What’s plaguing the fashion industry?

The lack of contractual obligations and continuation and rise of unregulated practices are troubling its workers on every level

By Mehek Saeed

It now seems like it’s always ‘another day, another controversy’ in the fashion industry. The more issues that come to light and hit headlines, the more some people just treat it as ‘the way of the industry’ and something that one has to live in – but it doesn’t have to be that way. If anything, with the passage of time and the stakes that are getting higher, we should be seeing improvement in the professionalism too. Sadly, such is not the case.

Over a month ago, model Marvi Shabbir took to social media to talk about how she was allegedly ill-treated on the set of a fashion shoot by a famous designer and not paid the amount that was agreed upon. Both model and designer put out their versions, with of course no conclusive clarity on the situation.

In the same vein, model/actor Saheefa Jabbar Khattak also recently highlighted a display of inconsideration towards models through an incident that happened to her. A couple of days before that, Zara Shahjahan spoke to Instep about the lack of protection for intellectual property and how it’s affected her business. It appears that the issues are consistent across the board with freelancers, employed workers and business owners. Not that these issues didn’t arise before, but as the industry continually grows and social media’s all-encompassing platform is available to us, we hear about them more often. This week Saheefa took to her Instagram and narrated an incident where she was locked in, on a specific date, for a shoot by a certain brand. When she was approached by another brand she declined the work as she had already committed her dates to the first brand. The former then cancelled the shoot and she was left with no work and a wasted opportunity.

“I won’t be taking names of the brands as of now since I believe this should act as a gentle reminder to them that models/actors have their bread and butter based on this and they realize that,” she wrote. While many people told her to always take an advance payment before committing dates to a client, it appears it’s easier said than done and that the problem is greater than that.

Independent entrepreneurs

People generally provide paid labor and services to an employer, without any specific agreement, as conversations take place over the phone. This puts them in a state of limbo, wherein they are under certain company-wide policies and expect that certain courtesies are extended to them yet they lack the sort of specific protections needed. From long working hours, late payments to payments in “exposure”, there are some major flaws in agreements made between big brands and independent workers, amongst which there are models.

Employees

The issues of confidentiality and non-competitiveness are not unique to the fashion industry but they are especially important to consider, given the competitiveness and rapid pace of change that defines the sector. It is important that both parties determine and understand what must be kept secret (certain designs, ideas) and to what extent and scope of time. It must also be understood what restrictions an individual will face if they consider doing similar work, or working in a competing company once they are no longer employed by their current employer.

Therefore, contracts are integral to the success and smooth functioning of every industry and fashion is no exception. Since the onus of protecting interests falls on the party that is likely to get most affected if the deal goes sour, they should make sure a contract is in place. Whether they are working in fashion as employees or freelancers, they should always consider obtaining some sort of written agreement that will delineate clear terms, conditions, and protections.

How this will happen is the real question.