Model hunter
By Felicity Lewis | theage.com.au | 29 February
We've been at the shopping centre for only a couple of minutes when we spot the first "hot" girl. She strides past, waving to some shopgirls, with a broad, open face and shoulder-length bleached blonde hair, in stretch jeans and T-shirt. There's a moment's delay as model scouts Matthew Anderson and Alexandra Jervis confer. Then Jervis dashes off after the girl, business card and digital camera at the ready ...
By the time Anderson and Jervis get back to Chadwick's city office, the girl has already phoned. Two weeks later, Jervis has arranged to meet her to discuss her potential.
A model scout's work is never done. Nicking out of the office to buy lunch. On the way to work. At the supermarket, the milk bar, the newsagent, on a building site - you never know when the next new model will turn up. Sometimes they present themselves, through modelling competitions and on television shows such as Australia's Next Top Model, or by sending their snapshot to an agent or showing up during open hours. Sometimes, like today, agents just head out of their office and into the wilds of Melbourne's shopping centres and fashion strips. Matthew Anderson, 36, a director of Chadwick Models and head of its Melbourne office, goes on a scouting expedition some three times a year, always during school holidays and usually to shopping centres. Today he's at Southland in Cheltenham with Alexandra Jervis, 31, who looks after the agency's "new faces" and talent development.
Anderson has spotted a lot of talent in his 16 years at Chadwick. Most famously, there is Travis Fimmel, the hunky farmboy from Echuca who became a poster bod for Calvin Klein. (Anderson's flatmate saw Fimmel working out at their local gym in Hawthorn.) And Jess Hart, then a student at Sophia Mundi Rudolf Steiner School, at Eastland when she was 14. Now 21, Hart has cracked New York, her gap-toothed smile featuring in international campaigns for Guess, Esprit and Triumph. ("She's someone that's gorgeous and really down-to-earth and funny," says Anderson. "To see her doing well and staying the same person is just really rewarding.")
As Anderson scans Southland mall, Jervis, who seems to have 360-degree long-range vision, is following her nose, peeking in fashion shops, checking out the passing traffic, a girl on a bench, a guy going up the escalator. On outings like this, she'll be the one to approach young girls. Anderson worries that girls might get the idea that "if it's OK for a guy from Chadwick to approach you then maybe it's OK for anyone - and there are sleazebags around". A bona fide scout will always hand you a business card first, says Anderson, and they won't ask you for money to sign up - agencies make their money by taking a cut of a model's fee from her jobs, usually 20 per cent. (It is industry practice for new models to pay for their photo portfolio, but that shouldn't cost more than about $800.)
Jervis is back with another candidate, a slim brunette working in a clothes store. Jervis and Anderson check out her photo on the digital camera before Anderson gives the verdict: "Cute but probably no." Later, as we case the food court, Jervis nods towards a handsome young man, about 18, leaning against a coffee stall, laughing with a mate. "A bit Jaime Reyne," she says, referring to the musician and former model. Anderson drifts over casually for a closer look. "He's a cute guy but he's not a model," he says finally. For one thing, he has lots of deep smile lines around his eyes, which are good for character but make his face not quite perfect for modelling.
Being hot, evidently, is not enough to make you a model. Chadwick receives 50 inquiries every week from young hopefuls. The city's other big agencies, such as Cameron's, Viviens, Giant and FRM, quote similar figures. The odds aren't great but it's worth a go: last year Chadwick took on 15 (they have 80 girls and 30 guys on their Melbourne books). "There are a lot of good-looking people who do apply - and why not?" says Anderson. "But there's a real difference between gorgeous in your group of friends and the ones that we're going to be able to sell to our consumer clients."
To be a model, you have to be tall. For men, the minimum height is six feet (the model business still talks feet and inches) - someone really special might get in at 5'11". The maximum is 6'3" - any taller and you can become too lanky to carry clothes off well. For women, the height requirement is slightly more relaxed: a minimum 5'8", which can be fudged, the most famous example of whom is Kate Moss at 5'7" and ¾, and maximum 5'11". You have to have the right proportions too. Ideally, men have a 41-inch chest and a 32-inch waist. For women, the "new hourglass" is set to be in vogue for the next couple of years, says Anderson. "If I had to be a Frankenstein character and create my own little monster, it would be 5'10", she'd have full B to C breasts (about 35 inches), about a 25-inch waist, about 35-inch hips." (Having said that, Anderson does not ask girls to diet to conform to his perfect shape.)
