Dead Russian model wasn’t overworked: China agency

The death of Vlada Dzyuba in a Chinese hospital on Friday has shone a light on the murky world of western models in China, many of whom are from the former Soviet Union and dream of carving out a career in the notoriously cut-throat industry. The teenager, who despite her young age was allowed to model under Chinese law, began feeling dizzy and started being sick last Tuesday.

She was taken to a Shanghai hospital the next day but died on Friday after her condition quickly deteriorated. English-language newspaper The Siberian Times alleged that Dzyuba died of meningitis compounded by severe exhaustion following “a gruelling fashion show in Shanghai”. 

“We feel sorry that we lost an angel,” ESEE Model Management in Shanghai said in a statement on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, pointing out that Shanghai Fashion Week ended on October 18 and she fell ill six days later while on another assignment. 

ESEE’s chief executive Zheng Yi separately told the state Global Times that the model had worked a legal eight hours a day during her two months in China before her death.