#shitmodelmanagement

For adolescents blessed with willowy good looks, the fashion world offers the prospect of glamour, celebrity, and wealth. But this, for many, is what the beginning of a modeling career can actually look like:

On her first test shoot as a 15-year-old, Dasha Alexander said, a photographer held a camera in one hand and digitally penetrated her with his other — a move, he explained, that would make the pictures more “raw” and “sensual.”

When Coco Rocha refused to get naked on set as a 16-year-old, she said, the photographer replaced her with a girl who was younger and more obedient. Months later, a famous photographer simulated an orgasm as he took Rocha’s picture.

By the time Lenka Chubuklieva was 17, she said, an agent had repeatedly groped her, a photographer had thrown her on a bed and kissed her, and another photographer had masturbated in front of her and threatened to ruin her family in Ukraine if she told anyone.

“If people really understood what goes on behind the glamour of the industry, they would be mortified,” said Abbey Lee, an Australian model who, despite having been fondled on sets, describes herself as “one of the lucky ones.”

Emboldened by the #MeToo movement, more than 50 models spoke to the Globe Spotlight Team about sexual misconduct they experienced on the job, from inappropriate touching to assaults. Some are seeking to expose serial predators and those who enable them. Others are demanding new legal protections and calling for radical reform of a youth-obsessed industry they say has left them feeling exploited, treated like “meat” and “clothes hangers,” and, in the words of one model, “pimped out” by their agents.

Collectively, these models — predominantly females, although also males — made credible allegations of sexual misconduct against at least 25 photographers, agents, stylists, casting directors, and other industry professionals. In many instances, Spotlight reporters verified the accounts with third parties or examined records such as e-mails.

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Some of the alleged victims were willing to talk publicly, but others spoke on condition of anonymity because they still work in fashion and fear reprisal. The Globe does not identify alleged victims of sexual misconduct without their consent.

The accused men include some of the most well-known powerbrokers in the multibillion-dollar fashion industry and were often named by multiple women — in one case, seven — for alleged sexual misconduct.

Among them: Patrick Demarchelier, who was Princess Diana’s personal photographer; David Bellemere, whose photos have appeared on the covers of Elle and Marie Claire Italy; and Greg Kadel, who has shot for mega brands like Victoria’s Secret and Vogue.

Models also identified photographers Andre Passos and Seth Sabal, who often did test shoots that models usually pay for themselves to build their portfolios, and Karl Templer, who, as one of the world’s most powerful stylists, has worked with Coach, Zara, and Tommy Hilfiger.

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All of the accused men denied the allegations against them, and many complained that they can’t fully defend themselves when the Globe protects the identities of alleged victims, including by not always disclosing names, dates, and locations to them.

One photographer insisted some sexual encounters were consensual, and others said models may have misunderstood the touching and positioning that can be part of their jobs. But models say these are merely justifications for widespread abuses that have been part of the business for decades.

After Globe inquiries last week, Conde Nast, a media conglomerate that includes Vogue, Glamour, and GQ, said it has stopped working for now with Demarchelier and Kadel, and Victoria’s Secret said it has suspended its relationship with Kadel.

The fashion world, according to industry veterans, is rife with sexual misconduct for reasons built into the business. Models are usually minors when they enter the field, a highly sexualized adult world with little supervision and no job protections. Many Hollywood actresses, who helped start last fall’s #MeToo movement, at least have the option to join a union.

And the very nature of models’ work involves the marketing of seduction. At times, they are asked to dramatize sexual behavior they may not yet have experienced in real life. They regularly undress in front of colleagues and often appear scantily clad, sometimes with no clothes at all, to sell everything from watches to lingerie.

It is an industry, the models told the Spotlight Team, where the sexual and financial exploitation of teenagers is almost routine. Nearly 60 percent of models interviewed by the Globe said they had been touched inappropriately during work-related situations, the violations ranging from unwanted kissing to rape. Yet, for decades, victims of sexual misconduct in the fashion world have struggled to be heard and taken seriously.

Modeling, they say, may be work that accentuates their beauty and sensuality, but it is still work. “It’s a job, and just because you see a picture of me in underwear, that’s not an invitation to come to my bedroom,” said Chloe Hayward, a British model who said fending off propositions by photographers is common for her and many of her peers, especially early in their careers.

But models say they rarely complain, since doing so could get them labeled “difficult” and derail their professional aspirations. Still, spurred by the ongoing uprising over sexual harassment, more models are speaking out in hopes that change will finally come to their industry.

In recent weeks, model Kate Upton, famous for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and model Miranda Vee accused Guess cofounder Paul Marciano of sexual assault, allegations that have rocked the company. He denies the accusations.

Under growing public pressure, designers and brands pledged greater protections against sexual harassment in the days leading up to New York Fashion Week, a high-profile event that ran through Friday. But the basic safeguards put into place, such as private dressing rooms so models don’t have to get naked in public, only underscore how vulnerable the models have been.

In the immediate aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal last fall, Cameron Russell, a model who grew up in Cambridge, Mass., took to Instagram to protest the widespread mistreatment of models with the hashtag #myjobshouldnotincludeabuse.

Within two days, Russell had collected hundreds of accounts of sexual misconduct. Some of the alleged predators were painfully familiar to Russell: They had victimized her in the early years of her career. Russell began posting models’ accounts on her Instagram page — keeping victims anonymous and redacting the names of the accused — and asked others to share their stories.

“The last 48 hours has been devastating,” Russell wrote on Instagram at the time. “We know what is happening in fashion. We tolerate it and ignore it and excuse it every day. We all know who the perpetrators are and we continue to work with them. STOP. Advertisers and magazines, stop hiring these people. Agencies, stop sending them talent. Stop today. Do not wait until lawyers get involved. Do the right thing because the wrong thing is horrific.”

Two weeks later, Vogue and its parent company, Conde Nast, banned Terry Richardson — a prominent photographer who had been dogged in the media for years by misconduct allegations, including exposing himself to models and pressing his genitals on a model’s face — from shooting for its magazines. Richardson, who is under investigation by the New York City Police Department, has denied any wrongdoing.

“It’s interesting and frustrating that now people want to finally pay attention,” said Rocha, a Canadian model who began speaking out about Richardson’s behavior roughly a decade ago after, she says, he pretended to have an orgasm as he photographed her. There are “people at the top who no doubt have heard these stories for the last 20 years,” she added, “and haven’t done anything.”

Consider the case of photographer Patrick Demarchelier, who has maintained superstar status despite allegations that he has long preyed on young women.

Russell’s Instagram posts led one of Demarchelier’s former photo assistants to write in October to Vogue editor Anna Wintour about relentless advances by Demarchelier beginning when she was a 19-year-old intern, according to an e-mail reviewed by the Globe.

As his subordinate, she told the Globe, she eventually gave in to his sexual demands, feeling that she could not continue to reject him without endangering her position. When she did resist, she said, he would later berate her on the job.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, urged Wintour to prevent Demarchelier from having access to other young women.

“It hurts my heart so much to think of how many girls, many my own daughter’s age who have had to fend off or give in to his advances because I didn’t speak up at the time,” the woman wrote in another e-mail that was circulated to a modeling group. “I remember many test shoots with teenage girls where Patrick’s team of assistants (including me) was dismissed for the day only to find naked photos of the girl in the darkroom the next day.”

The Globe interviewed six other women who accused Demarchelier of unwanted sexual advances, including thrusting a model’s hands onto her genitals and grabbing another model’s breasts, as well as making vulgar propositions. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear career repercussions for speaking out against people with so much clout in the fashion world.

