“How can someone be dressed in Chanel yet not have enough to buy a beer at the bar that evening?” After 15 years of research, anthropologist Giulia Mensitieri lays bare in ‘Fashion: The Most Beautiful Job in the World’ the behind-the-scenes reality of exploitation and precarious working conditions in this industry of prestige.
“Fashion: The Most Beautiful Job in the World” – DR
Her work, published as a graphic novel on October 1 by La Découverte/Delcourt, is illustrated with creativity and a dark edge by the artist Danicollaterale.
The scene is oppressive: a dozen women work through the night in a small Paris flat, gathered around a scrap of fabric that, in a matter of hours, must become a haute couture dress. Their work will sell for between €70,000 and €100,000, yet each will leave with an envelope of cash paying no more than the hourly minimum-wage rate.
These “little hands” of couture may be “students, factory workers, people from Asian immigrant backgrounds or professional seamstresses, brought in as reinforcements,” explains the doctoral researcher in social anthropology at the CNRS, who visited one of these workshops running at full tilt in the run-up to a Fashion Week.
Prestige-based pay
The fashion and clothing sector accounts for more than 3% of France’s GDP – more than the automotive industry – and supports nearly a million people, according to the Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion. Yet it remains one of the least documented.
“It’s a world that is overexposed, highly visible in magazines, on posters and online, yet about which we know almost nothing,” the Italian researcher notes in an interview with AFP.
She was able to gain access thanks to the sector’s thirst for “intellectual legitimacy” – a milieu often dismissed as frivolous and flattered by an anthropologist’s attention.
Among the economic realities brought to light during this immersion is the “debt cycle” in modelling. It is not uncommon for major agencies to advance all expenses to models – from hairdressing to taxi fares – and then demand reimbursement, which most can never manage.
“Prestige-based pay” also prevails. “The more prestigious the magazine, the more certain you can be that people aren’t being paid. It’s a rule. The so-called ‘editorial’ pages (fashion spreads published outside advertising) are most often produced free of charge,” notes Giulia Mensitieri.
Some photographers even pay to work, fronting the team’s hotel, van, and meals, believing they are “investing in their career.” Others are paid in kind, with a brand voucher, which “benefits twice over.”
A struggle
An editor-in-chief carrying a €20,000 handbag hands a photographer an envelope containing €100 for 48 hours’ work, telling her: “You were lucky to be there.” This phrase provided the title for the researcher’s doctoral thesis; she now works at the CNRS in Lille.
“Fashion has its own way of operating and its own specific violence, which lies in the juxtaposition and coexistence of extremely luxurious worlds and objects, the creation of opulent imaginaries, and then forms of pay, work, and exploitation that can be extreme,” she emphasises.
The sector has no trade union representation, apart from the employers’ organisation. “It’s an environment in which you can’t say: ‘I’m struggling, I’m burnt out, I’m being exploited, I don’t have enough money to pay my rent, I haven’t been paid for six months…’,” she laments.
To young people who are drawn to this world, she advises them to “embrace the glamour but know what their rights are.”
While the author does not name any brands, she notes that attempts at censorship have recently increased, notably through the cancellation of some of her speaking engagements. “I’m not a journalist; I don’t take the moral high ground; my aim isn’t to denounce, but to illustrate how this aspect of capitalism works,” she emphasises.
