A photographer friend of mine has encouraged me to continue my blog and detail my continuing adventures in the modeling business. So what started simply as a way to let friends and family know about my trip to NY will now progress into something more and maybe a useful tool for all the newbies checking this out.
To summarize the trip to NY, there really isn't much work in NYC right now for the standard working model. The economy has hit that city so hard that it isn't the ideal place for someone like me at this stage in my career. But Manhattan will always be fashion mecca for the US, 2nd only to Paris, so when things do get better it will definitely be the place to work. But for right now the best place for me is LA.
I have only been back home for 4 days and I already have 3 jobs lined up and 2 big ones in the pipeline. I have a job at Smashbox on the 15th, a job for a bridal gown company in SD the week of the 20th and a shoot for a clothing boutique in Laguna Beach on the 20th. The 2 big jobs are Axe Body Spray and Smiffy's, a UK costume and lingerie company. The Axe job shoots next Thursday and Friday and pays VERY well and the Smiffy's job shoots on the 21st and pays almost as good for 1 day as the Axe job does for 2 so I am keeping my fingers crossed for that one!
I also signed with a new agency the day after I returned from my trip. I am now represented by Jet Set Models, based in La Jolla, and I have a really good feeling about this agency. Everyone I met with was really cool and passionate about their job and my potential and those are all very important ingredients to a successful career. I know they will be working for me and with me to develop my career to the level I want it at. I will be sending them bikini snapshots tomorrow to be submitted to their contacts at quite a few magazines in LA and NY (Glamour, Shape and Self to name a few) so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens there. Would be nice to be in a magazine again after about 8 yrs :)
My goals:
Jet Set asked me to send them a list of clients I have worked with and a list of clients I would like to work with, which I think is a great tool for them and for me. Here is what I came up with, let's see how I do over the next 6 months...
1. Beauty Story in magazines such as Allure, Cosmo, Self, Shape, Glamour
2. Any Cosmetics Company
3. Target/Wal-mart/Kohl's - major commercial/commercial print job
4. Bridal Gown designers (i.e. Vera Wang, Monique Luillier)
This was all I could come up with on the spot. I think, and so does my agency, these are all realistic and attainable goals so wish me luck! :)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Decisions, Decisions...
It's been an interesting few days. After talking with old friends in the business and doing a bit more research online it seems NYC isn't what it used to be. While my old contacts agree that having ANY agency interested in taking me on is a major breakthrough, they all argue that right now is not the time to be in NY. One friend of mine who has been in the business about as long as I have (continuously though, I took years off) just relocated to London where everyone turned her down but 1 agency, where she had a contact. The economy is really bringing down the fashion/modeling industry hard and I am in no position to make a financial gamble on a market that is showing obvious favoritism to supermodels/celebrities and not much love to the normal working model. The friend in London is coming back to NY the beginning of June because work does pick up here then and has convinced me that would be the best time for me to come back as well.
I still plan on talking with Major and Ford tomorrow to see what they say but I think that ultimately I will head back to LA on Wednesday, sign up with a different, stronger LA agency within the next week and focus on working there, making as much money as I can and test a bit more with better photographers so that come June I am better prepared to hit the NYC market. I will also try to lose a bit more weight so that I am more competitive with the walking stick figures out here :) Even though at the moment I don't plan on staying in NYC, this has been a great learning experience and has re-acclimated me to the 2009 modeling industry in NYC.
