Zebedee: The Inclusive Talent Agency taking the fashion sector by storm
Image credit: Emily Bloomer. Models are (from left to right) Renee, Caitlin, Danielea, Kristal, Natalie, Sian, Lindy, Lauren. 'Stunning editorial image of 8 beautiful women of various ages, ethnicities and sizes, with a variety of disabilities and differences, wearing swimwear. Taken in a studio with orange backdrop'
Zebedee is an inclusive talent agency, championing disabled, visibly different, non-binary, and trans UK models. Global names already signed by Zebedee include Ellie Goldstein, who recently made the cover of British Vogue and Jasroop Kaur Singh who appeared in the Australia Vogue ‘Vogue Vanguard’ issue.
Zebedee was established by co-founders Laura and Zoe in 2017 as a direct response to the lack of representation and inclusivity in the media. Now Channel 4 has created an insightful documentary series with the working title, ‘New Model Agency’ which follows Zebedee HQ and many of their diverse and dynamic cast of models. The documentary will air in February 2024 around London Fashion Week – so watch this space!
Meg Pirie speaks with co-founder Laura Winson who also sits on our Representation and Inclusion Committee. They talk about the progress Laura feels has been made in the fashion sector; what still needs to happen; and the spending power of disabled people – which is thought to be around £280 billion pounds every year in the UK alone and £1.3 trillion worldwide; and the fact that if brands don’t get on board, they’ll soon be left behind.
Let’s go back to the beginning, how did Zebedee Talent agency come about?
We launched Zebedee in 2017. It was myself and my sister-in-law Zoe – we were having a walk on the beach, just having a chat about the lack of representation and fashion and media. Specifically relating to disability, how it is very rare to see anybody with a disability anywhere in advertising or the wider media and it was a lightbulb moment. We just made the decision that we were going to launch an agency to represent people with disabilities and to advocate for their inclusion in the media and we just got on with it. Neither of us had ever worked in an agency before, we didn't have the little black book of contacts and we’ve had to do everything from scratch. Six years on, things are going really well and we now represent people with disabilities, visible differences and the trans and non-binary community. We’ve seen a huge shift really, in what the industry looks like and the representation that now exists.
Your models are taking the fashion industry by storm, Ellie Goldstein made the cover of British Vogue earlier this year. Where do you think we’re at at the moment with inclusivity in the fashion sector?
In those early days in 2017 it was pretty much unheard of to see anyone with a disability featured. I think the stats back then were something like 0.006% of people featured in advertising had a disability. Now the stats look to be around 1%. So of course, that's a huge increase, but it still stands at 1%,when the population of disabled people in the country is thought to be around 20% or more. So there's a huge disconnect between the reality of society and what's represented in fashion and media. So, of course, there's a long long way to go and we know we're only getting a very small proportion of the briefs that are going out there. High fashion continues to be a very difficult area to crack – but then we have had such amazing things happening like Ellie and so many other disabled people featuring in Vogue. This year, we worked with so many different beauty brands, so many different fashion brands and a lot of high street, and of course lots and lots of TV advertising as well. So it's definitely improved, but we will continue to work very hard to get it to where we want it to be, which is having 20% of those featured in advertising having a disability.
I think that's amazing. My brother has Global Development Delay and is severely brain damaged and growing up I never saw him represented. So I think the work you're doing, just as a side note, is amazing.
Thank you for sharing that, because honestly everyone seems to have a personal story relating to disability, whether themselves, or a family member, or a close friend – it impacts everybody. And so this is why it's so frustrating that disability isn't represented or hasn't been represented for such a long time. At the same time fashion needs to be accessible for all, it's an art form that creates a platform that everybody should have access to. And that's why it's so important that it's representative because it impacts not only the people who have a disability, but also family members and carers and the wider society.
So, can you tell us more about the Channel 4 documentary which follows Zebedee HQ and airs in February 2024?
Since we first launched, we've always had a little bit of interest from documentary teams. This particular team from Salamanda media came in and did a taster tape, pitched it to Channel 4 who liked it and commissioned it. So filming is underway and we've been filming for the past three months or so. The main focus is going to be nine or ten of our models – watching what they do, watching the process of how they get booked, watching them on sets, and finding a little bit about them and their personal lives and how their disability or difference impacts them. It’s an inspiring documentary that gives everyone a little bit of a glimpse behind agency life and the models' lives.
We had Victoria Jenkins on the podcast a couple of weeks ago – founder of adaptive brand Unhidden and I asked her this question: What would you like to see for the fashion industry moving forward?
Our bread and butter really is representation and ensuring that advertising is representative. And actually, I read a study by Purple Pound and what disabled customers find most important is being represented. So what we would like to see is disabled people having access to be considered for all castings – you can't block a whole proportion of society out from your recruitment. The way that we work is we put our talent up for every single role that they fit the brief for, regardless of their disability or difference.
The other thing, which I think is quite important, which we've started doing, is looking at representation behind the camera. So really encouraging brands and organisations to book disabled creatives to have disabled people involved in the decision making process and involved in the creative process. I think that in hand will automatically lead to better representation as well. So that's what we would hope for. Like I said, I want to get to the point where 20% of advertising features disabled people, so that's what my ask would be. I think it's very hard for that to be put into policy and instead we are pushing people to think about the ethics behind it. But there is also the business case, the spending power of disabled people is thought to be around £280 billion pounds every year in the UK alone and £1.3 trillion worldwide. So brands need to be thinking about it and if they're not thinking about it now, then they will get left behind. My advice to them would be to consider disabled people for all of their briefs. They do an amazing job and they bring so much to a creative campaign, that there's just no reason why they shouldn't be inviting them to cast.
Is accessibility a factor in why they aren’t being invited to cast?
I think that brands may think it's very difficult to have a shoot be fully accessible, but it isn't difficult. We have a list of accessible studios, so we can share that – there's plenty of studio space in London that is accessible and all around the world even. Usually it is only very few little adaptations that need to be made to a shoot. We can share those in advance – we ask all of our talent to complete an access rider (a document that details access needs) so that we know all their individual needs, and we can share those with the casting team. I kind of want to get to the point where access needs are just seen as you would ask somebody what their dietary requirements are. Just that one little extra step that you need to take to make that shoot successful and so I'm hoping that as people are requesting dietary needs, they're also asking for pronouns and that access needs as well. If brands have accessibility issues or questions, you can get in touch as Zebedee offers training, advice, and it can be tailored for individual clients and individual models. So just get in touch and we'll make it as simple as possible.
“But there is also the business case, the spending power of disabled people is thought to be around £280 billion pounds every year in the UK alone and £1.3 trillion worldwide.”
Image Credit: Alyssa Mullings. Image features Zebedee co-founder Laura Winson. Laura sits at a green bistro table, outside and wears a hot pink jumper, grey trousers and gold shoes.