Joanna Coles speaks with models and activists Carré Otis and Stacey Williams as they rip the glamour off the fashion industry and expose a system they say functioned as a pipeline for exploitation, coercion, and trafficking—targeting teenage girls with promises of fame while trapping them in debt, silence, and fear. From midnight “fittings” and retaliatory blacklisting to alleged links with powerful figures like Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, the conversation traces how agencies, photographers, and insiders allegedly operated with impunity for decades. Otis details being trafficked and abused as a minor, while Williams recounts the career cost of refusing advances—and the industry-wide normalization that kept it all hidden in plain sight. Now, with legislative momentum, the Model Alliance pushing reforms, and lawmakers like Ro Khanna demanding oversight, the episode zeroes in on a single question: what happens when one of fashion’s most protected systems is finally forced into the light.
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