I still plan on talking with Major and Ford tomorrow to see what they say but I think that ultimately I will head back to LA on Wednesday, sign up with a different, stronger LA agency within the next week and focus on working there, making as much money as I can and test a bit more with better photographers so that come June I am better prepared to hit the NYC market. I will also try to lose a bit more weight so that I am more competitive with the walking stick figures out here :) Even though at the moment I don't plan on staying in NYC, this has been a great learning experience and has re-acclimated me to the 2009 modeling industry in NYC.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
The hard part is done
I have finally finished meeting with or dropping off my pictures/info to all the agencies out here! My feet are so unhappy with me right now but I'll live :)
I met with an old friend of mine, Scott, who runs 1 model management (one of the top agencies here right now) and we discussed the whole economic situation in the NY fashion industry, the strength of my book as is and how the jobs are right now out here. He has been in the business for 15+yrs so I trust his judgement and value his opinions. His take on the situation in NY is that where there used to be 100 jobs in NY per month, there are now around 50 jobs per month. He also said that companies and magazines are not as willing as they used to be to gamble with their money on a new face and are sticking with the supermodels and celebrities for their advertisements and jobs. But he did say that work around here tends to pick up some around May/June when the weather gets better and that would be a better time for a newer model to be here to work. He also said that I needed 1-2 more tests in my book with stronger styling and better photography. He did like 3-4 pictures in my book and said that it was almost better out here to show 3-4 strong pictures than 3-4 strong ones mixed with 4-5 commercial/beauty shots so depending on what I decide to do, if I head back to LA that will be my focus over the next month/6 weeks.
This seemed to be the general consensus amongst the agencies out here. I struck up conversations with a few on Thursday as that was my "walk-in" day so the people at the agencies were easier to talk to since they weren't inundated with busy open calls and other wannabe models. Aside from CESD, which mainly does commercial/commercial print work, all the fashion agencies I spoke with said that work here is almost non-existent and generally going to the supermodels/well established models with tearsheets in their book. They all acknowledged that work picks up around May/June and that would be a better time to come out here and see everyone again if I didnt find someone to take me on now. And a few stressed that I shouldnt get discouraged if I dont get picked up by an agency right now. The economy is causing designers/magazines/etc to either close their doors entirely or go into Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection leaving the agencies with debts to the models for work done but no one to get those payments from. And on top of that, they have models who have been with them for a while that have charged up debt with the agency and havent been able to work at all or enough to pay that back. So its one big mess out here right now with agencies being indebted to models, agencies not being able to get payment from vendors and there just not being enough work to justify taking on any new girls.
The recommendations I received, aside from just coming back here next month, was to go abroad if I can or stay in LA if I am working consistently until things pick up here. The agencies seem to be sending their girls to Asia and Australia to get experience and tearsheets so that when things do start picking up here they are better prepared and more valuable than before they left. If after talking with the guys at Ford on Monday or Tuesday the amount of work here isnt enough to warrant me staying I will head back to LA, work my butt off, look into the Asia thing a bit further and aim to be back here in June. Summer in NYC SUCKS royally but I'll deal with it if the work is here. Europe doesnt seem like the place to send girls anymore, which is surprising but shows how bad the global economy is right now. It seems like its best to stay where you are from and try to work there so you incur less debt to the agency and they are more likely to work with you if they don't have to front many, if any, costs to take you on. The less risk up front, the better your chances.
So the rest of the weekend I will concentrate on spending time catching up with my friends and enjoying one of my favorite cities :) Monday and Tuesday will be spent contemplating choices and making a decision.
I met with an old friend of mine, Scott, who runs 1 model management (one of the top agencies here right now) and we discussed the whole economic situation in the NY fashion industry, the strength of my book as is and how the jobs are right now out here. He has been in the business for 15+yrs so I trust his judgement and value his opinions. His take on the situation in NY is that where there used to be 100 jobs in NY per month, there are now around 50 jobs per month. He also said that companies and magazines are not as willing as they used to be to gamble with their money on a new face and are sticking with the supermodels and celebrities for their advertisements and jobs. But he did say that work around here tends to pick up some around May/June when the weather gets better and that would be a better time for a newer model to be here to work. He also said that I needed 1-2 more tests in my book with stronger styling and better photography. He did like 3-4 pictures in my book and said that it was almost better out here to show 3-4 strong pictures than 3-4 strong ones mixed with 4-5 commercial/beauty shots so depending on what I decide to do, if I head back to LA that will be my focus over the next month/6 weeks.
