How to Represent Actress on Fashion Show

Calvin Klein Collection - Front Row - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2014

Photo: Getty

Nigh women would kill for a front-row seat at a major fashion prove, but celebrities aren't just given that privilege—they're oftentimes getting paid for information technology. Information technology's ane of those backdoor practices in fashion that brands notoriously shy away from talking nigh, only the fact remains that attending a fifteen-infinitesimal rails evidence tin mean up to a 6-figure payday for the right star.

With Fashion Calendar week kick off this week in New York City, just how much will stars in the forepart row be raking in? The Sun reported last year that Rihanna was paid around $100,000 to attend Karl Lagerfeld'southward fall 2012 testify in Paris. So there'due south the often-cited rumor that Jessica Chastain was paid $800,000 to do photograph ops at an Armani Privé show (though insiders speculate it was more like $80,000).

Fashionista.com published a fee listing in 2010, with experts weighing in thatBeyoncé can receive upward to $100,000 for a front-row perch, while a lower-level star like Leighton Meester would make somewhere around $xl,000. Not all compensation is cold difficult cash, though.Lily Allen famously admitted in 2007 that in substitution for attention a Saint Laurent show she was immune to help herself to whatever she wanted in the brand'south flagship shop—a dream scenario for most women. Naturally, a star'southward value is constantly evolving—someone like Lindsay Lohan, for example, in one case commanded five-figures for a front-row appearance now isn't even wanted for costless.

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Lori Levine, the Founder and CEO of celebrity wrangling firm Flight Television—a pioneer when information technology comes to bringing corporate America and celebrities together—says that the common practise of paying stars to attend shows can ultimately be simply as valuable to a fashion house, if not more so, than a flattering review in Women's Wear Daily.

"The correct celebrity at a testify can exist huge for a make," Levine said. "Way week has become so expensive, between putting together a bear witness on location, producing samples—producing these shows tin can price anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000. If you lot are going to spend that much money, a lot of times those budgets include funds to make sure celebrities attend." Celebrities, in return, all simply assure wall-to-wall press mentions for the brand in magazines, tabloids, and blogs, also as generate much-needed social media fizz.

As for the labels most willing to shell out, Levine says information technology is oftentimes big-budget brands in need of a fashion edge. "The brands with a lot of money backside them, the big denim brands that aren't necessarily big with fashionistas, brands that are new to the track…You lot have to think about who you want buying your clothes and await at social media numbers," said Levine.

And while A-listers like Rihanna and Chastain have made news for their rumored front-row fees, other celebrities already nether contract for a brand (like Jennifer Lawrence for Christian Dior), probably already have it in their contracts that they have to attend a designer'due south show. "If you lot are going to be in our campaign, you are going to sit front row at our show, wear our clothes on the red rug, and go to our parties," Levine shared of common terms in mode and beauty campaign contracts.

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Even so, most of the fourth dimension, it's the B-listing stars with big social followings, who are the ones who actually greenbacks in considering they'll make the rounds to several shows throughout the calendar week, every bit opposed to existence sectional to one make. Still, there's an even lower rung of celebrity who will go to shows for free, in the hopes of proving that they're worthy of being paid down the line. "A handful girls [each flavor] are going to try shows for gratuitous, either with the hope that they are invited back to be paid, or just to make that button into manner," Levine said. "Even they, though, are having something covered similar car services, hair and makeup, if actual cash isn't existence exchanged."

However, Levine points out at that place are plenty of large-proper noun designers who aren't paying anyone, and just sending out invites. "Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel prove—anybody wants to exist at that place, everyone wants sits front row. Marc Jacobs isn't paying anyone. And celebrities love Zac Posen…he's having a banner year."

And so at that place are the designers who are against the do simply on principle. London-based designerNicole Farhi commented on the trend in The Telegraph saying: "It is so unprofessional. I have never paid a celebrity and I will never do it. It's stupid."

If you start to feel jaded and assume that every celebrity who shows up to Fashion Week is being paid to be there, residue bodacious that enough of stars all the same come to support their fashion friends, particularly in the case of major motion picture stars, who don't demand to be paid to go to a way prove. "When Demi Moore [shows upward], she isn't get paid, she's coming because she is friends with a designer and wants to testify her support," Levine said.