Model Fired From A&F Shoot For Eating A Croissant

by Justin Fenner | 10:04 am, October 4th, 2010

We’ve known for a while that modeling is far from glamorous, but conditions on the set of a shoot for an upcoming Abercrombie and Fitch catalog were downright awful.

Page Six reports that a group of male and female models who got shot by Bruce Weber for the clothing company’s racy quarterly were holed up at the Panoramic Hotel in Montauk, NY for a full week. They worked 13-hour days. When the 30 models weren’t posing half-naked in a field of clover, they were busy having their drinking, eating and workout habits watched by eagle-eyed reps from the supervising ad agency, Shahid and Co. A Belgian model named Florian Van Bael was reportedly dismissed from the set after eating a croissant.

Van Bael’s agent told the post she didn’t think he was kicked out because of the croissant.

“I don’t think it’s a question about coffee or croissant, it’s just a question of respect during an important job.”

And that would be understandable — if the models were getting the same kind of respect in return. And for an “important” job, the pay was pretty unimpressive. For a week’s worth of work, the girls took home $2,500 and the boys only got $1,500. Even though there’s no standard compensation in the modeling industry, it’s a lot lower than what one might expect for such a well-known shoot. The models also got a $13-a-day food stipend. Sounds to us like Van Bael was just trying to get his money’s worth — and for that, we can’t blame him.

[Via Page Six]