This seemed to be the general consensus amongst the agencies out here. I struck up conversations with a few on Thursday as that was my "walk-in" day so the people at the agencies were easier to talk to since they weren't inundated with busy open calls and other wannabe models. Aside from CESD, which mainly does commercial/commercial print work, all the fashion agencies I spoke with said that work here is almost non-existent and generally going to the supermodels/well established models with tearsheets in their book. They all acknowledged that work picks up around May/June and that would be a better time to come out here and see everyone again if I didnt find someone to take me on now. And a few stressed that I shouldnt get discouraged if I dont get picked up by an agency right now. The economy is causing designers/magazines/etc to either close their doors entirely or go into Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection leaving the agencies with debts to the models for work done but no one to get those payments from. And on top of that, they have models who have been with them for a while that have charged up debt with the agency and havent been able to work at all or enough to pay that back. So its one big mess out here right now with agencies being indebted to models, agencies not being able to get payment from vendors and there just not being enough work to justify taking on any new girls.
The recommendations I received, aside from just coming back here next month, was to go abroad if I can or stay in LA if I am working consistently until things pick up here. The agencies seem to be sending their girls to Asia and Australia to get experience and tearsheets so that when things do start picking up here they are better prepared and more valuable than before they left. If after talking with the guys at Ford on Monday or Tuesday the amount of work here isnt enough to warrant me staying I will head back to LA, work my butt off, look into the Asia thing a bit further and aim to be back here in June. Summer in NYC SUCKS royally but I'll deal with it if the work is here. Europe doesnt seem like the place to send girls anymore, which is surprising but shows how bad the global economy is right now. It seems like its best to stay where you are from and try to work there so you incur less debt to the agency and they are more likely to work with you if they don't have to front many, if any, costs to take you on. The less risk up front, the better your chances.
So the rest of the weekend I will concentrate on spending time catching up with my friends and enjoying one of my favorite cities :) Monday and Tuesday will be spent contemplating choices and making a decision.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Day #1
My feet are killing me and the balls of each foot feel like I am stepping on fire, but other than that today was pretty darn good.
Started the day off hitting the open call at NEXT, which was a pretty rough start. I got there at 1025am hoping to be one of the first girls in there because our schedule was pretty packed and they didnt end up seeing any of the people for open call until 1105am. So not cool, especially when its a no! After NEXT I was off to VNY for their open call. After looking through my pictures and then taking some polaroids they decided that they didn't like me. 0 for 2 so far so I was a little bummed. REQUEST was next and after looking through my book they asked to keep one of my cards, wrote down my age and phone number and said they would discuss taking me on and call me tomorrow. So by lunchtime I had 1 maybe and 2 no's...not a great start but that's ok, 16 more agencies to see!
After lunch I hit my appt at RED down in Tribeca. I met with Wendy and she was actually pretty cool. She liked the pictures in my book and thought I was a "very beautiful girl" and asked for me to take some natural snapshots and email them to her tomorrow to make sure I photograph well normally without all the makeup and lighting. So another maybe but a stronger maybe than REQUEST. The highlight of this stop was walking down the stairs to street level only to have the doors locked and arrows diverting down one more floor which happened to be flooded. I had to walk through about an inch of water through some hallways to get out of that building. I should have just waited for the elevator! :)
After RED I headed uptown to stop by MARILYN and TRUMP to drop off my pictures/info hoping to get some interest from them since they don't hold open calls. So awkward! You walk into the agency and the bookers look at you like "um, who are you? do I have an appt I dont know about?" The bookers at MARILYN were nice and told me to leave my pictures on the table with my contact info and they would look at them. I cannot say the same about TRUMP. One booker had a mouth full of food, took one look in my direction covered her mouth, shook her head, pointed to the other booker across the table from her and walked away. That guy, upon asking what I wanted, held his hand up to his ear and pretended to have a hard time hearing me. Now, those who know me know that my voice is quite audible so that guy was just being an ass. He asked me to leave my info and pictures so I did and left.