Four years ago, Demarchelier allegedly asked a teenage model, “Can I lick your pussy?” and indicated he could make her famous if she said yes. Shocked, the model, who detailed the exchange to the Spotlight Team, said no and left the Paris hotel where the shoot was supposed to take place.

“I wasn’t sure even if I understood his English correctly,” she recalled in an interview with the Globe, but then he repeated the question verbatim. “I said, ‘You should be ashamed, and I will never see you again.’ ”

About two years later, she said, she was sent to a New York City shoot with Demarchelier, despite having told her agents she no longer wanted to work with him. There, she said, he again posed the same crude question. The Globe corroborated her account with a subsequent agent.

“Everyone is trying to take advantage of you,” the model said. “At one point I was like, do I really have to do this to succeed? Do anything?”

Asked by the Globe about the various sexual misconduct allegations, Demarchelier said it was “impossible” that the multiple complaints against him were true. “People lie and they tell stories,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.” Demarchelier said he has “never, never, never” touched a model inappropriately. Noting that he is married, he called the accusations “pure lying” by models who “get frustrated if they don’t work.”

On Feb. 2, Demarchelier told a Spotlight reporter he still worked for Conde Nast. “I shoot for everybody,” he said. Conde Nast said that although the company decided in December to stop commissioning new work with Demarchelier, it didn’t officially notify him until recently. In a Feb. 10 statement, two days after being contacted by the Globe, Conde Nast said: “We have informed Patrick we will not be working with him for the foreseeable future.”

Photographers like Demarchelier wield enormous influence because they not only take pictures, but also often select which models will appear in magazines. As a result, models desperate to make money, or at least make a name for themselves, can become easy targets for men with connections to prestigious brands.

For some teenage models, it’s a traumatizing rite of passage to be sent alone to a photo shoot at the home or studio of an adult male photographer who pressures them to undress or perform a sex act. If I say no, they often wonder, is this the end of my modeling days?

Seth Sabal and Andre Passos are two of the photographers who models said exploited them when they were teenagers.

Three models have accused Sabal of sexual harassment during the mid-2000s. One of them, who asked to be identified only by her middle name, Teresa, said she was 17 when she was given alcohol and asked to take off her underwear as Sabal allegedly shot up her skirt.

An attorney for Sabal denied all the allegations and said, “At no point in time did he ever ask or force a model to do anything she was uncomfortable with, or certainly that was not his intention.” The attorney added: “Seth agrees and feels the industry is rampant with drugs, sex, and abuses of power, discrimination.”

In the case of Passos, former model Dasha Alexander said she was 15 when he inserted his fingers in her vagina while taking her picture about 20 years ago, saying it would give the photos “more emotion.”

Passos, who is living in Brazil, texted a response to a Globe reporter: “I have already suffered enough consequences out of this absurd story. . . . I was a victim as well as the model was a victim of her parents and agency to send her out in the world in such a tender age in the hands of an evil industry. An industry that never knew how [to] educate [these] girls, that only looked at profit and fame no matter what.”

Passos said he has never engaged in a sex act with a model involving his fingers. He also volunteered that he has faced charges of misconduct in the past: “I went to court for this and was not guilty,” he wrote.

Passos did not respond to questions asking what court he appeared in and the name of the victim, and the Globe could not locate any records. According to Alexander, she never told her parents about Passos’ alleged assault or went to court over it. So it is unclear whether his text message refers to a separate incident with a different model.

Male models said they have also been subjected to sexual misconduct by some of the industry’s top photographers, including Mario Testino and Bruce Weber. Several brands and magazines, including Conde Nast, Burberry, Michael Kors, and Stuart Weitzman, severed ties with one or both of the men after a New York Times story in January identified them as alleged sexual predators.

When model RJ King was 18, he said, he was sent by his former agency to a photographer’s Manhattan apartment to be considered for an upcoming job. There, with no one else present, the photographer casually offered him beer and drugs and then sexually assaulted him while he was changing his clothes, King said.

“When he finished,” King said, “it was the lowest I probably have ever felt.”

The incident, King said, left him wondering: “Is this what the industry is like? Is this what I’m going to continue to have to face?”

For many models, the answer is an emphatic and devastating yes.

Abuses can also occur when models are posing for major brands and magazines. One model said that during a shoot she was called a “whore” and “hooker” by a Dior executive, and a teenager who resisted going topless for German Vogue said the photographer suggested that a male model forcibly have sex with her to “loosen her up.”

Both companies denied any knowledge of these incidents and said they don’t tolerate sexual harassment.

Former Calvin Klein chief marketing officer Kim Vernon spoke generally about sexual misconduct: “I’m aware that it has happened in the industry and I believe all these recent measures to discuss and expose and correct the behavior are extremely important. . . . I don’t think brands have knowingly turned their head the other way.”

Ostensibly, modeling agents have a duty to safeguard their young clients from such situations. But many models say their professional shelf lives are so short that agents are more loyal to photographers and companies, forcing them to navigate troubling encounters on their own.

“Modeling agencies aren’t protecting these girls; they care more about the money,” said Carolyn Kramer, a former codirector of the Marilyn Agency in New York who now owns a Provincetown art gallery. “If you’ve got a $30 million exclusive Ralph Lauren worldwide contract available to you as a model agent, but you’ve heard rumors about the photographer being a scumbag, you’re taking a booking. You don’t care about the model. . . . I was complicit. I own up to it.”

Many models told the Globe that agents frequently remind them that legions of other attractive young people are available to take their places, including from overseas. About 20 of the models interviewed described highly exploitative relationships with their agents, who work for many of the top New York firms.

Some said their agents gave them drugs and alcohol, withheld earnings, coerced them into sexual relationships as teenagers, failed to inform them that photo shoots would require nudity, encouraged them to sleep with photographers to advance their careers, and sent them to sets with known predators, among other transgressions.

“Everyone knew the names of photographers making advances and using their power against young women,” said Trudi Tapscott, a former agent for Elite Model Management and DNA Model Management.

Tapscott said she used to warn models about certain men, but she now acknowledges that’s not as effective as saying to photographers: “ ‘We’re not going to work with you ever again.’ . . . What makes it better is getting that photographer out of the equation.”

Greg Kadel was one of the photographers whom Tapscott said she heard complaints about because he allegedly insisted that models pose nude or topless, and treated his shoots like a “personal playground.” Some models described far more extreme behavior.

One model said she hadn’t yet finished high school when her agent took her to a fashion party in New York City where adults gave her cocaine and alcohol — a vodka soda, her agent specified, because “that wouldn’t make me fat.”

At the end of the night, the model’s agent allegedly asked Kadel to put the stumbling teenager in a cab. Kadel did, but he jumped in the car, too, and directed the driver to a hotel. Once there, the model said, he pushed her against a wall, pulled off her clothes, and had sex with her. She spoke to her agent the next day.

“I told her what happened, and I was crying and upset,” the model recalled. “She convinced me that what happened was a good thing and hopefully my career would benefit from it.”

The agent also instructed her not to tell anyone because, she said, Kadel worked with major brands and magazines and complaining about him would hurt her chances of making it big.

Indeed, Kadel helped the teenager land gig after gig with Victoria’s Secret, all while subjecting her to ongoing harassment, she said, until she refused to work with him — a move that she says effectively ended her relationship with the lingerie empire.

The model, who asked that her name be withheld, confided in her boyfriend at the time about Kadel’s unwanted sexual advances, warned a modeling friend about Kadel’s behavior, and told a subsequent agent she was uncomfortable working with Kadel. All three corroborated her account, and the Globe reviewed e-mail exchanges between the model and Kadel, as well as topless photographs Kadel took of her when she was a minor.

