Scouting for Girls: Fashion's Darkest Secret

Factual America - A podcast by Soho Podcasts

Three-part docuseries Scouting for Girls: Fashion's Darkest Secret reveals how a group of men behind the world's most successful modelling agencies were involved in a darker side of the industry. It exposes how modelling agents like John Casablancas, Jean-Luc Brunel, Claude Haddad and Gérald Marie, who denies the allegations, created a culture that enabled many of them to indulge in a spectrum of abusive behaviours, ranging from grooming and coercion to the rape of models as young as 15. The film hears from a generation of forgotten women who were promised stardom and glamour, but instead found themselves used, abused and in some cases, trafficked between networks of powerful men. Building on an ongoing investigation by Lucy Osborne for The Guardian, the series delivers the fashion industry its own 'me too' reckoning, and follows the survivors, including Carré Ottis, as they come together to take action against those responsible. Watch the episode at https://www.factualamerica.com/scouting-for-girls Clare Richards, series director, Lucy Osborne, senior producer, and Carré Ottis, model, author, wellness consultant, activist and contributor to the film, join us to discuss Scouting for Girls that airs on Sky Documentaries on June 24th. “Models are seen as beautiful people that get paid a ton of money, and that creates a discrimination against us that we shouldn’t have the same rights and protections as workers in other industries.” - Carré Ottis