Diana’s photographer accused of sex attacks
US/BRITAIN: Patrick Demarchelier, who was Diana, Princess of Wales’s personal photographer, has been accused of sex attacks on models and is one of 25 figures in the fashion industry named at the weekend as abusers.
Among the others is the British stylist Karl Templer, who has worked with brands such as Coach, Zara and Tommy Hilfiger, and the US photographer Greg Kadel, who has done shoots for Victoria’s Secret and Vogue.
But it is the claims about Demarchelier that will cause the biggest shock in fashion and among followers of Diana, whom he first met in 1989.
Conde Nast, which owns magazines such as Vogue, Glamour and GQ, said it has stopped working for now with Demarchelier, an echo of its move against the photographer Terry Richardson after The Sunday Times revealed last October the extent of his alleged abuse of young models.
The latest revelations came in a Spotlight investigation by The Boston Globe, the American newspaper that previously revealed widespread abuse by Catholic priests in the city.
More than 50 models - many anonymous - identified photographers, agents, stylists, casting directors and other industry professionals against whom ‘‘credible’’ allegations were made.
Chloe Hayward, a British model, told the Globe: ‘‘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.’’ She said fending off propositions by photographers was common for her and many of her peers, particularly early in their careers.
The claims against Frenchman Demarchelier, renowned for his picture of Diana in a strapless dress and wearing a tiara, are particularly explicit and come from a former assistant and six models.
The former assistant wrote to the US Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, about relentless advances by Demarchelier beginning when she was a 19-year-old intern, the Globe reported.
She eventually gave in to his sexual demands, feeling that if she continued to reject him it would put her job at risk. When she did resist, she said, he would later berate her while working.
‘‘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 an email. ‘‘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, 74, of unwanted advances, including forcing a model’s hands onto her own genitals and grabbing another model’s breasts, as well as making vulgar propositions.
Four years ago, Demarchelier allegedly asked a teenage model if he could perform a sex act on her and indicated he could make her famous if she said yes. The model said no and left the Paris hotel where they met.
About two years later she was sent to a shoot in New York with Demarchelier, despite telling her agent she no longer wanted to work with him. There, she said, he posed the same question.
Demarchelier said it was ‘‘impossible’’ that the multiple complaints against him were true. ‘‘People lie and they tell stories,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s ridiculous.’’
He said he was married and had ‘‘never, never, never’’ touched a model inappropriately.
The accusations were ‘‘pure lying’’ by models who ‘‘get frustrated if they don’t work’’.
The photographer, who lives in New York, is the second of Diana’s favourite photographers to face sex abuse accusations: early last month male models made allegations against Mario Testino.
Demarchelier was due to conduct a high-profile shoot this week at London fashion week but cancelled at short notice.
At the opening of the event, Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, announced ‘‘privacy changing areas’’ to protect models from being photographed while changing.
The council set up a ‘‘Models First’’ initiative in December to help tackle abuse.
All the people identified in the Globe investigation denied the allegations. Many complained they could not defend themselves because they did not know the identities of alleged victims or locations and dates.
Templer, who was accused of inappropriate touching and trying to pull the underwear off a model, said: ‘‘I deny these vague and anonymous allegations. If I’ve ever inadvertently made anyone feel uncomfortable, I’m truly sorry. Although physical interaction 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.’’
One of Britain’s leading catwalk models, Olympia Campbell, said this weekend that some photographers threatened to blackmail models if they turned down their advances.
Campbell, 22, said in the Telegraph Magazine that she had been warned by her model agency, Viva London, that certain photographers are ‘‘renowned for trying to make a move on some of the girls’’.
Sexual harassment was putting models’ careers at risk, she added.