Being a Male Model, May 2012, Marie Claire - Amy Fallon

52 may 2012
BEING
a (male)
MODEL
ISN’T ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE
REQUIRES PERSONALITY AND CHARM
MEANS CARRYING CONCEALER
‘o
oh, ah,’ sighs a
man as the seminaked
20-year-old
boy finally appears
on the catwalk,
in Paris’ Louvre
Museum. The model,
who resembles a statue, stands close to 1,9-metres
tall, with waifish torso, razor-sharp cheekbones,
porcelain skin, ice-blue eyes and flowing platinum
hair, and draws the gaze of the world’s most powerful
editors, designers and buyers. As he glides down the
runway, not one member of the awestruck fash-pack
dares to blink a Dior mascara-coated lash for fear that
they’ll miss a move.
It may sound like a scene out of Zoolander,
Ben Stiller’s 2001 satire of the fashion industry,
but it’s just another day in the life of real-life male
clotheshorse Andrej Pejic, now one of the hottest
properties in the modelling industry. Having recently
been signed as the face of a Jean
Paul Gaultier men’s fragrance, the
rise of the Bosnian-born former
refugee has been even more meteoric
than that of Kate Moss in the Nineties.
‘In a few short months Andrej
has become the face of a new sort
of male beauty, the kind that sparks
comments, controversies and
intense scrutiny,’ says Storm Model
Management of Pejic, currently
ranked 18 in the world’s top 50 male models by Models.
com. Much of the hype over Pejic, who sported a pushup
bra for Dutch brand Hema and closed a Gaultier
show in a wedding dress, is of course down to his
androgynous look.
Photographer Chris Benz says he’s in demand
because ‘no-one looks like him. I mean no-one.
None of the boys look like him,’ says Benz. ‘None
of the girls look like him. It’s just Andrej.’
Gender aside though, there’s still no ignoring that
for the first time in a long time, if ever, the ‘s-word’ –
supermodel – is being used to describe a male.
It’s a title and position normally reserved
only for a coterie of genetically blessed women.
Christy, Cindy, Helena, Linda, Naomi, Elle, Claudia. The
original ‘supers’ of the Eighties became household
names and their love lives, fitness regimes, beauty
spots and secrets were well documented.
For the first
time in a long
time, the ‘S-
word’ is being
used to
describe a male
However, there’s been less interest in their male
counterparts – and even less in their black male
counterparts. Forty-one-year-old Tyson Beckford,
recognizable as the face of Ralph Lauren’s Polo brand
and host of Make Me a Supermodel, was named ‘Man of
the Year’ by VH1 in 1995, yet never reached the earning
potential of some of his white counterparts.
Original American pin-up boy, the former face of
Calvin Klein and a leading figure in the industry for
three decades, Bruce Hulse, now 59, reveals some
remarkable tales of life at the top. In an interview with
Britain’s Observer newspaper in 2009 the self-described
‘supernova’ of the ‘glamorous galaxy of modelling’
recalled shoots on the Greek Islands where he was so
drunk he couldn’t look at the camera lens. Then there
were the Victoria’s Secret assignments where he was
forced to wear ‘little silk panties’ being aroused by his
female colleagues rubbing up against him.
And that was just work. Play consisted of frequent
visits to Studio 54, where it wasn’t uncommon to see
group orgies in the bathrooms.
Hulse was ‘more of a one-on-one
sort of person’ though, but claims he
managed to bed a bevy of beauties,
his ex-colleagues Andie MacDowell,
Paulina Porizkova, Tatjana Patitz
and Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson. ‘In
a world where sex sells you have
this alternative universe of handpicked
super-sexy beings thrown
together on these shoots all over the
place,’ said Hulse. ‘It’s a very bizarre world, and a very
sexy world – we were young, we were crazy and we were
all having sex,’ he said.
outh African model Chrismo Botha, 28, who
grew up in Somerset East in the Eastern
Cape, speaks of a tamer experience. For
years Botha, who is 1,86 metres tall with dark hair,
had been handed modelling-agency cards but laughed
them off. One day, during his final year of a marketing
degree, he decided being in front of the camera had
to be better than waiting tables. After contacting an
agency he was offered a contract in Hong Kong.
In his eight years in the industry Botha has done
gigs for BMW, Audi, Peugeot, Schwarzkopf, Debenhams,
Marks & Spencer and Heineken, and been featured on
the covers of Fitness and Men’s Health, to name a few.
Represented by Base Model Agency in Cape Town, he’s
international report
AMY FALLON INVESTIGATES WHY BEING REALLY RIDICULOUSLY
GOOD-LOOKING IS A CASTLE MADE OF SAND
s
YOU’VE
GOT
MALE
From top
South African
model Chrismo
Botha; the
male model-ofthe-moment,
a 19-year-old
Andrej Pejic
wears André
Lima during
the São Paulo
Fashion
Week Spring/
Summer 2012
collection in
June 2011.
