Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women - Tapa dura

This work is an expose of the international modelling industry. The images of Christy, Naomi, Cindy and Linda are everywhere we turn. They are on magazine covers, and in advertisements, they host television shows, endorse products, write novels, marry rock stars, act in films, and open restaurants. They dominate the gossip columns and tabloid front pages. The international obsession with the supermodels is fuelled by more than an accident of great looks. Behind these few women is a vast army of photographers, designers, stylists, agents, publicists, fashion editors and advertisers. This book tells the story of the modelling business and its more evil twin - legalized flesh peddling. It's a tale of vast sums of money, rape, sex and drugs, obsession and tragic death. At its heart is the combination of beautiful young women and rich, predatory men. Fashion insider, Michael Gross has interviewed modelling's pioners, survivors, and hangers-on, and he tells the stories of Lisa Fonssagrives, Anita Colby, Candy Jones, Dorian Leigh and her sister Suzy Parker, Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, Veruschka and Lauren Hutton; and today's supermodels Christy, Naomi and Linda. Around them is woven the story of the modelling industry and of senior figures such as John Robert Powers and Eileen Ford, and John Casablancas of Elite models.