Wall Street Journal has a story on market for models. I do not have WSJ subscription so I my post is based on Ben Muse blog post.

“The global economy is transforming the modeling world. Supply has soared, as aspirants from developing countries stampede into the field. At last season’s New York’s fashion week, the quintessentially American design house of Calvin Klein didn’t send a single American down its catwalk. Twelve of the 22 chosen were from Russia and Eastern Europe.

“There’s so many models now. It used to be the Americans, Europeans and Canadians. Then we got the influx of Brazilians, Russians, Eastern Europeans,” says American designer Nicole Miller. “There are just thousands every year.”…

Part of the change in the economics of modeling is attributable to the Internet, which allows talent scouts to comb through tens of thousands of new faces, looking for somebody an agency will sign. One such site, Models.com, gets 15,000 subscriptions per month from people in places like Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Mozambique.”

Richard Freeman great doubling of the labor force is affecting many markets, also market for models. It also leads to greater wealth inequality, also among models (with bigger part of pie going to global celebrities).