fashion model

A fashion model is someone who wears clothes to help sell them. There are many kinds of models – child models, male models, hand models, swimsuit models, even those picture frame people, but by the word “model” most have in mind female fashion models, like Naomi Campbell or Kate Moss, like the women in Vogue magazine.

What you need to be a model:

• beauty
• clear skin
• good teeth
• long legs
• a thin frame
• a height from 173 to 190 cm (between 5 foot 8 inches and 6 foot 3).
• a weight from 49 to 57 kilos (108 to 125 pounds)
• an age from 15 to 22
• endless self-confidence and drive

Not every fashion model has all these things, but most do.

They want tall, thin women because clothes and photography adds about seven kilos to how fat you look. And the clothes themselves – the whole point of fashion modelling – look better on thin women. As someone put it, models are walking clothes hangers.

They want young women because most models are past their prime after the age of 25.

You need self-confidence and drive because it is a hard field to break into: you will hear no far more than yes.

And even if you do become a model, you will probably not make enough to do it full-time and work for less than eight years.

What you do not need to do to become a model:

• go to modelling school
• have a portfolio (a set of pictures taken by a photographer)
• model naked
• have sex

Some take advantage of innocent girls by telling them they need to do one or more of these things.

How do you become a model?

Some are discovered when a talent scout sees them walking down the street. This is how Naomi Campbell, Xuxa and Ildi Silva all got their start. Talent scouts know what to look for: beautiful girls 14 or 15 years old who are tall enough and thin enough.

Some are discovered in beauty or fashion contests. Some of these are put on by the model agencies themselves as a way to find new talent.

Some go to a model agency’s open call. This means going to the agency and waiting in line for ever only to be seen for less than a minute.

And some just try their luck and cold call agencies and ask if they can drop by.

You almost have to work for a model agency. Get a lawyer to look at anything you sign. And beware that some model agencies are fly-by-night operations: they are more interested in taking your money than in getting you modelling work.

New York is the centre of the fashion industry in America. The top model agencies and the top models are there. But other cities need models too.

Paris, London and Milan are also centres of fashion.

Models work hard, but they can party hard too. Some go overboard in their partying, like Naomi Campbell who is now recovering from years of drink and cocaine.

See also:

• black fashion models
• The most beautiful black women models
• New York
• anorexia
• women who have been fashion models:
  • Naomi Campbell
  • Ildi Silva
  • Xuxa
  • Toccara Jones
  • YaYa Da Costa
  • Eva Pigford
  • Rojane Fradique
  • Adriana Lima