The fashion models mocked me, not knowing I was the one hiring them.
The Code of Conduct Revolution
After she left, I pulled out my phone and texted Selene Fontana, our head of PR, that we needed an emergency meeting tonight. I attached the photo I’d taken of my stained dress, the green juice still visible against the fabric.
We needed to control this narrative before Anna, Christa, and Louise tried to spin it their way. Within seconds, Selene texted back that she’d clear her schedule and meet me at the office.
I grabbed my ruined dress and headed to our offices 12 blocks away. Not bothering to change because I wanted my team to see exactly what had happened.
The Eden Laurent offices took up the entire 15th floor of a building overlooking Central Park, all glass and white marble and modern art. I walked past the reception area and straight to the main conference room where I sent out a group text for an immediate meeting.
My sister Gabriella arrived first, her eyes going straight to the giant green stain on my dress. Behind her came Seline, then our creative director, our head of casting, and three other senior team members.
Once everyone was seated, I pulled out my phone and connected it to the conference room screen. “Before I explain what happened today, I need you all to see something,” I said, finding the video Anna had taken of me walking.
I’d made her airdrop it to me before she left, telling her I needed it for my records. The video started playing on the giant screen.
Anna’s cruel narration filling the room as she compared my walk to a baby giraffe learning to use its legs. My team sat in stunned silence watching the whole thing.
Their faces getting more shocked with each passing second. When it ended, Gabriella was gripping the edge of the table so hard her knuckles were white. Seline was already typing notes about damage control while our creative director kept rewinding the video to watch specific moments of cruelty again.
I pulled up my phone to check Instagram and saw three DMs from models at the casting asking if something bad had happened because Anna, Christa, and Louise had left looking destroyed. Within an hour, Selene showed me her monitoring dashboard where fashion Twitter was starting to buzz with vague posts about drama at the Eden Lauron casting.
She’d already drafted three different response strategies depending on how the story broke, each one focused on our commitment to professional standards without naming anyone.
The next morning, their agency booker called my assistant four times before I finally picked up, and he immediately launched into how Anna, Christa, and Louise were three of his top earners who’d booked major campaigns for Versace and Prada. I stayed quiet while he listed every brand they’d worked for, every magazine cover they’d shot, every designer who loved them.
He mentioned his other models, too, the ones we’d definitely want for future campaigns, suggesting it would be unfortunate if our relationship with his entire agency suffered over one misunderstanding.
I told him there was no misunderstanding, and we had video evidence of assault when Christa deliberately spilled juice on me, plus witness statements from the PA, the stylist, and two other models who saw everything.
His tone shifted immediately to damage control mode, promising the girls wanted to apologize properly and make things right. That afternoon, Christa’s apology email arrived.
It was three paragraphs about how her anxiety made her act out and the juice spill was completely accidental because she’d been gesturing with her hands. I pulled up the security footage on my computer showing her deliberately tilting her cup while looking directly at me, then saved both files in the same folder for comparison.
Anna’s letter came next, calling her behavior competitive energy that got out of hand, never once acknowledging she’d physically pinched me hard enough to leave marks. Louise wrote the shortest apology, two sentences about being caught up in the moment and hoping we could move forward professionally.
I printed all three letters and laid them next to the witness statements from the PA who described them circling me like predators, the stylist who heard them making up lies about Cara, and another model who saw Christa step on my heels on purpose. The inconsistencies were obvious with none of them taking real responsibility for the physical assault or the deliberate cruelty.
Three days later, the agency booker showed up at our office without an appointment, wearing a designer suit and carrying a portfolio of his biggest names. He spread photos across my desk of supermodels we definitely want to work with, reminding me that his agency controlled access to some of the most famous faces in fashion.
I pushed the photos back toward him and explained that Eden Lauron’s standards weren’t negotiable regardless of who he represented. He leaned forward, saying he’d hate for word to get out, that we were difficult to work with, that we created drama where none existed.
Amelia, who’d been sitting quietly in the corner taking notes, stood up and reminded him that defamation has serious legal consequences, and we had extensive documentation, including video evidence of assault. She pulled out printed screenshots of the model’s own social media posts from that day, proving they were at the casting when they later claimed to barely remember being there.
The Booker’s face got red as he realized we’d been thoroughly preparing our case, and he switched tactics to negotiating terms. I laid out our position clearly that Anna, Christa, and Louise were banned from this campaign and any Eden Lauron work for the next year, but they could reapply after completing professional development training and providing references from other jobs showing changed behavior.
He tried arguing that a year was excessive for what he called youthful mistakes. But I pointed out that physically assaulting someone and lying about it afterward weren’t mistakes, but choices.
Meanwhile, Selene had been tracking online chatter and showed me a fashion blog post titled, “Drama at Eden Lauron. Casting has models talking with no real details, but lots of speculation in the comments.”
She’d prepared a statement about our commitment to maintaining professional standards and creating safe working environments for everyone, carefully worded to address the situation without naming individuals.
We posted it on our official channels and within hours, the response was overwhelmingly positive with models sharing their own stories about toxic casting experiences. Industry professionals started commenting that it was about time brands took stands against bullying behavior and several smaller agencies reached out saying they appreciated our position.
I called an all hands meeting for our entire team that afternoon. Gathering everyone from junior designers to senior management in the main conference room.
Without naming the three models, I explained what had happened and why it mattered that our brand represent beauty inside and out, not just perfect cheekbones and designer connections. The team unanimously agreed that talent without kindness wasn’t worth featuring.
