Models Today

If you asked school girls what career they wanted to take up when they left school most them would reply ”a model”.

They have seen the Super Models such as Naomi Campbell and in magazines and newspapers and would love to become one of them. Linda Evangelista…….famously said “I don’t get out of bed for anything less that £10,000. That only made teenagers keener than ever.

Now young girls want to look like Kate Moss and Cara Delevinge and Lily Cole. In my time the Super Models were Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.

The reality is very different. I too wanted to become a model and as I am tall and thin I was taken on by an agency. And then the fun started, or at least it felt like it. I had to build up a portfolio of different pictures of me which were taken by young photographers who also had to make a portfolio so it cost nothing. Then you had to have a composite this had four or more pictures and all my measurements. I found some of mine the other day and they are really funny, especially the one that was an ad for a hairdresser, I can assure you that I am wearing a wig! The other two were on my composite, do you remember Biba?

Armed with the portfolio and composites I started the rounds of castings. This meant going to see photographers and advertising agents. You would find yourself in a room with lots of other models all hoping to land the job. It is hard to keep up a cheerful face when you are trudging the streets with your A to Z rejected time after time. It may be because you have the wrong coloured hair, you are too tall or too small. Or they have changed their minds and decided they needed a blonde not a brunette.

On a fashion shoot the Art Director turned to the photographer and said “Could she move her hand to the left a bit more” She did not use my name and didn’t talk to me during the whole shoot. So I suddenly thought that I wanted to be on the other side of the camera as an Art Director and I would always be nice to the models.

While I was trying to find a job as an Art Director a friend of mine, Jose Fonseca and her partner April Fawcett asked me if I wanted to be a booker at their agency. Ask anyone in the business, they will say Models One are the best Model Agent in England. They do not only have English models on their books but girls from all over Europe and America.

Japanese clients love having models from all over the world for their advertising and fashion shows. Many girls were seen on videos of the French and American collections. The pay was extremely good .My good friend Jane Massey went there. She had to have a working visa and worked virtually every day both on the catwalk and for photographers. Jane went back to Japan time and time again. The picture shown here was taken from a show, she is wearing Yves St Laurent.

When I was a booker it was easy to juggle the girls as it was always done on a paper carousel which was easy to use. Nowadays it has changed, most bookings are all done on an ipad. It is defiantly an electronic age!

The models no longer have to go to most castings. The Art Directors and photographers can see the model on their ipad and choose which girls they want to use and ask to see the girls

Magazines pay less than advertising. Vogue is the magazine all models want to work for to get exposure and get published work for their portfolios from the most prestigious magazine.

Karen who is the Agency Director at Models One say they always keep an eagle eye on their girls and if any of them look too thin they are told that they have to put on weight if they want to work.

Finally I became an Art Director so I used to have castings. Not only did I have to see girls but I had to choose male models too. I soon realised that men lie about their measurements which were not the same as they put on their composites. I had two ways to tell if their height and chest measurements were correct. I used to make them stand next to me. I am 5ft 10ins and many of the men put their height as 6ft or more, well they certainly weren’t!

Then I used to keep a jacket which I knew was the same size as the one I wanted to use. Many of them did not tell the truth after that little test either. Many of them tried flirting with me which was very funny but also quite irritating.

There is now an Agency who specialise in older models. For five minutes I thought I would revert to being a model but luckily common sense kicked in. I am quite happy being an ex-model.