If you’ve ever been backstage at a fashion show, you know things can get pretty hectic. Publicists, producers, journalists, and photographers all running around, making noise and snapping photos, while models are unceremoniously rushed through hair and makeup and into their first looks. It’s a crazy scene and one that affords the models, many of them just teenagers, little in the way of privacy, as they are often forced to strip down to their thongs surrounded by dozens of strangers. It’s invasive, it’s unnecessary, and now, finally, it’s starting to change.
Today the CFDA, in partnership with the Model Alliance, announced that for the first time models will have a private area to change in backstage at the shows.
Sara Ziff, founder of the Model Alliance, said in a statement, “Models have raised concerns about invasive photography and lack of privacy while changing clothes backstage at New York Fashion Week. The Model Alliance takes these concerns seriously and we decided to take additional steps this season to ensure a safe and respectful work environment by providing private changing areas backstage.”
According to The Cut, The CFDA and Model Alliance worked with IMG and Pier59 Studios, a popular show space during NYFW, to build these areas. Exactly what form these areas will take remains to be seen, though. And while many shows do take place at the Piers, most do not, so the true scope of the project is regrettably limited. That said, it’s step in the right direction, and that’s something.