Sara Ziff | |
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| Born | New York City, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Columbia University, Harvard University |
| Occupation(s) | Model Executive Director, Model Alliance |
Sara Ziff is an American fashion model, filmmaker, and labor activist. She is the founder and executive director of the Model Alliance, a nonprofit organization in New York City.
Sara Ziff was born and raised in New York City. Ziff attended the Bronx High School of Science and the Dalton School. Ziff graduated with a B.A. in Political Sciences, magna cum laude from Columbia University, and she earned her M.P.A. at Harvard Kennedy School. [1] [2] [3]
Ziff has appeared as the face of advertising campaigns for companies including Tommy Hilfiger, Kenzo, Stella McCartney, and Kenneth Cole. She has walked in runway fashion shows for brands such as Prada, Chanel, Christian Dior, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries Van Noten, Balenciaga, Chloé and Alexander McQueen. [4]
With her co-director Ole Schell, Ziff chronicled her modeling journey in the award-winning documentary Picture Me. [5] [6] [7] The film gives an inside look into the modeling industry, showing the highs and lows of a seemingly glamorous business. After Picture Me, Ziff directed a three-part web mini-series [8] for the modeling blog of New York Magazine , "The Cut". [9] In 2014, Ziff released the preview of "Tangled Thread," a documentary about Bangladesh's garment industry and women organizing for better working conditions across the supply chain. [10]
She has contributed as an op-ed columnist for The New York Times , [11] Equal Times, [12] and The Guardian . [13]
Ziff is an advocate for better working conditions in the modeling industry, which she has described as "an overlooked frontier of women's rights and workers' rights." [14] [15] In 2012, she formed the Model Alliance, a non-profit organization that advocates for fair labor standards for models working in the American fashion industry. In 2013, under Ziff's leadership, the Model Alliance championed the Child Model Act in New York State, which reclassified models under 18 as child performers and extended them basic labor protections, including provisions for educational requirements, maximum working hours, and trust accounts. [16] New York Magazine declared her "the Norma Rae of the runway" and the AFL–CIO called her "America's next top role model." [17] [18]
In 2012, Ziff became involved with Save the Children, a non-governmental organization that promotes children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries. At the United Nations, Ziff introduced the organization's global flagship report, "A Life Free From Hunger – Tackling Childhood Malnutrition." [19]
In 2012, Ziff began campaigning for better working conditions for garment workers in Bangladesh. In September 2013, she joined other fashion models and labor rights activists at New York Fashion Week to encourage Nautica to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. [20]
In April 2023, Ziff sued Weinstein, Miramax, Disney and others alleging that she was raped by Fabrizio Lombardo who tricked her while she was working as a model for his company in 2001. [21]
In 2012, Ziff was honored by the blog Jezebel as one of "The Jezebel 25," a group of "game-changing women" who embody the site's feminist ideals. [22]
In 2013, Ziff was awarded the Susan B. Anthony award by the National Organization for Women for her dedication to improving the lives of young women and girls in New York City. [23]
In 2014, Ziff was awarded the 1st Inspiration and Visionary award by the Women & Fashion Film Festival for her leadership and work empowering women and girls in the fashion industry. [24]
A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor or illegal working conditions. The manual workers are poorly paid, work long hours, and experience poor working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, or uncomfortably/dangerously high or low temperatures. The work may be difficult, tiresome, dangerous, climatically challenging, or underpaid. Workers in sweatshops may work long hours with unfair wages, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labor laws may also be violated. Women make up 85 to 90% of sweatshop workers and may be forced by employers to take birth control and routine pregnancy tests to avoid supporting maternity leave or providing health benefits. The Fair Labor Association's "2006 Annual Public Report" inspected factories for FLA compliance in 18 countries including Bangladesh, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Malaysia, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, China, India, Vietnam, Honduras, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and the US. The U.S. Department of Labor's "2015 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor" found that "18 countries did not meet the International Labour Organization's recommendation for an adequate number of inspectors."
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB, also known as H&M Group, is a multinational clothing company based in Sweden that focuses on fast-fashion clothing. As of 23 June 2022, H&M Group operated in 75 geographical markets with 4,801 stores under the various company brands, with 107,375 full-time equivalent positions.
Eva Herzigová is a Czech model and actress. Her career took a major turn in 1994 when she became the face of the Wonderbra campaign. The famous "Hello Boys" ad became iconic and contributed to her worldwide popularity. Her height and elegant appearance made her a sought-after model for fashion shows and campaigns of various renowned brands. Throughout her career, Herzigová has worked with leading designers and fashion houses including Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Versace, Louis Vuitton and many others and has appeared on the covers of many prestigious fashion magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Glamour and many others. She became one of the prominent figures of the 1990s modelling and was one of the so-called supermodels along with other famous names such as Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington.
Fashion law deals with legal issues that impact the fashion industry. Fundamental issues in fashion law include intellectual property, business, and finance, with subcategories ranging from employment and labor law to real estate, international trade, and government regulation. Fashion law also includes related areas such as textile production, modelling, media, the cosmetics and perfume industries, questions of safety and sustainability, dress codes and religious apparel, consumer culture, privacy and wearable tech, and civil rights. Clothing laws varies by country.