Next up was the open call for FORD. I was running a little ahead of schedule and got there about 15 minutes early, hoping again to be one of the first seen to help expedite the rest of the open calls/appts this afternoon. Unfortunately about 10 other girls thought the same thing. But this one went really well. They took about 12 girls' information to start and about 10 minutes later, the guy came back and called out my name only. He said that they wanted to meet with me to discuss things further. So I went back and met with 2 of the guys that run the commercial division there and they are interested in representing me. YAY! We talked a bit more about how the market is in NY compared to LA and what my living situation would be so that they could get an idea as to what would need to be fronted by them for me to go with the agency so they were obviously relieved to find out that I have friends to stay with and wouldnt need housing, which is a big expense. I told them I was making the rounds at the agencies in NY and that I would make my decision by Thursday or Friday on who I would be going with so they took my card and gave me their cards and said to call or email on Friday or Monday to let them know what my decision is.
WILHELMINA was next and that sure was an interesting one. After rejecting everyone that was there the girl asked me if I would be interested in doing promotional modeling for their W Media/W Runway division. I looked at her puzzled and asked what that was exactly. To me, I associate promo modeling with bar girls pushing beer. She said that was not the type they were talking about so I went in and met with a booker there to get more clarification on what exactly it was. Its not the type of modeling I am interested in doing but if I came out here and needed "filler" work to get some quick money to pay bills this would be an option since they said it was on a non-exclusive basis.
MAJOR was the last stop of the day and probably took the longest and was the most "interesting." I BARELY made it there for the open call because FORD and WILHELMINA took so long since I spent time talking with each about representation. So there were 4 other people there waiting to be seen so they had all of us line up in front of a door to the room where the bookers were and told us that we would introduce ourselves by name, location and age and then proceed to do a runway walk around the perimeter of the room as each booker watched us. There was a nice, but intially snotty, French woman running it that turned out to be the main lady at the agency. So after our walk they invited each of us back to talk with the French lady. When I went back to meet with her one-on-one she looked through my book and liked my pictures a lot and asked if I had modeled before. After talking about my history in the business she told me that she looks at me and sees a "money machine" but wonders if she has the clients for me. She then calls for one of the main bookers to come into her office to meet with me as well. That goes well and she then tells him to take me and introduce me to each booker and have them look at my book. So I make the rounds and meet about 9 people at the agency who all seemed to like me and my look. After all that was done she tells the guy to make sure to get my info, he then asks if he is to put me in their system right now but she says no, that I am doing the rounds and they will all be having a meeting about me later tonight. I take that as a good sign :)
So that was my day. Pretty busy, fun, disappointing to start but things ended on a good note. Tomorrow will be even busier with some BIG agencies so hopefully I have another good day! Even if no other agency is interested in me, with FORD in my corner this trip was worth it :)
Started the day off hitting the open call at NEXT, which was a pretty rough start. I got there at 1025am hoping to be one of the first girls in there because our schedule was pretty packed and they didnt end up seeing any of the people for open call until 1105am. So not cool, especially when its a no! After NEXT I was off to VNY for their open call. After looking through my pictures and then taking some polaroids they decided that they didn't like me. 0 for 2 so far so I was a little bummed. REQUEST was next and after looking through my book they asked to keep one of my cards, wrote down my age and phone number and said they would discuss taking me on and call me tomorrow. So by lunchtime I had 1 maybe and 2 no's...not a great start but that's ok, 16 more agencies to see!