Victoria’s Secret said it is conducting a “full third-party investigation of the allegations” and added: “We are a company that celebrates and serves women, so this behavior could not be more contrary to who we are.”

The model’s friend told the Spotlight Team that when she was a teenager she was accosted by Kadel, as well. After he photographed her for one of Vogue’s European editions at a private home, she said, she woke up in the middle of the night to find him lying on top of her, his tongue in her mouth, his hand holding hers.

The Globe interviewed two other models who requested anonymity and said Kadel made unwanted sexual advances, including kissing, when they were teenagers. A fifth model said Kadel asked her to do a private photo shoot and then pressured her to get nude, repeatedly asking her to take off her underwear during the hours-long session. All of the alleged incidents took place within the past dozen years.

Ernesto Qualizza, an agent for Kadel, vigorously denied the allegations. “Greg has never done that. He’s dated some girls and that’s happened. It’s all consensual between adults. He’s never used his power in any way that is unbecoming,” Qualizza said.

Kadel believes the encounters described to him by the Globe were consensual or “he misinterpreted a social situation” when he made a pass, according to Kadel’s attorney. The lawyer also said Kadel was working on a book and exhibition about photography and shot in hotels and private homes because they provided the atmosphere he was seeking.

A spokeswoman hired by Kadel provided additional comments, saying that Kadel “never sexually coerced or assaulted anyone in his life. As a creative professional for many years, Mr. Kadel has always accurately represented the intention or scope of his work and has always worked through a model’s agent and made sure that each model was fully aware and comfortable with the creative vision being pursued in any project before they signed on to participate.”

Then there’s David Bellemere, who gained international fame shooting for top fashion magazines. Madisyn Ritland was 19 years old and living in Paris when she wound up alone at his home for a photo shoot.

At the end of the session, she said, Bellemere grabbed her by the waist and stuck his tongue deep into her mouth. She dipped beneath his arms to escape his embrace, she recalled, but didn’t tell her agent at the time because, she said, he had made his own sexual advances.

Ritland said she was reluctant to continue working with Bellemere, but he was a gatekeeper for brands and magazines she aspired to be featured in. At an audition a month later, she said, he positioned her on her back on a couch, topless, then crouched on top of her with his camera, his knees clamping her ribs and his crotch hovering above her head.

“I felt like I had no choices,” Ritland said. “I didn’t feel like I had permission to have thoughts. I just felt like, OK, this is how it works.”

The Globe reviewed photos from the first test shoot and spoke with two of Ritland’s friends who corroborated her account.

Bellemere’s behavior is so well-known that two agents told the Spotlight Team they stopped sending models to shoot with him years ago. But only in the fall of 2016 did Victoria’s Secret cut ties with him. That move came after several of its highly paid contract models, known as “Angels,” complained about his inappropriate touching and kissing.

Bellemere said Victoria’s Secret never explained the decision to him. Any physical contact with models was the result of “pushing the girl to pose, directing,” he explained. “I do it to get the best picture. It’s not harassment.”

Myla Dalbesio’s uncomfortable encounter with Bellemere happened during a lingerie shoot in Paris for Lord & Taylor in 2015, as he pressed his body against hers and wagged his tongue at her to mimic oral sex, she said.

“I was really shocked,” Dalbesio recalled. “It felt really sexually charged and inappropriate.”

After the shoot, she said, Bellemere contacted her on Instagram with a photo of a naked woman with bondage marks and an accompanying message that said, “Let’s shoot private next time.” The Globe saw the message and photo and corroborated Dalbesio’s account with her fiance, in whom she confided at the time, as well as with an individual present at the Paris photo shoot.

A spokeswoman for Lord & Taylor said, “While we were not made aware of misconduct during that photo shoot, information about aspects of Mr. Bellemere’s behavior came to light recently.” The company also said it has not hired Bellemere since February 2016.

In an interview with the Globe, Bellemere said it was “surprising to hear” that models had complained about him and “there is nothing creepy” about his interactions with them on set.

“I’ve never been taking advantage [of models],” he said. “This is not true. I’ve never done anything like this in my life.”

Seasoned models say they are accustomed to the inevitable physical contact that results from working with photographers and stylists, such as having their clothing adjusted and being helped into different outfits.

But some models described experiences to the Spotlight Team that they say crossed the line of professionalism.

In interviews with the Globe, three female models who asked not to be identified accused Karl Templer, a top stylist, of yanking their breasts, touching their crotches, or aggressively pulling down their underwear without asking them during shoots.

One model described a shoot within the last several years in which Templer approached her while she was against a wall, topless.

“Karl comes up to me,” she recalled, “and gets down on his knees and yanks my underwear and my shorts down . . . really fast. I remember I’m gripping onto it with my finger and he’s still pulling.”

“He was trying to get me naked,” she said. “He was trying to pull off my clothes without my permission.”

The Globe corroborated her account with two friends and reviewed an e-mail she wrote to her agent before the shoot specifying she would not be comfortable with frontal nudity below the waist.

Templer, in a statement, said, “I deny these vague and anonymous allegations. If I’ve ever inadvertently made anyone feel uncomfortable, I’m truly sorry. Although physical interactions with models is a necessary aspect of my job as a fashion stylist, I’ve never touched anyone in an inappropriate way nor ever with any sexual intent. I’m always respectful of models, remain deeply committed to creating a safe and professional working environment and embrace the systematic changes that our industry is implementing.”

In addition, Templer’s lawyer referred the Globe to three former and current colleagues of Templer, all of whom said they have never seen him behave inappropriately and asked that their names not be published.

Numerous models said they have felt pressured to take topless or nude photos by people who could make or break careers. Declining such requests, or rebuffing sexual advances, can harm a model’s prospects.

During a shoot for a lingerie brand, model Alison Nix said, a photographer stuffed a $20 bill in her bra and asked how much he would have to pay to have sex with her. When Nix complained about his behavior, the client dropped her.

“It’s really difficult because you get punished,” Nix said. “At the end of the day, I’d rather lose clients than do things that are emotionally traumatic. But it’s a shame to have to choose between the two.”

Over the years, there have been various efforts to protect young models. New York, for example, passed a law in 2014 that classifies models under 18 as “child performers,” raising the bar for how often they can work and in what circumstances.

But industry insiders, and a report last summer from the New York State comptroller, say there is little enforcement of the law, and no similar national or international regulations. As a result, New York’s law would not have helped models like Ritland, who at age 16, while working overseas, found herself in a disturbing photo shoot for an Italian brand.

“I was a virgin, never had a boyfriend, never been kissed, and I was topless, rolling around with another male model, simulating — I have really no idea, but it was supposed to be sex,” she recalled. “Very young girls are meant to be simulating something that they have never experienced, and it’s just kind of strange to me that that’s a culture that exists.”

In December, several models testified about sexual harassment and financial exploitation before the New York City Commission on Human Rights, which is expected to release a report in March addressing their concerns.

Because models are independent contractors, they are exempt from workplace protections that cover most other employees. As a result, modeling can be tantamount to indentured servitude, with young men and women going into debt because their agencies charge them for rent, travel, copies of photos, and even the privilege of being listed on the agency’s website.

“Models are in a loophole area where they’re not protected by any of the laws carved out to help artists,” said Shivani Honwad, an attorney who works with a firm, Law on the Runway, that represents numerous models. “Modeling agencies are dictating if and when to pay models.”