You have to be the right age. "Boys aren't fully cooked till they're 18 or 19," says Jervis. While Chadwick might approach girls as young as 13, they won't actively represent them until they turn 15. Even then, girls may take a while to grow into the role. "One day they walk in and you go, 'You've got sexy!'" says Anderson. "The self-awareness switch goes on." At the older end of the scale, models can keep working into their mid-30s (women) or up to 40 (men).
You have to shape up well in photos. Says Jervis: "There's a disconnect between what looks good in real life and what looks good on camera. You can get someone who looks amazing through the lens but they look nothing (special) in real life. It's actually quite common. It's all about the facial planes. And about your proportions, (for example) your neck to your shoulder. If it's less than perfect, the model has to find a way to work their body so the camera reads it the way that it should." Anderson says it's about "connection" too - "realising you're not looking at a camera, you're looking at a person. It is that 'it' factor or 'X' factor, or however you want to coin it."
It's also a matter of luck: having the right look at the right time. "At the moment, there's a spike in demand for good-quality editorial blondes who are hot with good skin," says Anderson. ("Editorial" means the distinctive looks that editors choose for fashion magazines.)
We're about one hour and several NQRs (not-quite-rights) in when Jervis hits the jackpot. "Got one!" She has spotted a 20-year-old woman browsing with her friend in a bra shop. "She's 5'10", seriously blonde," she enthuses as Anderson and I crane over her digital shot. "She's got beautiful bone structure," Jervis continues, "widespread eyes, a gap in her teeth, freckles, big lips."
The girl gazes back from the camera.
"I've got all fluttery and excite-y," says Anderson. "That," he says, tapping the screen, "is editorial blonde."
Flushed with success, we continue on, coming across an attractive shop assistant whose head is just a bit "squashed", a tall spunk on the escalator (whose singlet unfortunately exposes his tattooed arms) and a fellow strolling by with his girlfriend - "he's a bit dime-a-dozen".
We're on our way out when two girls come towards us. Anderson recognises one of them in an instant - the editorial blonde. He steps forward, asks if she's been spoken to by Alexandra from Chadwick, then introduces himself. It's then that it emerges she's on holiday from the Gold Coast. This, Anderson says later, is "a bit of a spanner". The agency's Melbourne models need to be based in Melbourne. Sometimes, having the right stuff and the X factor isn't enough.
Spotted in Melbourne
Travis Fimmel moved from Echuca to Melbourne to play football and was spotted in a gym in Hawthorn at age 18. He found fame as a poster boy for Calvin Klein underwear and now, aged 28, his acting credits include a Tarzan TV series and the forthcoming film Surfer Dude.
Chelsea Scanlan was a 17-year-old Lauriston schoolgirl when a Giant scout spotted her in the city 18 months ago. Now based in New York, she appeared in three editions of American Vogue last year, at New York Fashion Week and in Australian summer campaigns for Jigsaw and Witchery.
Dan Zizys was spotted in Acland Street, St Kilda by FRM agent Stephen Bucknall. "I said to the girl with me, 'Did you see the look of that guy?' She replied, 'He's fairly creepy, you wouldn't consider him would you?'" Zizys, now 27, hit the big time in earnest with campaigns for Dolce and Gabbana.
Rachel Swaney was in her school uniform hanging out with friends outside the VCA on St Kilda Road, where she did dance classes, when a Chadwick scout spotted her in 1994. By the time she retired last year, she had been one of Australia's highest-grossing models for a decade.
Jessica Hart was a gap-toothed student at Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Collingwood when she was spotted at Eastland shopping centre. At 15 she left school to model full-time and now, at 21, lives in New York, appearing in campaigns for labels such as Guess, Triumph and Esprit.
First published by TheAge.com.au on February 29 2008
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