Top Fashion Models Weigh In on 'Nepo Baby' Debate
Fashion

Top Fashion Models Weigh In on 'Nepo Baby' Debate

Lily-Rose Depp, the Chanel muse and daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, made headlines this week after trying to set the record straight about nepotism allegations.

In the interview with ELLE, she said: "The internet cares a lot more about who your family is than the people who are casting you in things. Maybe you get your foot in the door, but you still just have your foot in the door. There’s a lot of work that comes after that."

Now, two of the fashion industry's most successful models, Anok Yai and Vittoria Ceretti, are weighing in on the nepotism discourse. Italian-born Ceretti, who's starred in campaigns for Fendi, Versace and Prada, was the first to break her silence on the topic.

“I get the whole ‘I’m here and i work hard for it,’ but I would really love to see if you would have lasted thru the first 5 years of my career,” Ceretti, 24, wrote on her Instagram Stories.

She went on to add that she's routinely come second to “nepo” models during Fashion Month, where she'd wait “hours to do a fitting/casting just to see a nepo baby walk past.”

“You have no fucking idea how much you have to fight to make people respect you," she continued. "TAKES YEARS. you just get it by free day one. I know it's not your fault, but please, appreciate and know the place you came from.”

Screenshot: @Vittoria Instagram Story

Anok Yai, the Egyptian-born Sudanese-American model who's walked for Louis Vuitton, Valentino and Givenchy, also chimed in. The 24-year-old was first discovered on Instagram after a photo of her at a Howard University homecoming event went viral.

"I remember at the very beginning of my career, with all this hype around my name, there was this perceived notion that I had an upper hand ... I can tell you it was quite the opposite," she wrote. "Words can't even explain the feeling of being a young new face having to navigate an industry full of powerful influential people and feeling like you are nothing.

She adds: "I will see some of you privileged kids stress about not booking a job because of the impact on your career while there are those of us who stress about not booking a job because we don't know if we'll be able to take care of our parents this month or put our siblings through school ... Seeing people benefit from nepotism doesn't bother me at all ... What does bother me is when the power players in the industry pretend to act ignorant to the fact ... If you only knew the hell we go through just to be able to stand in the same room that you were born in."

Screenshots: @AnokYai Instagram Story

Fashion industry watchdog Diet Prada reposted Ceretti's Stories on their account, with many industry notables like model Imaan Hammam and Attico designer Gilda Ambrosio commenting in support. As one user put it: "We get that hard work is involved once you’re on the job but getting your foot in the door and being financially stable without worry is a HUGE advantage that [Depp] will never understand coming from such a privileged family."

Photos via Getty