Tag Archives: Marc defang

9-6-22

Within 5-minutes of reaching out to Marc DeFang to inquire as to why he charges models to walk in his designs, he openly invited an interview.

He was extremely friendly and seemed to be empathetic to those women who do not fit the model industry standard as a model. He voiced that he provides an experience in which these women feel like their dreams have been made true being able to walk the runway, when they would never fit the criteria as a paid model.

He explained when he does his real shows, he does contact agencies to hire qualified models which are typically 5’9. However, he also recognizes that there are women out there with a dream of modeling who will never truly qualify as a model. He states that he wants to create an event to let them play out their dreams and enjoy a vacation in NYC.

Marc, expressed the costs involved with giving these women an experience is high. He stated it costs $95,000 to rent out the venue alone, which does not include other costs for production. He said he needs to charge what he does to cover the production costs and is anticipating 175 models this coming year.

He also explained that he gives women custom made outfits, bags, etc for participating. He also informed us that he sponsors a number of pageants and life groups where he does not charge them to walk the runway, some of these include models with disabilities and models overcoming cancer.

Following our conversation, Marc supplied me with various messages he has received from models and parents thanking him for making them feel like a real model for a moment in their life when clearly they could not actually be paid as a model. Marc states “It’s the excitement for them. It’s the experience”.

Marc states the following “

You are 100% correct! Why would a model wants to pay to work. But the only thing is that statement does not apply in my case, because they aren’t working, they are having one of the best time in their life, a happy memory that may stay with them forever.”

Models should not pay to walk, absolutely NO! The questions is, are my models ‘Models’?

As I work with many many national pageants, so many of the winners I sponsor to walk at my show are from different pageant systems. I allow the girls to wear their sashes and crowns during the finale walk, not only to promote their pageants, but most importantly, I believe Marc Defang’s runway is the only place where different sashes and crowns can stand together united.

Marc also expressed that women have been given opportunities after doing his show and stated this also gives them experience on a runway, which they have never been able to get.

Marc hopes to enlighten the public on his perspective and the why behind him charging models to walk in his designs.

9-6-22

Anyone who has worked in the industry knows being a model is considered a job. Like any job, a model is paid to walk a runway for a designer to help sell his product line or a model is photographed wearing a product or promoting a product to create revenue for a business.

Then why would any designer expect a model to pay him to wear his clothes to walk down the runway? Speaking with legitimate modeling agencies, it has been told that any model who would do this looks absolutely unprofessional in the industry and once someone knows they are so desperate to model that they are actually paying to work as a model, they will never be taken seriously in the industry.

But why would a designer think he should charge models to wear his clothes down the runway? We have reached out to Marc DeFang and are awaiting his response as to why he believes this is acceptable. Currently he is soliciting girls to pay anywhere from $950-$1500 to walk once or twice down the runway.

The bigger question is why a girl would allow herself to actually pay to work? What is she hoping will come of this?

Stay tuned as we await his response with a follow up articles