Ethical modeling agency

Eleni Renton, front and center, with the girls of Quintessentially Models. Photo: DAVID ROSE

Quintessentially Models refuses to represent any size zero girls and was established earlier this year as an antidote to the widespread lack of pastoral care within the modeling industry which, continues to encourage models to stay unhealthily thin. "Lots of girls are at an age where they are building their bodies for life but eating disorders are on the rise in girls aged 15 and 16, and if a girl has a disorder then and still has it at 26 or 27, there is a real mental health problem," says 27-year old Eleni Renton, founder of this ethical modeling agency.



The Telegraph
By Roya Nikkhah

Miss Renton, who has previously worked at several leading agencies including Premier Model Management, which has represented models including Naomi Campbell and forever beautiful Claudia Schiffer, said that the fashion industry was "very reluctant to deal with the problems it is creating" and blamed designers for creating clothes that only fit very skinny models (when and how thin became in).

"From my experience, some agencies do ignore the issue and constantly tell girls they need to be thinner. I have seen people at agencies encourage girls to lose weight in unhealthy ways, to starve themselves, where bookers will tell girls to miss breakfast. Here, if we see a girl looking too thin, we encourage them to put weight on. Some of my girls who have joined us from other agencies have told me about the huge pressure they have been put under to lose weight."

All girls represented at Quintessentially Models have the unique opportunity to work one-on-one with some of London's best nutritionists (provided by The Organic Pharmacy), personal trainers (The Bodydoctor David Marshall), dermatologists and councilors, as well as having their BMIs regularly monitored and their diets and exercise regimes advised.


Taking a firm stance on the issues that are at the forefront of the fashion industry, Quintessentially Models are also working together with B-eat, the biggest eating disorder charity in the UK, to raise awareness of the size zero concern. The agency will provide an in-house councillor for their models, on-hand to talk to and advise the girls if they are feeling the pressures of the industry or are concerned about eating disorders.

Several models have left leading modeling agencies to join Quintessentially, where all the girls must have a BMI within the healthy range of 18.5 to 24 and whose models have recently secured campaigns for the cosmetics giants Lancome and Nivea and worked for magazines including Vogue and Marie Claire.

Sara Philippidis, 25, has been modelling for eight years. Originally from Australia, she lives in London and joined Quintessentially Models in January from another London agency. "I joined Quintessentially because I liked the idea of an "ethical" agency where the wellbeing and health of the models is the focus, rather than our weight. Other agencies I have been with are not so sensitive, and can be quite abrupt about telling you to lose weight, which often makes models feel very self-conscious and insecure. Agencies are often dealing with very young girls, who need to be looked after. Eating disorders in the industry are rife - I have lived in several model flats and seen it first hand. But many agencies simply do not take the time to look after the girls and deal with these problems - it is not a priority for them."

Tasha Crosby and Sara Philippidis. Photo: DAVID ROSE

Tasha Crosby, 19, from London, has just started modelling. She joined Quintessentially a month ago. "You hear so many bad things about the modelling industry and some of my friends who are models have told me about agencies who are very judgemental about their weight. A friend of mine who modelled in a couture show recently said that even the women watching the show - the clients who will buy those clothes - were asking why the girls modelling the outfits were so thin. Ultimately, it is the agent’s responsibility. If agencies stop sending out very thin girls, then the designers will have no choice but to use healthy-sized models."

This ethical modeling agency also happens to represent Magali Amadei unhappy cover girl and really the poster child of bulimic suffering in fashion:



Miss Renton also criticised the fashion industry’s unwillingness to use black and ethnic models, and called for the introduction of positive discrimination to address the issue.

"It is harder here than almost any other country, for the black and Asian girls to find work," she said. "Even when clients ask us for a "black" girl, the clients often book the mixed-race girl instead of a black girl. Models are definitely hindered in this country - when we send some of our black girls out to America and they get far more work."

Eleni Renton has now exposed another London Fashion Week disgrace. She has called for grants to be pulled from next month's event, following the British Fashion Council’s (BFC) decision to abandon plans for compulsory health checks for models. Last year, the BFC, which organises London Fashion Week, introduced rules that all catwalk models at this year’s event provide "good health" certificates signed by doctors with expertise in recognising eating disorders, to prove they are not too thin or unhealthy to work.

But earlier this month, the BFC said that the health checks were "unworkable" and that it was scrapping them following resistance from the fashion industry. Last month, Sarah Doukas, the founder of the Storm model agency who sat on the inquiry panel, warned that health checks would lead to a boycott of British catwalks by many top models, while the model Erin O’Connor said that the checks would "infringe a model’s dignity and rights".


"I am sorely disappointed by the decision, it was very weak of the BFC," said Miss Renton. "I think the LDA should pull its funding for London Fashion Week. It is totally wrong that public money is funding something that is clearly unhealthy and I have written to the LDA to tell them this.

"Introducing those health checks would have helped in tackling the size zero issue - I find it embarrassing that we are not even giving it a go. Unless the recommendations are actually enforced, they are just gimmicky sound bites."