Many models hope the time has come for the industry to acknowledge its deep-rooted problems and institute widespread reform. Baby steps have already begun.

In January, Conde Nast, which also publishes Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, created a new code of conduct that, among other reforms, bans drugs and alcohol from sets, prohibits work by models under 18, and says no model “should be pressured to expose themselves more than they feel comfortable.”

An official for Calvin Klein told the Globe that in coming weeks the company will roll out new policies “for safeguarding the well-being of fashion models,” such as requiring prior written consent for any photography that includes nudity or semi-nudity and creating a process for reporting misconduct.

“Policy changes alone will not change the industry’s culture or empower vulnerable individuals to come forward with complaints. We have seen codes of conduct come and go,” said Sara Ziff, founder of the nonprofit Model Alliance, which recently helped introduce a proposed bill called the Models’ Harassment Protection Act in New York. “Voluntary standards without meaningful education, proper complaint mechanisms, and independent enforcement are not going to work.”

Meanwhile, a New York organization called Model Mafia is encouraging models to create their own reforms. At a December meeting, models discussed having Uber-like reviews of photographers, writing scripts of “friendly one-liners” they could use to firmly rebuff photographers who proposition them, and creating a “buddy system” that would allow inexperienced models in uncomfortable situations to call more seasoned models for advice.

“Yes, we need high-profile perpetrators to be held accountable,” Russell, the model who started the #myjobshouldnotincludeabuse campaign, told the Globe. But what’s also needed, she said, is “recognition that many of us play a part in maintaining a work environment where abuse of power is acceptable.”

Zuzanna Krzatala, a Model Mafia member, said the fashion business needs to change “the twisted rules of the game.”

If you compare the life of a professional model to a sweatshop worker you will see a lot of similarities.

Working class poor or lower wages

No rights

Easily replaced

No alternatives

No protection

Cheap labor

Abused by those in power

http://wwd.com/eye/people/reeling-new-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct-brands-regroup-and-fashion-photographers-strike-back-1202574560/

As five more fashion photographers and a well-established stylist have come under fire for alleged sexual misconduct, the accused and some of the clients they work with are proceeding with caution.

Fashion executives and designers continued to reel Monday from the bombshell exposé by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative team last week that highlighted allegations against photographers Patrick Demarchelier, David Bellemere, Greg Kadel, Seth Sabal and Andre Passos and stylist Karl Templer. The Globe’s reporters interviewed more than 50 models — mostly female — who “made credible allegations of sexual misconduct against at least 25 photographers, agents, stylists, casting directors and other industry professionals,” the story stated. The article only identified the six men, however.

Each of the accused denied the claims in the Globe article, while the brands and magazines they have worked with have adopted different strategies. Many brands declined to comment at all about what actions they might take. But following inquiries from the Globe, Condé Nast said it had severed ties with Demarchelier and Condé Nast International has done the same with Kadel “for the foreseeable future.”

Bellemere repeatedly insisted his innocence in an interview with WWD on Sunday. Templer also stated his case in a letter to WWD issued Monday: “Over nearly 30 years, working with thousands of models, always in public settings, I have never engaged in (and it has never before been suggested that I have engaged in) inappropriate behavior of any kind with models. A stylist’s movement of clothes multiple times — over three decades and possibly tens of thousands of interactions — is not the same as sexual predation or sexual harassment or touching with the intent of self-gratification,” he wrote.

In the letter to WWD, Templer said, “It’s impossible for me to defend myself as I’ve been given no information to which I can respond. I understand the Globe’s policy but, in this matter, how can I prove myself when I have been refused dates (even approximate years) or locations, which would have given me the chance to offer other witnesses to give their perspective? I haven’t been told whether this was supposed to have happened 25 years ago or 10 or five or last year. That makes it almost impossible for me to clear my name, as I find myself judged and publicly shamed.”

He continued, “Interactions such as the ones alleged would have been observed by at least 10 people, closely scrutinizing every move: the photographer instructing on adjustments that they would like made to clothes; a makeup person who would be less than a couple of feet away making adjustments to body makeup the minute that any clothing is moved, even by a millimeter; the hair stylist would be present; the photographer’s assistants who would be adjusting lighting; assorted production people, and the art director. All of these people watch every detail of the shot being set up. It’s their job to do that; they’re not in the background. There would also be my team, which is made up of at least three to four women, standing within a few feet of me and the model. In fact, I made it a practice, of my own volition, over a decade ago, to have only my female team members dress models in the changing area, the only private area on set. I work on large-scale, elaborate sets, never in small, private environments. With the exception of my team, none of these individuals are hired by me, and I am not the ultimate decision maker on who is booked nor which model is chosen.”

Demarchelier, Sabal and Passos did not respond to WWD requests for further comment. A representative for Kadel would only reiterate what had been stated in the Globe story, in relation to claims of unwanted sexual advances, saying, “Mr. Kadel never sexually coerced or assaulted anyone in his life…”

In this post-Weinstein era, this latest round of allegations only magnifies recent reports of alleged mistreatment in an industry that relies on attractive, sometimes teenage, models to connect with consumers. Executives at Hearst did not respond to requests for comment regarding their working status with the six individuals highlighted in the Globe story.

Executives at Dior and Moncler declined comment Monday regarding their working status with Templer. Fabien Baron, who also has worked with Templer, did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives at Valentino declined comment Tuesday. Other brands that have or planned to worked with any of the accused — Zara, Dior, Tommy Hilfiger, Coach, Clinique and Maybelline among them — did not respond to requests for comment. Executives at Dior also declined comment regarding the Globe’s reference that one model said that during a shoot she was called “a whore” and a “hooker” by a Dior executive.

Calvin Klein, meanwhile, is trying to be proactive by creating its own policy, as reported in the Globe story. That is expected to be unveiled in the next few weeks, a company spokeswoman told WWD last week. Before this month’s New York Fashion Week, the Council of Fashion Designers of America made safety more of a priority. In her pre-fashion week e-mail to members, CFDA chairman Diane von Furstenberg emphasized the importance of creating a safe environment, and asking designers, show producers and photographers to consider using venues for shoots and runway shows that have areas where models had the option of changing in privacy. The industry’s issue with sexual misconduct isn’t limited to photographers. Sexual misconduct-related allegations and lawsuits have been filed against Russell Simmons and Guess’ Paul Marciano. Both executives have denied any wrongdoing.

Last fall, Condé Nast axed Terry Richardson from its roster and in January the publishing giant cut ties with Mario Testino and Bruce Weber after a front-page story in The New York Times alleged the two photographers had harassed male models for years. When the Times article appeared, Condé Nast happened to issue a code of conduct to protect models.

In many instances, Spotlight reporters verified the accounts with third parties or examined records such as e-mails. Nearly 60 percent of models interviewed by the Globe said “they had been touched inappropriately during work-related situations, the violations ranging from unwanted kissing to rape,” according to the story. The story noted “many complained that they can’t fully defend themselves when the Globe protects the identities of alleged victims, including by not always disclosing names, dates and locations to them.”

Victoria’s Secret, which dropped Bellemere for alleged “inappropriate kissing and touching,” is conducting a third-party investigation into the allegations detailed in the Globe story. A company spokeswoman said, “We are a company that celebrates and serves women, so this behavior could not be more contrary to who we are. We do not tolerate harassment of any kind. We have not hesitated to investigate allegations of inappropriate behavior and to terminate employment with those accused — including freelance photographers — where appropriate.”