Opposite
Model Tyson
Beckford at
David Tlale’s
Spring/
Summer
2010 show at
Bryant Park
Promenade.
marieclaire.co.za
53

WALK LIKE
A MAN
From top
David Gandy
attends Dolce
& Gabbana’s
Autumn/Winter
2012 menswear
runway show;
Gavin James
Bower walks for
John Galliano;
Marcus
Schenkenberg at
a charity fashion
show in New York
City in 2009.
been a ‘pilot, a business man, a surfer dude and the shy
boy next door’ during assignments. ‘Highlights include
walking the Great Wall of China, eating Peking duck
in Beijing, shooting on beaches in the Greek Islands,
snorkelling in Mauritius, playing football with the
locals in Zanzibar and walking the
streets of Barcelona,’ Botha tells
Marie Claire.
‘There’s no typical day in
a model’s life.’ But for all the
spontaneity and glamour, it really
involves a lot of hard grind, he
insists. ‘You can’t plan anything! It’s
like being a doctor – you are always
on standby,’ says Botha. ‘Working on
Sundays and holidays when your
friends are off work sucks. Missing your loved ones’
birthdays is another downside.’
One of the few male models who can command
rates to rival some of his fellow females is 32-yearold
UK model David Gandy. But he knows all about
dedication to the job, as he demonstrates with his
six-pack in Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue ad. Male
models are generally considered to have a longer
career span than women (Gandy believes
that male models usually get better with
age), and being in shape could mean a
couple of years of extra work.
‘I do work hugely at my physical fitness,’
Gandy told the UK’s Telegraph in 2010. ‘As
for food, I have to watch that too. When I’m
doing a shoot I cut out all carbohydrates for a
month beforehand, work out every day and
drink protein shakes day and night.’
Of course, the game has changed a lot
since the days of ‘The Incredible Hulse’,
and even since Gandy won a modelling
competition in 2002. Once being a
clotheshorse for a designer label or the face
of an aftershave campaign was one big party.
Today it’s a competitive trade.
Male models
are generally
considered to
have a longer
career span
‘Initially it was all about looks and body,’ says Andrea Baptista,
who has worked in the field for 15 years and is the managing
director of Cape Town’s D&A Model Management. D&A regularly
scouts for boys taller than 1,82 metres and older than 20, but it takes
more than that to be the next Taylor Fuchs (a successful Canadian
model). ‘Nowadays personality, charm and acting ability are all
prerequisites, especially in South Africa,’ says Baptista, who
represents Men’s Health favourite Wiehahn Stiglingh, among
others. ‘The competition is high, so if you have a bad attitude the
chances are that you will not work.’ Hear that lads? A tantrum
à la Naomi Campbell won’t get you anywhere.
Some haven’t heeded this warning. Baptista tells Marie Claire
she’s lucky to have worked with the ‘most amazing models’, but
there have been whispers about male models being banned from
a local hairdresser as they were ‘too difficult to please’. One bloke
wanted to have a ‘serious meeting’ with a booker, but it turned
out all he wanted was to work on a ‘new smile’ after shaving off
his tiny stubble. ‘Certain male models can be 100 times more of
a prima donna than a female model,’ says
Baptista. ‘As agents, we don’t kill the goose
that is laying the golden eggs. But we guide
and facilitate ways to change behaviour and
attitude. Models have to be good to their
bookers; top bookers can’t be bribed to put
up with jerks.’
Botha agrees that the field can be
incredibly competitive. ‘If you have ever
walked in on a request casting, it looks like
the mafia sitting there. A couple of hundred
boys sitting there with dark brown hair, brown eyes, tanned skin.’
f
or a good example of how tricky the industry can be,
look no further than British model-turned-author Gavin
James Bower. An inspiring writer, Bower (yes, he has dark
brown hair) applied for a two-week internship at UK fashion
title Dazed and Confused when he was 21. He never expected
to end up being featured as a model in the publication. During
his two years in the industry, Bower was less surprised to learn
that drugs are ‘as ten a penny as Champagne’ in this line of
work and that underwear models were selected on ‘how gay the
casting agent or photographer was’, and he was more surprised to
discover that male models can read. Oh, and that although it’s
‘not an easy thing to admit to’, male models carry concealer.
Bower’s first shoot involved a ‘cigarette, a schoolboy outfit
and a rugby ball, and not in a good way’. It was a ‘profoundly
alienating experience’ that paid only R895. ‘The photographer
kept shouting “more meat!” I gave him more, well… meat,’ Bower,
now 29, tells Marie Claire. ‘There’s a powerlessness to it. It’s
certainly unnerving – to hover over yourself, watching a
version of you performing to sell stuff you can’t actually afford,
but which looks perfect. The irony was not lost on me.’
