After I wrote about Charlie and the importance of details, I got to thinking about what I had seen in both the advertising and fashion industries in Toronto. The modeling agent we worked with was Molly Petty. If I remember correctly, the title of her business was Molly Petty Producers Services. She represented actors as well as models in both fashion and photography. It surprised me when I learned there were all sorts of different types of models. The most unusual one I remember where those who were hand models. They were used where only the hands of the model would be in the photo. There was an amazing difference between the male and female models. Almost every one of the male models I knew were ass holes. They thought they were God’s gift to the world. There were very few female models who were not easy to get along with and always willing to pose as asked. I have heard a male model say, “You can’t shoot me from that side. It’s my bad side.” I never heard a female model say anything like that.
The fashion models – the ones who walk the runways – were also unique. There was an expression among fashion designers at that time that if they could find a clothes hanger that could walk they’d rather use them than models. Fashion designers didn’t want anything that would distract from their clothing. They wanted models who were that neither too pretty or too handsome. They wanted a particular physique because they wanted their fashions modeled by someone of a “standard size.” It seemed the designers felt that that “standard size” presented their fashions in the best possible way. In photography, I only saw one particular requirement for size and that was for a lingerie catalog. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me because the photos would go to an airbrush artist and he or she would lay a piece of acetate over the photo and redraw the lingerie and then that overlay would be photographed and that photograph was what would be used in the catalog. I guess the size specification was because the manufacturer wanted to know what sizes to send for the photographs. Every model had a sheet that listed all his or her sizes. It made selecting a model easy.
All in all it was fun to be a part of that world if for only a very short time. I learned a couple of things. I definitely learned to be a better photographer. I also learned that what seemed to be glamorous got that way through hard work on the part of everyone involved.
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LOL, There was a great episode in Seinfeld : https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=BniKoHRlMi0
Great bit from Seinfeld. The hand models were very obsessive over their hands. They had to be because that’s the way they made their living or at least supplemented their income. I remember one hand model was near the due date of her pregnancy and obviously very uncomfortable. She was modeling some engagement rings. She said something that went something like this, “If I knew when agreed to get married it would leave me this uncomfortable, I’d never do it again.”