But Bellemere vehemently denied any wrongdoing, insisting Victoria’s Secret never gave him specifics about what he allegedly has done. In the interview with WWD, he suggested that an on-set tiff with hairstylist Danielle Priano — whose sister, Michelle, is the company’s director of photo production — may have been a factor. Bellemere also said a police investigation is underway in Lyon, France, into the model Yann Labrosse for allegedly impersonating him with a fake Instagram account and soliciting models for a phony Victoria’s Secret casting. Police officials confirmed an investigation is ongoing. Representatives for Labrosse at Mademoiselle Agency did not respond to requests for comment.

Regardless of the reason for dropping him a while ago, Bellemere is no longer working with Victoria’s Secret. He said his bookings through June, including an $80,000 job with Maybelline, have been postponed or suspended due to the Globe’s story. Maybelline did not respond to requests for comment.

Bellemere plans to meet this week with some modeling agents, designers and other people in the industry who still support him to see where things might go from here. “I’ve always been clear. I always talk from my heart. But I will understand if all my friends can’t work with me because they will lose business, I won’t lose them as friends. I love them so I want the best for them,” he said. “I don’t want to destroy their lives and be the dirty thing on their jobs.…But it should not happen. Everything has to be fixed.”

His suggestions included creating industrywide standards; requiring that models have chaperones or agents on sets; having models and photographers sign off on a report after each shoot to ensure safe working conditions were upheld; arranging for boarding for young models; training them about drug prevention and social media protocol, and a help line for individuals to report any problems and get guidance.

Just as Testino and Weber lost Burberry and Michael Kors as clients for their alleged actions, Bellemere understands what’s at stake. “I’m destroyed. I’m receiving messages on Instagram all day. It’s awful to wake up to every morning. They want to drop me. [They’re saying,] ‘Burn in hell.’ ‘You’re a piece of s–t.’ ‘Your career is done.’ It’s too much,” he said. “I’ve given my best all my life for the industry — for all those girls….They are destroying people. They are destroying lives. My daughter is crying. It’s too much. I’m going to lose everything.”

Templer also addressed a need for change in the industry. “I don’t want to come across as a complainer. I love my job. I love fashion. I’m proud of my work, and I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to work with many of my heroes. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous individuals in our industry who wrongfully exploit their position of power, as there are in many industries. Those people deserve to be exposed, to face justice and to be prevented from working.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/style/mario-testino-bruce-weber-harassment.html

Male Models Say Mario Testino and Bruce Weber Sexually Exploited Them

For a fashion model, success is the ability to incite desire. The job requirements often include nudity and feigning seduction; provocation is a lever for sales. In the industry, boundaries between the acceptable and the unacceptable treatment of models have been etched in shades of gray.

This has allowed prominent photographers to cross the line with impunity for decades, sexually exploiting models and assistants. The experience, once seen as the price models had to pay for their careers, is now being called something else: abuse of power and sexual harassment.

Fifteen current and former male models who worked with Bruce Weber, whose racy advertisements for companies like Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch helped turn him into one of the foremost commercial and fine art photographers, have described to The New York Times a pattern of what they said was unnecessary nudity and coercive sexual behavior, often during photo shoots.

The men recalled, with remarkable consistency, private sessions with Mr. Weber in which he asked them to undress and led them through breathing and “energy” exercises. Models were asked to breathe and to touch both themselves and Mr. Weber, moving their hands wherever they felt their “energy.” Often, Mr. Weber guided their hands with his own.

“I remember him putting his fingers in my mouth, and him grabbing my privates,” said the model Robyn Sinclair. “We never had sex or anything, but a lot of things happened. A lot of touching. A lot of molestation.”

In accounts going back to the mid-1990s, 13 male assistants and models who have worked with the photographer Mario Testino, a favorite of the English royal family and Vogue, told The Times that he subjected them to sexual advances that in some cases included groping and masturbation.

Representatives for both photographers said they were dismayed and surprised by the allegations.

“I’m completely shocked and saddened by the outrageous claims being made against me, which I absolutely deny,” Mr. Weber said in a statement from his lawyer.

Lavely & Singer, a law firm that represents Mr. Testino, challenged the characters and credibility of people who complained of harassment, and also wrote that it had spoken to several former employees who were “shocked by the allegations” and that those employees “could not confirm any of the claims.”

Those who said they were on the receiving end of unwanted attention felt the choice was clear: acquiesce and be rewarded with lucrative ad campaign work, or reject the approach and risk hobbling, or destroying, a career. Many said they still would not speak publicly.

In fashion, young men are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Male models are “the least respected and most disposable,” said the former model Trish Goff.

“It was general practice to give a model a heads-up about a specific photographer who we knew had a certain reputation,” said Gene Kogan of his time working as an agent at Next Management between 1996 and 2002.

But, he said, “If you said you were not going to work with someone like Bruce Weber or Mario Testino, you might as well just pack it in and go work in another industry.”

As in Hollywood, allegations of harassment and assault have been aired periodically over the decades with little lasting effect. From agents to stylists to fashion brands, the system has traditionally seemed more invested in preserving its image of perfection and glamour than in recognizing its bad actors.

Regular revelations of abuse of female models — as far back as a “60 Minutes” investigation of modeling agencies in Paris in 1988 — faded away. Agents accused of raping young models in their charge continued to work. The photographer Terry Richardson, after being accused in one documentary of sexual assault of female models, continued to work for major fashion brands until reporting on the producer Harvey Weinsteinchanged the landscape.

The Mentor

When Madonna had her first daughter, the person who photographed her baby pictures for Vanity Fair was Mr. Testino, 63. He was also the man who immortalized the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton. In 2014 he received an OBE. He recently photographed the February cover of Vogue, featuring Serena Williams and her daughter. Known for his ebullience and charm, he is adored by celebrities, and has worked with such brands as Michael Kors, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana.

Two models have also complained about his behavior in the course of photographing Gucci campaigns in the ’90s.

“If you wanted to work with Mario, you needed to do a nude shoot at the Chateau Marmont,” said Jason Fedele, who appeared in those campaigns. “All the agents knew that this was the thing to excel or advance your career.”

The nude work bothered him less than what he believed were sexual come-ons. It was as if Mr. Testino were gauging which “moves” might work, Mr. Fedele said — “whether it was a comment or a reach for the towel, and he definitely reached.”

“He was a sexual predator,” said Ryan Locke, who succeeded Mr. Fedele with Gucci.

Mr. Locke said that when he told other models that he was going to meet Mr. Testino, “everyone started making these jokes — they said he was notorious, and ‘tighten your belt.’”

The casting took place at Mr. Testino’s hotel. Instead of greeting Mr. Locke in the lobby, Mr. Testino was in his room, where he opened the door in a loose robe, Mr. Locke said. Then they got into a stalemate about whether the model needed to go fully nude for test pictures.

After Gucci hired Mr. Locke for an ad campaign, Mr. Testino was aggressive and flirtatious throughout, Mr. Locke said. On the last day of the shoot, as they were taking photographs on a bed, Mr. Testino said, “I don’t think he’s feeling it. Everybody out,” Mr. Locke recalled.

“He shuts the door and locks it. Then he crawls on the bed, climbs on top of me and says, ‘I’m the girl, you’re the boy.’ I went at him, like, you better get away. I threw the towel on him, put my clothes on and walked out,” Mr. Locke said.

Tom Ford, then the designer for Gucci, said he had not been present and could not know what happened. He said he was sympathetic to anyone who had been harassed, but also cautioned that if a photographer needs a shot of a model’s face on a bed, there are very few angles to get it from.

Former assistants said that Mr. Testino had a pattern of hiring young, usually heterosexual men and subjecting them to increasingly aggressive advances.

