modeling

Some of New York's top modeling agencies are named in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that alleges they've used shady accounting practices to hold onto money they should have paid their models.

A group of models claiming that Ford, Wilhelmina, Elite, and Women, among others — as well as brands like L'Oréal, Aveda, and Revlon — have withheld hefty portions of their royalties. Louisa Raske, a model who appeared on the May/June 2005 cover of Brides, at left, is leading the class action suit and seeks $20 million in damages. Her 19-page summons claims that these agencies commonly work on the models' behalf without the models knowing it, and arrange deals "as if the modeling agencies had contacted the models and had the legal authority to execute the documents."

The suit goes on to say that "since the models are unaware of the extended/expanded usages for which the modeling agencies have negotiated and received payment on their behalf . . . the models never demand or receive payment, and at the very least, the modeling agencies are unjustly enriched by the models' funds."

Raske's suit also claims that in a similar case decided in 2005, some models were told they would "never again model in New York" if they sued their agencies. The models in that case won a $22 million settlement.

Representatives for Ford and Wilhelmina did not respond to requests for comment on this post. But Susan Scafidi, founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University and a board member of the Model Alliance, told us that model payment has been an issue for quite some time.

"Models have repeatedly expressed concern about lack of transparency in agency accounting practices," Scafidi said in an email. "While some agencies are more conscientious and professional than others, a lawsuit was perhaps inevitable — though the scale of this one is quite dramatic."

A full list of the defendants in this case can be found below.

Modeling Agencies:

• Next Management LLC
• Wilhelmina Models Inc.
• Wilhelmina International Ltd.
• Ford Models Inc.
• Elite Model Management — New York LLC
• DNA Model Management LLC
• IMG Models Inc.
• Trump Model Management LLC
• MC2 dba aka Karin Models of New York LLC
• Major Model Management Inc.
• Silent Models LLC
• Fusion Model Management Inc.
• Marilyn Model Management Inc.
• 1 Management LLC
• Red Model Management Inc.
• Request Model Management Inc.
• Supreme Model Management LLC
• VNY Model Management Inc.
• Men Women NY Model Management Inc.
• APM Models Inc.
• Q Model Management dba aka New York Model Management Inc.
• Click Model Management Inc.
• S Model Management LLC
• Elite Model Management Corporation
• NYC Management Group Inc.

Advertising Agencies:

• McCann-Erickson USA Inc.
• McCann-Erickson Corporation
• Ogilvy + Mather Partners Inc.
• Publicis Inc.
• JWT LLC
• Laird + Partners New York LLC
• Leo Burnett Company Inc.
• Saatchi + Saatchi North America Inc.
• Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners Inc.

Beauty Brands:

• L'Oréal USA Inc.
• Revlon Inc.
• Garnier LLC
• Coty Inc.
• Aveda Corporation
• Sephora USA Inc.
• Maybelline LLC.

Agyness Deyn's appearance on the Summer cover of i-D magazine may have been the last job of her modeling career. Deyn, who's now pursuing a career in acting, said in a recent interview that she's "stopped modelling officially."

Deyn told The Independent, "I've not done any for a good long while now. I think it was about four years ago when my feelings were changing towards the industry. I didn't hate it, but I was yearning to do something different. I was on a gradient. It was a gradual thing."

Deyn has a supporting role in the upcoming film Pusher, which premieres next month, but she first started appearing in films in 2010. That year, she starred in the short Mean to Me and played the role of Aphrodite in Clash of the Titans.

Still, Deyn's drift from modeling into acting doesn't mean she didn't like walking down runways and appearing in ad campaigns.

"Oh god, I loved it," she said. "Being 18 years old, from Manchester, and suddenly having this new world to explore — being able to travel, meet all these different people, and immerse myself in all these different cultures — was just so much fun."

A look at all the fun Deyn has been having in her new career as an actor, here.

Photo courtesy of i-D magazine.

>>Tyson Beckford says Linda Evangelista's famous pronouncement about '90s-era supermodels not waking up "for less than $10,00 a day" helped him — and other models of his time — make "silly" amounts of money.

Beckford explained in a recent interview that some of his paychecks were so large, they were almost comical.

"I once walked in a fashion show ­— literally, just walked —­ for no more than a minute or two and they paid me a silly amount of money . . . $40,000," Beckford said. "I was like, 'Really? You don't have to give me that!' You know when Linda said that it set the bar for every other model —­ everyone just upped their day rates. It was hilarious. All the models — women and men — were like, 'Remind me to send Linda flowers!'"

Beckford also said that paychecks weren't the only things in the '90s modeling industry that were over the top.

"The fashion industry was so different back then. I guess it was all so new and so extravagant," he said. "The budgets were enormous; it was certainly a lot more fun. The parties were out of control and because no one had a camera phone and there was no Facebook or Twitter, you could do whatever you wanted with whoever you wanted."

Photo: Tyson Beckford on the runway during Michael Bastian's Fall 2012 show.