Fashion P.R. Agencies Keep Culling Staff Amid Coronavirus Fallout

As measures to combat the coronavirus drag on, so do the effects on all corners of the fashion business with it. Agencies that work with stylists, celebrities and brands on campaigns and red-carpet appearances, among other facets of image-making and marketing, are having to make further cuts as clients continue to cancel work and pull out of deals. If not that, some brands are said to be insisting that the current pandemic means fees for agency work, already set for months or years before, should be lowered to rates that agencies can’t really afford to accept. For one coronavirus-related reason or another, Spring agency, Krupp Group and Karla Otto have all trimmed staff in recent weeks. “I do think a lot of clients, not all of them but a lot, are using this as an excuse to drive down fees,” Phillip Bodenham, founder and chief executive of Spring agency in Los Angeles and London, said. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people running other agencies, and they say it, too.” Given the general falloff of business among fashion and red-carpet clients, Bodenham is closing his Spring office in L.A., opened less than two years ago, and has laid off the roughly six staffers

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