Hugo Tillman was not long out of Occidental College when he started freelancing as a photo assistant for Mr. Testino in 1996. Mr. Testino took him and his mother to lunch and told them he wanted to mentor him. “I really liked him — I really looked up to him,” Mr. Tillman said.

He moved to Paris and began working full time as Mr. Testino’s fourth assistant, and was soon promoted to third. “It seemed like what Robert Altman would show, a fantasy of fashion.” But, he said, “I was often made to feel uncomfortable on shoots, asked to massage Mario in front of other assistants, models and fashion editors.”

One night after a dinner, Mr. Tillman said the photographer grabbed him on the street and tried to kiss him. A few weeks later, while on a business trip, Mr. Tillman met Mr. Testino in his hotel room. Mr. Testino demanded that the assistant roll him a joint, then threw him down on a bed, climbed on top of him and pinned down his arms, Mr. Tillman said. Mr. Testino’s brother came into the room and made the photographer get off Mr. Tillman.

Lawyers for Mr. Testino said Mr. Testino’s brother “is adamant that no such incident ever took place.” Mr. Tillman’s former girlfriend confirmed in an interview that he relayed this story to her at the time. He also submitted testimony regarding the experience to the New York City Commission on Human Rights last December.

“I was scared,” he said of the hotel room experience. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.” Mr. Tillman quit the next weekend, and is now a fine art photographer, who has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Shanghai Biennale.

Taber, a model who worked with Mr. Testino for much of the late ’90s and early 2000s (he used only his first name professionally), described Mr. Testino as a friend until he stuck his hand down the back of Taber’s pants, and showed up at his hotel room asking for sex. “He was a mentor who took it a step too far,” he said.

“Sexual harassment was a constant reality,” said Roman Barrett, an assistant to Mr. Testino in the late ’90s who said the photographer rubbed up against his leg with an erection and masturbated in front of him.

“He misbehaved in hotel rooms, the backs of cars and on first-class flights,” he said. “Then things would go back to normal, and that made you feel gaslighted.”

Another assistant to Mr. Testino, a decade later, said he had his pants pulled down and buttocks fondled while on the job. Yet another said that Mr. Testino masturbated on him during a business trip. Both were granted anonymity because they feared career repercussions.

Even those who worked for Mr. Testino without experiencing the most direct harassment were affected. “I saw him with his hands down people’s pants at least 10 times,” said Thomas Hargreave, a shoot producer who worked frequently with Mr. Testino between 2008 and 2016. “Mario behaved often as if it was all a big joke. But it wasn’t funny. And the guys being placed in these situations wouldn’t know how to react. They would look at me, like, ‘What’s going on? How do I deal with this?’ It was terrible.”

Lavely & Singer, the law firm that represents Mr. Testino, said in a letter in response to these accounts that the individuals who spoke with The Times “cannot be considered reliable sources.” They wrote that Mr. Tillman had spoken well of Mr. Testino before, and called his mental health into question, so it “would be extremely reckless” to rely on him as a source. Regarding Mr. Fedele, who complained about private nude shoots, Mr. Testino’s lawyers said that the model had been photographed nude by others and had posted a nude picture of himself, taken by Herb Ritts, to Instagram in 2015. They also wrote that Mr. Hargreave and Mr. Barrett were disgruntled former employees.

“I was pushed around, overworked, underpaid and sexually harassed daily,” Mr. Barrett said. “That’s why I was disgruntled.”

“I’m telling the truth because this needs to stop now,” Mr. Hargreave said.

Selling Sex

As Calvin Klein, who created a hypersexual image for his brand with the help of Mr. Weber, recently told The Times, “I picked the images the same way I always did: what got my heart racing.” (Mr. Weber has not worked with the brand that bears Mr. Klein’s name since 2008.) Whatever it takes to get that shot has been acceptable.

“We sell sex,” Mr. Ford said.

Jessie English, a female photographer who spent three years as an assistant primarily to male photographers before going out on her own, described the attitude she saw on fashion shoots this way: “If I need to touch you between your legs or grab your breasts so you get the right look on your face, that’s just the way it is.”

Fashion and media brands say it is up to agencies to protect models, while the agencies say it is up to the brands not to hire photographers with bad reputations. For their part, the photographers say they do what they do to get the best picture — which is what the clients want.

And no union exists for models, whose youth and eagerness for a measure of stardom make them disinclined to complain.

“Models are not educated about what is or is not acceptable behavior, and often don’t even have the vocabulary to express their experiences,” said Edward Siddons, a model turned journalist.

“Male models are paid much less and they do not become icons, because the culture is about objectifying women to sell things, and people are deeply uncomfortable with that happening to men,” Mr. Ford said.

“I knew that if people didn’t want to have sex with you and people didn’t find you beautiful, you weren’t much inspiration,” Taber said. “The models that got jobs are the ones stylists and photographers are into. I also wanted people to like me, especially the most powerful people in the business. I would almost get offended if they didn’t want to have sex with me. That’s how I got groomed. That’s how it worked in my mind.”

Advances often take place in casting sessions and private photo shoots, Mr. Fedele said, reflecting partly on his experience with Mr. Testino. “Those are the pivot points for photographers to test the waters on whether or not it’s going to be a challenge for them to get to you,” he said. “Because if you do get the job, the majority of the time you’re not naked and you’re not in a swimsuit. So what’s really happening is that these guys are gauging whether you’re open or shy or close-minded or, quite frankly, whether you’re gay or hetero and willing either to flirt with them or to submit to an advance.”

Breathing Exercises

Since the 1970s, Mr. Weber, 71, has been one of the most important commercial and fine art photographers. His name has become “synonymous with erotically charged depictions of good-looking young men,” The Times wrote in 1999.

In 2005, he photographed the model Robyn Sinclair for Ralph Lauren. They worked together on numerous other jobs. According to Mr. Sinclair, “breathing exercises” — both in person and over the phone — were a repeated feature of their relationship.

“It’s like I was willing and unwilling at the same time,” he said. “I wanted to work.”

Models say that Mr. Weber was given to private audiences with young men, on long walks during lunch breaks and private visits in his room.

“They even have a term for it: ‘He’s going to get Brucified,’” said Rudi Dollmayer, a Swedish model who shot with Mr. Weber three times.

“It’s presented as an option, but it isn’t really,” Erin Williams, a female model on two of Mr. Weber’s campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, said of working nude. In testimony to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, she wrote: “The models that didn’t go nude were always cut on day two, and those who did would stay for additional shoot days. The boys who would socialize with Bruce after the shoots, alone in his hotel room, would get booked for longer with the carrot of a major campaign being dangled in front of them.”

In 2011, during a shoot for Vogue Hommes International in Miami, Mr. Weber summoned the model Josh Ardolf, then 20, to a private room. Mr. Weber photographed him in the nude and then, when Mr. Ardolf seemed uncomfortable, led him through an exercise.

“I was guiding his hand,” Mr. Ardolf said. “We did the chest, the shoulders, the head. Then I finally put his hand on my abs. Did the breathing. Right after that, he forced his hand right on my genitals. I was first in shock. I didn’t know what to think. I backed up. I felt very, very uncomfortable and very sick.”

“I felt helpless,” Mr. Ardolf said. “Like my agency said, he has a lot of power. He’s done a lot of large campaigns. That was in the back of my mind. ‘I can’t screw this up. I already made it this far.’”

Mr. Weber mentioned future campaigns when he followed up with Mr. Ardolf in a series of phone calls in subsequent months. He repeated the exercises over the phone and asked Mr. Ardolf to touch his genitals and stimulate himself, Mr. Ardolf said.