Like Botha and many others, Bower had thought that selling
his looks might be a good way of making money before getting
a ‘proper job’ – Gandy admits there’s still a stigma attached to
54 may 2012 marieclaire.co.za
ADDITIONAL TEXT LAURA TWIGGS PHOTOGRAPHS GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES, PICTURENET, PAN MEDIA AND JESSE-LEIGH ELFORD/COSMOPOLITAN
male modelling. He was shocked when his lifestyle ended up
resembling that of his skint university mates. There were the OTT
times, of course: ‘I once got paid €1 000 (R9 968) to sit around
having make-up applied,’ Bower says. He even recalls having two
stylists at a Hermès show. ‘One helped me in and out of the
clothing. The other made sure I didn’t nick anything,’ Bower says.
‘But most of the time, the work isn’t there or, if it is, it’s badly
paid,’ – though there are ‘loads of freebies’ like jeans and trainers.
Business and financial magazine Forbes points out that male
models, unlike Gisele Bündchen and Heidi Klum, rumoured to
earn around R340 million and R150 million a year respectively,
don’t host TV shows. Nor are they the brand ambassadors for
multibillion-dollar lingerie companies. ‘It’s the only industry in
the world where women make more than men,’ John W. Babin,
co-director of the men’s division at Red Model Management,
told the magazine in 2008. It’s now considered common
knowledge that female models command two to three times the
rate of their male counterparts, for the same work.
Even Swedish beefcake Marcus Schenkenberg, the first
honoree to be inducted into the Male Model Hall of Fame and
the first to ever grace a magazine cover, told Teaser magazine,
‘The saying “sex sells” is true, and in that women per se have the
advantage over men.’
This may be the reason Pejic chooses to be a lady in many of
his shoots, commanding women’s fees. It seems to have worked;
he’s been swamped with requests for everything from acting
roles to a reality show and his own nail-polish brand. ‘He’s got
the best of both worlds and it’s a bonus for him,’ says Botha.
‘The money [in the industry] is good, but not what it used to be.’
Still, who would have passed up the opportunity to walk for
John Galliano in his 2005 Spring/Summer Paris show? Bower
says walking for the disgraced designer, once Dior’s golden boy,
was the most surreal moment of his modelling career. ‘Getting
naked in front of giggling Japanese stylists and fashionistas
who were backstage for the express purpose of perving on
models getting naked was weird,’ he says. ‘[And] there was
Galliano in a pink suit standing by the entrance to the catwalk
and saying I looked great. I bet he says that to all the boys.’
It doesn’t get much bigger than Galliano. Or at least it
didn’t for Bower. Twelve months later he wasn’t modeling at all,
having been turned down for an aftershave shoot in the
Caribbean. He then pursued a career in TV, then publishing
Dazed and Aroused, a semi-autobiographical novel about the
modelling industry, a move that seems de rigueur (or perhaps
a career necessity) for any former male model.
Hulse, who now only gets about two bookings a month,
published Sex, Love and Fashion: A Memoir of a Male Model in
2008. ‘I don’t care how good-looking you are… The castle’s made
of sand,’ he says.
Botha, who finished his degree through UNISA a year after
becoming a model, is continuing to ‘ride the wave’ for as long
as possible, but is also ‘putting things in place for when beauty
becomes the beast. The secret is treating it as a business and
being thankful for every job… It could be your last,’ he says.
than women 2
1
3
1
international report
Top international earners
According to the UK’s Telegraph
1. GABRIEL AUBRY
From Montreal, Canada
Born 1976
Claim to fame Face of Versace
2. DAVID GANDY
From Essex, UK
Born 1980
Claim to fame Favourite of
Dolce & Gabbana
3. LARS BURMEISTER
From Sonneberg, Germany
Born 1981
Claim to fame Face of Giorgio
Armani Acqua di Giò
4. NOAH MILLS
From Maryland, United States
Born 1985
Claim to fame Starred in Sex
and the City 2, and is a regular
for Dolce & Gabbana and
Tommy Hilfiger
5. MARK VANDERLOO
From Waddinxveen, Holland
Born 1968
Claim to fame Face of
Hugo Boss
Local favourites
Some of SA’s home-grown honeys…
1. JANEZ VERMEIREN
Born 1978
You’ll know him as the DIY
handyman on SABC3’s Top Billing
and a Top Travel presenter
2. SHAUN DE WET
Born 1982
You’ll know him as the face
(and body) of Calvin Klein’s
Truth fragrance
3. JUSTIN HOPWOOD
Born 1992
You’ll know him as the face of
brands such as Abercrombie &
Fitch and Nautica and from dozens
of fashion magazines
55