The Garment District, also known as the Garment Center, the Fashion District, or the Fashion Center, is a neighborhood located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Historically known for its role in the production and manufacturing of clothing, the neighborhood derives its name from its dense concentration of fashion-related uses. The neighborhood, less than 1 square mile, is generally considered to lie between Fifth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, from 34th to 42nd Streets.
The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) is a nonprofit advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., U.S., that describes itself as "an advocate for and with the working poor around the world." ILRF, formerly the "International Labor Rights Education & Research Fund", was founded in 1986, and the organization's mission statement reads: "ILRF believes that all workers have the right to a safe working environment where they are treated with dignity and respect, and where they can organize freely to defend and promote their rights and interests. ILRF works to develop practical and effective tools to assist workers in winning enforcement of protections for their basic rights, and hold labor rights violators accountable."
Fast fashion is the business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail quickly while demand is at its highest. The term fast fashion is also used generically to describe the products of this business model, particularly clothing and footwear. Retailers who employ the fast fashion strategy include Primark, H&M, Shein, and Zara, all of which have become large multinationals by driving high turnover of inexpensive seasonal and trendy clothing that appeals to fashion-conscious consumers.
Mikhaila "Coco" Rocha is a Canadian model. She is known as one of the first "digital" supermodels, and is known for her advocacy for younger models. As an author, she collaborated on the 2014 book Study of Pose. Rocha is also the founder of the Coco Rocha Model Camp and co-owner of the Nomad Management Modeling Agency.
The textile and clothing industries provide a single source of growth in Bangladesh's rapidly developing economy. Exports of textiles and garments are the principal source of foreign exchange earnings. By 2002 exports of textiles, clothing, and ready-made garments (RMG) accounted for 77% of Bangladesh's total merchandise exports. Emerging as the world's second-largest exporter of ready-made garment (RMG) products, Bangladesh significantly bolstered employment within the manufacturing sector.
Jezebel is a US-based website featuring news and cultural commentary geared towards women. It was launched in 2007 by Gawker Media under the editorship of Anna Holmes as a feminist counterpoint to traditional women's magazines.
Amy Lemons is an American fashion model and model advocate. She rose to fame quickly by landing the cover of Italian Vogue at age 14. Her ascent in the modeling industry included shooting the covers of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle and Marie Claire. She also landed campaigns for Abercrombie and Fitch, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, and Louis Vuitton. After a brief hiatus to earn her college degree from UCLA, Amy came back to the modeling industry and began speaking out about the industry's "zero-sized standard" and healthy self-esteem for young women.
Victoria Keon-Cohen is an Australian fashion model and activist.
Susan Scafidi is an American lawyer, legal scholar, advocate, nonprofit executive, and commentator. The first professor to offer a formal course on fashion law at a U.S. law school, she is the founder and president of the Fashion Law Institute, a nonprofit organization located at the Fordham University School of Law in New York City.
The Rana Plaza collapse was a structural failure that occurred on 24 April 2013 in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka District, Bangladesh, where an eight-storey commercial building called Rana Plaza collapsed. The search for the dead ended on 13 May 2013 with a death toll of 1,134. Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued from the building. It is considered the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern human history, as well as the deadliest garment-factory disaster in history and the deadliest industrial accident in the history of Bangladesh.
The Model Alliance is a New York-based advocacy group focused on research and policy for models and others employed in the fashion industry. Founded in February 2012 by model Sara Ziff along with support from others models, the Model Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Clothing industry or garment industry summarizes the types of trade and industry along the production and value chain of clothing and garments, starting with the textile industry, embellishment using embroidery, via the fashion industry to apparel retailers up to trade with second-hand clothes and textile recycling. The producing sectors build upon a wealth of clothing technology some of which, like the loom, the cotton gin, and the sewing machine heralded industrialization not only of the previous textile manufacturing practices. Clothing industries are also known as allied industries, fashion industries, garment industries, or soft goods industries.
The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, also known as "the Alliance" or AFBWS, is a group of 28 major global retailers formed to develop and launch the Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative, a binding, five-year undertaking with the intent of improving safety in Bangladeshi ready-made garment (RMG) factories after the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse. Collectively, Alliance members represent the majority of North American imports of ready-made garments from Bangladesh, produced in more than 700 factories.
Established in 2010 with the support of Diane von Furstenberg and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the Fashion Law Institute is the world's first academic center dedicated to legal and business issues pertaining to the fashion industry. The Fashion Law Institute's founder and academic director is Professor Susan Scafidi, who teaches at Fordham Law School. The Fashion Law Institute is a nonprofit organization recognized as a tax-exempt educational organization under the Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Bethann Hardison is an American fashion model and activist. Hardison became one of the first high-profile black models after her appearance at the 1973 Battle of Versailles fashion show. She is also known for her activism on diversity in the fashion industry. Hardison has received several accolades for her work, including the 2014 CFDA Founders Award. Hardison is the mother of actor Kadeem Hardison.
Kalpona Akter is a labour activist from Bangladesh. She is the founder and executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity and was awarded Human Rights Watch's Alison Des Forges award for Extraordinary Activism in 2016.
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