“The first thing I was told about Bruce was that he puts people in really precarious situations,” said Terron Wood, a model who shot several ad campaigns with Mr. Weber between 2007 and 2010.

His first job was for Ruehl, a now defunct Abercrombie brand, when he was summoned alone to Mr. Weber’s hotel room.

Mr. Weber put his hand on Mr. Wood’s forehead and told him to close his eyes and breathe in deeply. Then Mr. Weber moved back and began taking pictures, telling Mr. Wood to grab his shirt, which he was to pull up or down. From there, Mr. Weber instructed him to do the same thing with his shorts.

“After going as high as Steve Urkel, the only option was down,” Mr. Wood said.

Eventually, Mr. Wood’s genitals were displayed, with Mr. Weber continuing to photograph him.

“It unfolded slowly,” Mr. Wood said. “He’s directing you, and the peak moment is when you’re fully exposed and being told to hold it. ‘Hold that pose.’ And you’re wondering what the pictures are even for. Because you’re not on set. You’re thinking, ‘This isn’t what I’m getting paid for.’”

He also felt guilty, he said, knowing that he’d agreed to show Mr. Weber his penis only because “he was the photographer for Ralph Lauren.” Mr. Weber did end up booking him for a Ralph Lauren campaign.

Bobby Roaché, a model who went for a casting with Mr. Weber in 2007 and left after he said the photographer tried to “stick his hands down my pants,” described the reaction from one of his agents: “That’s all he did? You should have gone further.”

The model Monty Hooper said Mr. Weber told him he had “to learn to be more vulnerable” at a test shoot at the photographer’s TriBeCa studio in 2014. At the shoot, Mr. Hooper stopped undressing before revealing his genitals, so Mr. Weber led him through a breathing exercise. “If I’m more vulnerable,” Mr. Hooper said he was told, “I’ll go a lot farther in my career modeling.”

“He was hugging me really closely,” Mr. Hooper said. Disturbed, he thanked Mr. Weber and left. After that, he said, the amount of work he was sent for dried up immediately.

Mr. Hooper was roommates with a number of models in an apartment maintained by Soul Artist Management, many of whom worked with Mr. Weber. “This is big for you. You have to nail this,” the agency’s founder, Jason Kanner, told one of them, Jason Boyce, before a test shoot, according to a lawsuit Mr. Boyce filed in December in New York State Supreme Court against Mr. Weber, Mr. Kanner and Little Bear Inc., the production company run by the photographer’s companion and agent, Nan Bush.

In his complaint, Mr. Boyce said that Mr. Weber groped him and kissed him. In a response filed in late December, lawyers for Mr. Weber described the entire complaint as “false.” (Mr. Kanner indicated he would respond as well this month.) Mr. Boyce’s lawyer is Lisa Bloom, who represented Harvey Weinstein at the time he was first accused of sexual misconduct but who more often represents harassment claimants.

At the lawsuit’s announcement — which Mr. Weber’s lawyers described as a “defamatory press conference” in their filing — Ms. Bloom produced another roommate, Mark Ricketson, who said that Mr. Weber also led him through an inappropriate exercise in 2005, when he was 18.

“I have used common breathing exercises and professionally photographed thousands of nude models over my career, but never touched anyone inappropriately. Given my life’s work, these twisted and untrue allegations are truly disheartening. I’ve been taking pictures for over 40 years and have the utmost respect for everyone I’ve ever photographed. I would never, ever, try to hurt anyone or prevent someone from succeeding — it’s just not in my character,” Mr. Weber said in his statement to The Times.

Jeff Aquilon, a longtime muse whom Mr. Weber discovered in 1978, said in December that he had never had a bad experience with the photographer.

https://www.instagram.com/shitmodelmgmt2/

ShitmodelMGMT2 continues to threaten and harass. How and why did someone take his name off the list?  He’s posting all the comments from the shitmodelmgmt page trying to out all those that support the cause. 

https://www.instagram.com/shitmodelmgmt2/

This guy also thinks he’s a private eye vowing to out the original:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/model-recounts-alleged-sex-assault-terry-richardson-article-1.3698566?utm_content=buffer6c633&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw&utm_source=twitter.com

Ford model Caron Bernstein recalls feeling flattered when she first arrived in 2003 at the Lower East Side studio of famed photographer Terry Richardson.

She said a mutual friend brokered the introduction with claims that Richardson - a fast-rising star who would go on to shoot everyone from Beyoncé and Lady Gaga to President Obama - was a fan.

Bernstein had graced the pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar during her fashion heyday, but she was approaching her mid-30s by then and eager to promote her music career with a cool collaboration.

After initial discussions around a big desk, the lensman known for his soft-porn aesthetic and ultra-bright flash quickly turned dark, she told the Daily News.

Terry Richardson is accused of sexually assaulting a designer

He took some photos, positioned her in a chair, took more photos, exposed his penis and forced himself into her mouth, she recalled.

"It was like literally being shot with a stun gun. My brain just went on pause," Bernstein, 47, said. "I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't performing as a model."

She can't remember if the alleged attack took seconds or minutes, she said.

"I was like a deer in the headlights," she said. "I wasn't drugged, I wasn't handcuffed. Thank God that never happened. But in a weird way, that would have made it easier to forgive myself for not fighting him off."

Terry Richardson banned from working with top magazines: report

Richardson vehemently denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer.

"Ms. Bernstein knowingly and willingly posed for these photographs and at all times prior to and during the shoot, any contact she had with Mr. Richardson was consensual," his lawyer Brad D. Rose told The News.

Richardson, 52, has been dogged for years by allegations he used his power as a top photographer and industry gatekeeper to exploit models. Back in 2003, however, he was still a fashion industry darling with campaigns for Gucci, Sisley, Levis and H&M already under his belt.

A former runway and lingerie model, Bernstein said she was comfortable with nudity and willingly agreed to pose topless for him.

Terry Richardson now the most unlikely pro-breastfeeding advocate

She recalls being told Richardson wanted her to portray a fragrance called "Sex" for an editorial layout in V magazine. Someone handed her a single pair of white panties, and she changed in a bathroom, she said.

"I thought it was going to be a test shoot. There was no hair and makeup," Bernstein recalled.

She asked if she could at least powder herself, but Richardson objected and began snapping with a simple point-and-shoot camera, she said.

As soon as others in the room exited to an outside deck, Richardson moved in close for the alleged assault, ejaculated on her chest and continued to take more photos, she said.

Miley Cyrus, Terry Richardson team for explicit shoot

A rep for V magazine told The News the publication had no knowledge of a 2003 editorial feature assigned to Richardson.

"Caron Bernstein agreed to shoot sexually explicit photographs with Mr. Richardson, which had no connection to an editorial or advertising campaign for a fragrance product," Rose said.

The News reviewed more than 30 negatives from the shoot and several prints. Images apparently snapped in succession showed Bernstein in different positions with semen on her breasts. Her face was cropped out of those prints.

Caron Bernstein poses for a photo inside her apartment in Lower Manhattan.

Rose said the sexually explicit images "clearly evidence the extremely sexual nature of the shoot as well as Ms. Bernstein's willing participation in the explicit acts depicted."

Kate Upton angry at Terry Richardson for 'Cat Daddy' video

A photo of Bernstein's upper torso was used in an early edition of Richardson's controversial 2004 coffee-table book TERRYWORLD. It did not show her face.

Bernstein called it "ludicrous" to suggest she willingly agreed to perform oral sex on Richardson.

