Top model Ginta Lapina is suing a Manhattan agency for more than $1 million, saying she was duped into a measly $19,700 payday for a Paris photo shoot with fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld that was used in an international hair-product ad campaign.
The Latvian lovely, 25, is one of the world’s top-grossing models and says in her suit against Women Management that she was due a six- or seven-figure payout for working with the designer.
Lapina has appeared in campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent and DKNY and is married to former nightclub owner Adam Hock, 49 — who made news himself when he clocked Monaco’s Prince Pierre Casiraghi in the jaw in a bar brawl in the Meatpacking District in 2012.
Lapina says in her suit that she was told the use of the Lagerfeld photos would be “narrow in scope” when they were actually used to market Schwarzkopf hair products worldwide.
“The Schwarzkopf Look 2014 Trends advertorial was NOT [billed as] an advertising campaign, and therefore, the models were compensated only for their time for the photo shoot but not for the usage of their image,” says the Manhattan federal court suit.
“The Schwarzkopf products and look of advertisement are not of the caliber normally endorsed by a model of . . . Ginta’s stature in the industry and have diluted her ‘brand’ as a model for the haute couture and/or highest paying clients.”
Lapina is ranked 27th in model earnings worldwide by the industry site Models.com, the suit says.
Women Management issued a statement saying it was “surprised and disappointed” by the suit, adding it denies all allegations of wrongdoing will seek all “appropriate remedies.”
The agency said that it has managed Lapina since 2008, when she appeared at the New York Fashion Show, and that just last year, she agreed to renew an exclusive management contract through January 2016.
Besides a $1 million-plus payday, Lapina is seeking a court order preventing Schwarzkopf from using her photos.
Her hubby, Hock, who owned the now-defunct Hawaiian Tropic Zone, copped to disorderly conduct after the brawl at the Double Seven club and had to complete 12 weeks of anger-management counseling.