Our junior designer suggested we make respect and professionalism part of our official model selection criteria going forward. That night, I sat at my desk drafting a personal statement about what happened, typing out every detail about how Anna, Christa, and Louise treated me during the casting.
My fingers flew across the keyboard as I described the pinching, the pushing, the juice spill, wanting everyone to know exactly what these models were really like behind their perfect Instagram feeds. I sent the draft to Amelia, who called me back within minutes, saying we needed to meet immediately about potential legal issues.
She arrived at my apartment with her laptop and a stack of legal precedents, spreading papers across my dining table while explaining that naming the models directly could open us up to defamation lawsuits. Even though everything I wrote was true, we spent three hours revising the statement, removing their names and shifting the focus from calling out individuals to promoting positive change in the industry.
Amelia rewrote problematic sections while I paced around my living room, frustrated that we couldn’t just tell the truth plainly, but understanding the legal realities. The final version talked about witnessing unprofessional behavior and using it as motivation to create better standards without mentioning anyone specifically.
The next morning, our team gathered in the conference room where I presented the model code of conduct we’d been working on all night. The document outlined specific expectations about treating everyone with respect, zero tolerance for bullying, and consequences for violations, including immediate dismissal from castings.
We printed copies on heavy card stock, and Gabriella suggested laminating them to post at every entrance to our casting spaces. The facilities team installed holders by each door that afternoon while I watched them mount the signs at eye level where no one could miss them.
We added a signature requirement to our casting registration, making models acknowledge they’d read and understood the code before they could even enter the room. Our legal team created a simple one-page form that models would sign along with their standard casting paperwork.
The callback process needed restructuring, too. So, we designed a five-minute orientation that would happen before any model stepped in front of our panel.
Our casting coordinator prepared a brief presentation about our values and expectations, practicing it until she could deliver it naturally without sounding preachy. We scheduled these orientations in small groups so models would hear the message together, creating pure accountability from the start.
Gabriella pulled me aside with an idea that would completely change how we evaluate talent. She proposed blind first rounds where we’d watch models walk and pose without seeing their social media numbers, agency rankings, or any of the metrics that usually influence decisions.
We’d focus purely on their presence, movement, and how they carried our clothes without knowing if they had 10,000 or 10 million followers. The tech team worked overnight to create a system that would assign numbers instead of names for the first round, keeping all identifying information hidden until after initial selections.
We’d only learn who they were after deciding based solely on talent and how they treated our staff during check-in. I loved this approach because it removed all the bias about who was supposedly important in the industry.
We decided to test the new system with a smaller casting for our resort collection. The following week, only 20 models showed up, but the atmosphere was completely different from any casting I’d ever attended.
During the orientation, models actually asked questions about our values and seemed genuinely interested in being part of something positive. In the waiting area, I watched through security cameras as models helped each other with poses instead of treating each other like competition.
One girl’s zipper broke, and three others immediately offered safety pins and helped her fix it. Another model shared her powder compact when someone realized she’d forgotten hers.
The blind selection process worked perfectly with our team choosing models based purely on how they moved and presented our clothes. When we revealed the names afterward, we’d picked several newer models over established ones with bigger followings, proving that talent mattered more than Instagram fame.
My phone rang that evening with a call from a model who was withdrawing her application for our main campaign callbacks. She explained that she’d heard about drama at our casting and didn’t want to get involved in anything messy.
I asked her to give me five minutes to explain what really happened and our new approach. I told her about our code of conduct, the blind first rounds and our commitment to creating a different kind of environment without mentioning the specific incident with Anna, Christa, and Louise.
She listened quietly, then said she’d never heard of a brand taking these issues seriously before. By the end of our conversation, she was not only back in, but excited about being part of something that could change the industry.
The next day, our senior designer burst into my office with mood boards under his arm and a huge smile on his face. He spread the boards across my desk, showing a completely re-imagined creative direction that celebrated authenticity and kindness instead of the cold, distant luxury we’d originally planned.
The new concept featured behind-the-scenes moments of models supporting each other, laughing together, helping with outfit changes and being real people instead of untouchable figures. We’d show the beauty of collaboration and friendship in fashion, making our brand about more than just expensive clothes.
The team gathered around the boards, pointing at different shots and getting excited about this fresh approach that felt more genuine to who we were as a company. We spent the afternoon updating the campaign concept, adding shots of models doing each other’s makeup, sharing accessories, and even eating lunch together between shots.
Our photographer loved the idea, saying it would create more natural, engaging images than the typical serious fashion poses. We drafted a formal notice to send to all agencies about our new code process and the consequences for violations.
Amelia reviewed every word to make sure we were legally protected while being clear about our expectations. The notice explained that any model who violated our standards would be dismissed immediately and their agency would be notified of the reason.
We also included information about the blind first rounds and our focus on character alongside talent. Most agencies responded within hours saying it was about time someone took a stand against toxic behavior in the industry.
Several smaller agencies thanked us personally for creating safer spaces for their models. The night before call backs, our entire team stayed late doing a final runthrough of the new process.
We practiced the orientation speech, tested the blind selection system, and assigned staff members as witnesses to monitor all interactions and waiting areas and hallways. Everyone knew their role from the security guards who would watch for any bullying to the assistants who would document any incidents.
I walked through the facility, checking that our code of conduct signs were visible everywhere and that we had cameras covering all common areas. We were ready to show the fashion world that success didn’t require cruelty and that kindness could be just as powerful as killer cheekbones.
