me the information. As a result, she flew away, received a fine, and no business correspondence or compromise was successful. I thought to contact the director and solve this problem with her, but at my request to write her postal address and coordinates for a lawyer, the agency (by the way, with a good reputation) simply stopped responding to the letters. Conclusion: models need to immediately respond to such statements and solve such issues on the spot (which, of course, is very inconvenient during unprecedented times). There were also cases when they wrote directly about tickets, asked about the schedule, asked about the extension of the contract. These are, fortunately, isolated cases that are stopped by explanations. Basically, the receiving agencies and models would preferably need to behave professionally and solve absolutely all issues through the mother agency.”
Julia Temporiti, Velvet Management: “They don’t correspond with mine. Only the mother agency – this is the norm and the rule. There are no situations that need to be solved directly with the models: can she fly to work, or just how are you, or congratulations on the holidays.”