"I didn't know this man from Adam. I would never walk in somewhere and agree to a sex act with a stranger. I've never done that in my entire life. Never in a million years," she said.

When Bernstein appeared in the 1997 movie "Business for Pleasure," her lawyer painstakingly negotiated exactly where she agreed to be touched, she said. Her belly above he hip-bone was okay. So were the outsides of her breasts and much of her spine. Her nipples and inner thighs were off limits, she recalled.

Photog denies sexually harassing models

She said after the alleged attack, she grabbed her belongings, sprinted down the staircase crying and ran to a friend's nearby boutique.

"It was terrible. She told me the whole thing," the pal, who asked not to be identified, told The News. "She was extremely distraught."

Ex-boyfriend Marcus Antebi also recalled hearing Bernstein's account a year later in 2004.

"One day I see Terry Richardson walking down the street, and I was with Caron, and she literally had a near anxiety attack," Antebi, the founder of Juice Press, a popular chain of juice bars, said. "She explained the story to me and seemed very credible."

Terry Richardson denies propositioning model for sex

Friend Veronica Reyes said Bernstein started to "hyperventilate" and told the story again when they saw Richardson in SoHo more than a decade ago.

"It wouldn't have made any sense that she'd be lying," Reyes said.

Bernstein said it was her former friend Johnny Zander who connected her to the shoot and was there that day. A model now living in Los Angeles, Zander denied even knowing Bernstein when first reached by The News last month.

"I don't know anything about it. I for sure didn't arrange it," he said.

Nelly’s Washington rape case is dropped

After The News sent Zander a screenshot of a private Instagram exchange he initiated with Bernstein in September - their first communication since the Richardson shoot - his lawyer called to say Zander, 46, did in fact remember her.

"It's been probably 12-13 years. Where are you in the world these days," Zander wrote to Bernstein on Sept. 29.

"He acknowledges he knows who that is. They corresponded on Instagram," lawyer David Erikson said.

He said Zander remained adamant he was not at Richardson's studio for the shoot.

Morgan Spurlock confesses to history of sexual misconduct

Bernstein's allegations of predatory behavior are hardly the first against Richardson.

Richardson holds a point and shoot camera at a Paris fashion show in this 2011 file photo.

In 2005, Romanian model Gabriela Johansson sued Richardson for fraud in Los Angeles. She claimed he tricked her into signing a release by positioning it as a sign-in sheet at a topless "test shoot" in 2003. She said he "aggressively" pushed her to get completely nude, causing her to walk out. Johansson said Richardson later used her image in a photo exhibit without consent. The case was dismissed with prejudice three months after filing, indicating it was likely settled.

Model and writer Jamie Peck spoke out in 2010, writing on TheGloss.com that Richardson got naked during a shoot and coerced her into touching his penis.

In 2014, artist Charlotte Waters told Vocativ.com that Richardson invited her to a nude photo shoot in 2009, had her sign a release and then ambushed her with demands she engage in sex acts. She was 19 at the time. He was 43.

Nine more women accuse Russell Simmons of sexual assault

"I was not asked prior to the shoot or even during if it was ok for him to expose himself, if it was ok for him to force himself into my mouth, if it was ok for him to kiss me aggressively, if it was ok for him to perform oral sex on every part of my lower half or if it was ok for him to ejaculate in my eye, but all of those things were done," Waters told The News Wednesday.

"My autonomy shut off the moment it began and kept me robotic until it stopped. I was hospitalized that night for a panic attack that I for a long time blamed on a stomach flu," she said.

A few days after Waters' account was first published in 2014, Richardson claimed on Huffington Post he was the victim of "an emotionally-charged witch hunt."

He didn't deny stripping naked on shoots or ejaculating on models, but he claimed his subjects always consented of their own "free will."

Salma Hayek reveals her own Harvey Weinstein story

Anna Del Gaizo disputed that claim in a piece for Jezebel three months later in June 2014.

She recalled meeting Richardson and his assistant at a downtown event in 2008 and following the pair to a Bowery loft for an impromptu shoot. Del Gaizo said she too agreed to pose topless but was surprised when Richardson "pressed" his penis into her mouth.

"Disgusted and unnerved as I was, I smiled and laughed back," she wrote. "I was outnumbered, and I thought showing fear or outright shock would lead to something worse."

Del Gaizo appeared "visibly shaken" when she later returned to the party, a friend who was there told The News.

Hollywood women reveal personal stories of sexual harassment

Now an editor for Playboy magazine, Del Gaizo said she received no response from Richardson after telling her story.

"The silence says it all. It's true," she told The News. "What's he going to say?"

Richardson's lawyer shared a smiling image of Del Gaizo with The News that appeared to show her wearing the photographer's signature black glasses with his semen on the lenses - a detail that was not included in her piece for Jezebel.

Del Gaizo said she didn't recall Richardson ejaculating in her face but that it was possible he did.

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New York designer and model Lindsay Jones broke a decade of silence by accusing Richardson of sexual assault in a piece published by HuffPo late Wednesday. She confirmed her story to The News, saying Richardson lured her to his studio in 2007 or 2008 with the promise of discussing a possible shoot over a 10 a.m. weekday coffee.

As soon as he closed the door behind her, he pounced, she told The News.

"He just told me to get on my knees," she said. "He started doing this thing with my eye, he started jabbing (his penis) in my eye. I remember thinking, 'This is going to give me a black eye, this really hurts.'"

Richardson crosses a street during New York Fashion Week Spring 2014 in New York in this 2013 file photo.

She said he told her to "swallow like a good girl."

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"At the time, I was young, from Utah, very docile. It really caught me off guard. I was afraid and confused and hoping to get it over with. I left there feeling like human garbage," she said Thursday. "He thought I was disposable."

Jones was married to a different photographer at the time and reported the incident to her husband but didn't know where else to turn without harming her career, she said.

She even worked with Richardson again on a shoot for Diesel.

"I was afraid it would overshadow my career and I would lose work and lose money," she said. "He had such power around him with everyone wanting to impress him. It was very difficult to speak out. I was a kid."

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Richardson's lawyers also denied Jones' account.

Read Richardson's full statement on Jones' accusations here

Several brands and magazines cut ties with Richardson over the years, but he still managed to land big jobs, including the August 2017 cover of Vogue China with "Game of Thrones" star Emilia Clarke.

When the recent wave of misconduct allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein helped fuel the #MeToo movement and a greater understanding of systemic sex abuse, designers and publishers again distanced themselves.

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"Condé Nast has nothing planned with Terry going forward. Sexual harassment of any kind is unacceptable and should not be tolerated," a rep for the media group told The News.

Peck said Thursday it was "bittersweet" to see so many women coming forward.

"I'm not happy so many women have had abusive experiences at work, nor am I happy so many women have carried around shame about it for years. But this stuff has been going on forever, it's just that nobody talked about it," she told The News.

"It's easy for most people to dismiss one woman as some crazy person seeking attention. It's harder to dismiss this many. If the chorus of women speaking out now leads to changes in how workplaces are run and material consequences for abusers, that can only be a good thing. Any shred of self-doubt I had about divulging my story is now gone," she said.

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Bernstein, now married to Wall Street banker Andrew Schupak, said she finally felt comfortable enough to share her story with The News once the national reckoning seemed to finally grasp the feelings of shame and guilt that keep may victims hiding in the shadows.

"People might try to discredit me, but I've had more than my fair share of 15 minutes of fame," she said. "And it's not monetary. I'm financially more than fine."

Bernstein said she simply wants to warn others and move on.