Kate Upton Shines A Light On Fashion's Biggest Problem With Her #MeToo Story

IT BEGAN WITH A TWEET. ON JAN. 31, SUPERMODEL KATE Upton wrote, “It’s disappointing that such an iconic women’s brand @Guess is still empowering Paul Marciano as their creative director #metoo.”

- Eliana Dockterman

In an interview with TIME, Upton detailed her claims against Marciano, co-founder and former CEO of Guess, who she says assaulted and began harassing her during her first professional modeling campaign when she was 18.

Harassment has plagued the fashion industry for decades, but allegations have often been ignored. Many models work as independent contractors and have few legal protections; last month lawmakers introduced a bill in New York that would hold designers, retailers and agencies accountable for abuses.

In a statement to TIME, Marciano called the accusations “absolutely false” and “preposterous.” “I have never been alone with Kate Upton,” he said. “I have never touched her inappropriately. Nor would I ever refer to a Guess model in such a derogatory manner.” A representative for Guess declined to comment. Photographer Yu Tsai says he witnessed the harassment Upton describes and corroborated details of her allegations.

What happened with Paul Marciano?

 After the first day of shooting the Guess Lingerie campaign in 2010, Paul Marciano said he wanted to meet with me. As soon as I walked in with photographer Yu Tsai, Paul came straight up to me, forcibly grabbed my breasts and started feeling them—playing with them actually. After I pushed him away, he said, “I’m making sure they’re real.”