‘No-pay’ model bares all
Ugly secrets of NYFW glam
This runway model is taking a stand in her stilettos.
Taylor Stewart risked her modeling career to expose the mistreatment she said she and other industry pros experience during New York Fashion Week — where she didn’t receive a penny working seven shows.
“None of us were getting paid — like I’m talking models, hair and makeup, stylists, event staff,” the 25-year-old stunner told The Post.
“I have no other word than ‘disgusting.’ And I just couldn’t stand to witness so many amazing, hardworking people get taken advantage of anymore — including myself.”
On Day 3 of Fashion Week, which ran Feb. 9-15, the Canadian native posted a four-part series of TikTok videos titled, “New York Fashion Week Is a Scam.” She detailed deplorable industry standards — where mid-level companies attract talent with promises of “exposure.”
“They really have a way of convincing you like, ‘Oh, you should do this for us because it’s going to boost your career . . . like you’re going to get connections out of this,’ ” she said. “And it’s just simply not true.”
Her posts generated 75,000 views in just 24 hours — and inspired others to share similar experiences.
“One girl . . . said to me that they didn’t even credit her name when they posted hairstyle photos. So she said, ‘I literally got nothing out of it, spent so much money to go there,’ ” she explained.
Stewart, who lives in Miami, estimates she spent $4,000 to travel to New York to attend Fashion Week last September, paying for airfare and hotels out of her own pocket.
“Another thing that I was shocked about, too, is we had to go and buy shoes,” she recalled. “They wanted specific shoes to be worn. You had to buy them with your own money.” Last fall, she walked seven runways for Society Fashion Week, a global fashion show producer based in Midtown West.
“I’m a size 4 to 6, and I kept getting referred to as the bigger model,” she said. “One of the casting people said, ‘You’re just too like healthy-looking . . . it looks cheap . . . because you don’t have that kind of rundown look.’”
The conditions backstage at the Hall of Mirrors in Midtown West where she walked were not only dirty, but dangerous.
“When I got to the dressing rooms, it was like filthy dirty, up huge flights of stairs,” she recalled. “One girl actually fell down the stairs and broke her toe and they still made her walk.”
The 5-foot-10-inch blond beauty put in eight- to 10-hour workdays, with most of her time spent waiting for her name to be called.
“They would tell me to show up at nine in the morning and I would sit around until three in the afternoon,” she explained.
A rep for Society Fashion Week, when asked by The Post about alleged nonpayment, said, “Our goal is to be at the forefront of ensuring everyone is compensated for their time, and continue pushing the entire industry forward.”
Many TikTok users also called out the independent fashion production company hiTechMODA in Midtown for not paying. It did not respond to a request for comment.
“I can also confirm this because I went to their casting and they told everyone that there would be no pay, it would all be exposure and photos,” Stewart said.
At this month’s Fashion Week, she was cast in a show for Times Square-based Runway 7 Fashion, which also did not respond to The Post. However, she “ended up choosing not to participate” after she says she witnessed the same mistreatment during its rehearsal.