After lunch I hit my appt at RED down in Tribeca. I met with Wendy and she was actually pretty cool. She liked the pictures in my book and thought I was a "very beautiful girl" and asked for me to take some natural snapshots and email them to her tomorrow to make sure I photograph well normally without all the makeup and lighting. So another maybe but a stronger maybe than REQUEST. The highlight of this stop was walking down the stairs to street level only to have the doors locked and arrows diverting down one more floor which happened to be flooded. I had to walk through about an inch of water through some hallways to get out of that building. I should have just waited for the elevator! :)
After RED I headed uptown to stop by MARILYN and TRUMP to drop off my pictures/info hoping to get some interest from them since they don't hold open calls. So awkward! You walk into the agency and the bookers look at you like "um, who are you? do I have an appt I dont know about?" The bookers at MARILYN were nice and told me to leave my pictures on the table with my contact info and they would look at them. I cannot say the same about TRUMP. One booker had a mouth full of food, took one look in my direction covered her mouth, shook her head, pointed to the other booker across the table from her and walked away. That guy, upon asking what I wanted, held his hand up to his ear and pretended to have a hard time hearing me. Now, those who know me know that my voice is quite audible so that guy was just being an ass. He asked me to leave my info and pictures so I did and left.
Next up was the open call for FORD. I was running a little ahead of schedule and got there about 15 minutes early, hoping again to be one of the first seen to help expedite the rest of the open calls/appts this afternoon. Unfortunately about 10 other girls thought the same thing. But this one went really well. They took about 12 girls' information to start and about 10 minutes later, the guy came back and called out my name only. He said that they wanted to meet with me to discuss things further. So I went back and met with 2 of the guys that run the commercial division there and they are interested in representing me. YAY! We talked a bit more about how the market is in NY compared to LA and what my living situation would be so that they could get an idea as to what would need to be fronted by them for me to go with the agency so they were obviously relieved to find out that I have friends to stay with and wouldnt need housing, which is a big expense. I told them I was making the rounds at the agencies in NY and that I would make my decision by Thursday or Friday on who I would be going with so they took my card and gave me their cards and said to call or email on Friday or Monday to let them know what my decision is.
WILHELMINA was next and that sure was an interesting one. After rejecting everyone that was there the girl asked me if I would be interested in doing promotional modeling for their W Media/W Runway division. I looked at her puzzled and asked what that was exactly. To me, I associate promo modeling with bar girls pushing beer. She said that was not the type they were talking about so I went in and met with a booker there to get more clarification on what exactly it was. Its not the type of modeling I am interested in doing but if I came out here and needed "filler" work to get some quick money to pay bills this would be an option since they said it was on a non-exclusive basis.
MAJOR was the last stop of the day and probably took the longest and was the most "interesting." I BARELY made it there for the open call because FORD and WILHELMINA took so long since I spent time talking with each about representation. So there were 4 other people there waiting to be seen so they had all of us line up in front of a door to the room where the bookers were and told us that we would introduce ourselves by name, location and age and then proceed to do a runway walk around the perimeter of the room as each booker watched us. There was a nice, but intially snotty, French woman running it that turned out to be the main lady at the agency. So after our walk they invited each of us back to talk with the French lady. When I went back to meet with her one-on-one she looked through my book and liked my pictures a lot and asked if I had modeled before. After talking about my history in the business she told me that she looks at me and sees a "money machine" but wonders if she has the clients for me. She then calls for one of the main bookers to come into her office to meet with me as well. That goes well and she then tells him to take me and introduce me to each booker and have them look at my book. So I make the rounds and meet about 9 people at the agency who all seemed to like me and my look. After all that was done she tells the guy to make sure to get my info, he then asks if he is to put me in their system right now but she says no, that I am doing the rounds and they will all be having a meeting about me later tonight. I take that as a good sign :)
So that was my day. Pretty busy, fun, disappointing to start but things ended on a good note. Tomorrow will be even busier with some BIG agencies so hopefully I have another good day! Even if no other agency is interested in me, with FORD in my corner this trip was worth it :)
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