Plus-size models condemn photographer for charging extra hundred dollars to photograph them

TikTok showed photographer charging $950 to photograph ‘standard’ models, but $1,050 to shoot curve models

(TikTok / Megan Mesveskas, Sixtine Rouyre)

New York City photographer William Lords was accused of fatphobia last week after he charged $100 more than his usual pricing to photograph plus-size models. The difference in pricing stirred outrage on social media, from people both in and outside the fashion industry, with some plus-size models suggesting the pricing policy is discrimination. However, according to Lords, he is not the one to blame.

Megan Mesveskas was thrown into the deep end when she began modeling at 13 years old. Throughout her eight years as a model, she recalled to The Independent how she saw first-hand how non-traditional models — what she determines as anyone not size 0-2 — are disposed of in the industry. Out of her own frustration, she founded the agency Model Nexus as a way to nurture and uplift young models who had a similar body to hers.

“My loyalty is always to my models, not to a fashion brand or a photographer,” Mesveskas told us. “Those come and go, but hopefully my models will feel comfortable and cared for enough to stay with me for years as we ride out the hills and valleys of this industry together.”

On 18 March, Mesveskas went through her process of booking a photographer to test photoshoot her clients the same way she always does. According to her, test photography is necessary in the business of modelling. Portfolios not only represent the work a model has done in the past, but the kind of work they want to do in the future.

“There are plenty of photographers who will shoot models for free, but usually you get what you pay for,” she said. “Part of my responsibility for my models is figuring out who are the good test photographers to work with.” That includes feeling safe, comfortable, and being treated fairly financially, she said.

Mesveskas reached out to the studio of a well-known photographer, William Lords, to ask about his rates and availability to photograph some of her clients. When she received an email back from Lords’ studio manager detailing his pricing policy, she was quick to notice the separate rates: the price to shoot a “standard” model was $950, but the price for photographing a “plus-sized/curve” model was $1050.

“My mouth hit the floor when I saw the email,” Mesveskas said. “I have never in my life seen a photographer blatantly charge more for models he deemed curve or plus.”

She likened the discrepancy to a photographer charging more for a model with severe acne or skin issues, because it would require more hours to edit in Photoshop. “It seemed brazen,” she said, “Especially when you’re emailing the owner of an agency that is advocating for models of all sizes.”

Mesveskas took to TikTok that Friday to detail to her followers the email correspondence she had with Lords’ studio. “Yep, you’re reading that right,” Mesveskas said in the video, alongside a screenshot of the two separate prices. “A curve or a plus-sized model is going to cost an extra hundred dollars.” The video received a little more than 1,700 likes on her account. But it didn’t take long for one of her clients to step in.

Sixtine Rouyre is a curve model signed to Model Nexus with more than 600,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok. Since she began modeling in 2016, Rouyre has dedicated her online platform to speaking out about issues in the fashion industry. After viewing Mesveskas’ TikTok video, Rouyre responded with her own message to the photographer. “This is just one more example of how awful the modeling industry is to literally anyone over a size zero,” Rouyre said in her video, which has been viewed more than 100,000 times.

The fashion industry has slowly made strides toward body diversity. Popular brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret now feature size-inclusive clothing throughout their site. Of course, companies that have a history of size discrimination, or are known for promoting “toxic” diet cultures, oftentimes aren’t adding more sizes to their collections out of benevolence, but rather due to a financial need for rebranding.

In fashion terms, the category of “plus-size” is used to refer to models who are above a size eight, though this definition is heavily disputed, with body positivity campaigners pointing out that most plus-size clothing doesn’t start until a size 16. “Plus-size” has somewhat become a catch-all term used by the fashion industry as a way to explain to the public why they’re suddenly seeing a bigger body represented in fashion, according to Mesveskas. And they should be represented, considering nearly 70 per cent of American women are a size 14 or larger.

“If people hadn’t started to speak out about the modeling industry years ago, I probably wouldn’t be able to model today,” Rouyre said. “We’re too fat, too short, not the right sample size, whatever you want to say. I am here because someone else said, ‘Hey, this needs to change.’ The least I can do is try to continue demanding that for future models.”

Rouyre’s video quickly made waves on social media, even grabbing the attention of Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha. While thousands of people have viewed the videos calling out the photographer for his separate pricing, the one person who has yet to see it is Lords (he doesn’t have TikTok).

For more than 10 years, Lords has built his career photographing for high-end labels, most recently for Hervé Léger, Vogue Arabia, and Flaunt Magazine. Lords relocated from London to New York City, where he said he jumped through hoops to make it as a Black photographer in the fashion industry.

“I’m a man of colour. To say something about fatphobia is not something I grew up on saying,” he told us. “I think it’s just quite rude to say that to somebody, and I think these models, or these people, are pointing the things they feel about themselves onto me, when that’s not the way I feel.”

Lords maintained that he has never met Rouyre or her agent, and that there was no follow-up to the email correspondence asking questions about the different prices. “I think if they would ask questions about it, listen: ‘If you just explain to us why you’re charging this,’ I could give a very good explanation for it,” he said.

The explanation was that, since he doubles as both the photographer and the stylist for test photoshoots, Lords is paying for the models’ high-end clothing out of his own pocket.

“When I started shooting curve models, I found it was so difficult to get clothes because not one curve model is shaped the same,” he explained. “To get so much hate for $100 when I spent thousands of dollars on these girls to make sure they’re part of the high-end industry is so wrong.”

At the time of speaking with Lords, his pricing for test photoshoots remained unchanged, because it would result in an entire overhaul of their creative process; models would need to bring in their own clothes and pay for their own stylists. For Rouyre, that’s not an issue.

“Of course plus-size women know how difficult it is [to find clothes], they have to live it,” she said.

Lords disclosed that he was considering taking legal action against Mesveskas and Rouyre, calling the social media videos a “smear campaign”.

“This is not a case of me being bad to the models,” the photographer said. “This is a case of me charging a hundred dollars because I put more effort into something. That’s all I’m charging for. I’m not the bad guy they’re making me out to be.”

Whatever the case may be, the videos have prompted a discussion on the place - or lack of place - that non-traditional models hold in the fashion industry. Even though Rouyre’s video calling out Lords’ separate pricing has received considerable backlash from the photographer himself, she still hopes that conversations like these can steer the modelling industry in the right direction. “I want models to know that they don’t have to put up with this kind of discrimination,” she said. “The more we demand the same respect that is given to straight models, the less space will be left for people who refuse to give it to us.”