Elite created the supermodel — lawsuits and a dying era bankrupted it

John Casablancas founded Elite Model Management in 1971 and turned modelling from chaperoned propriety into celebrity — Brinkley first, then Evangelista, Crawford, Campbell, Schiffer, Bündchen, Klum. By the time he stepped back, the agency held 500 models across four continents booking $100M a year; Linda Evangelista's line about not waking up for less than $10,000 a day was Elite's business model speaking.

Then the era ended and the lawsuits arrived. Celebrities displaced supermodels in campaigns and on covers, and the rush of would-be models that Casablancas's own myth-making had summoned pushed rates down. A 1999 BBC documentary showing Elite Europe's president propositioning a young model scarred the name; in the US, a long-running class action alleged commission-fixing, and a former employee won a $4.3M judgment claiming office smoke had ruined her health.

In February 2004, Elite Model Management Corp of New York filed for Chapter 11, citing the mounting costs of its legal battles. 'We are fighting back. We are fed up with these outrageous lawsuits. Now we can get back to running our business,' said Monique Pillard, founder of Elite NY. Six months later the business sold to Florida developers Eddie and Jules Trump's Creative World for £4.4M — outbidding ID Models boss Paolo Zampolli and financier Jeffrey Epstein. The Swiss parent stood outside the sale.