We'll start with the basics—the difference between “commercial modeling” and “editoral modeling.” In explaining the organization and mission of editorial verses commercial agencies, nothing I say should be misconstrued to suggest that one is better than the other. They’re simply different in some very important ways, and anyone who wants to work with these agencies (or become an agent, for that matter) should have a clear understanding of what those differences are. Admittedly, I am working with an editorial bias, as that is where my personal efforts are directed. This will undoubtedly leave readers with the feeling that editorial is better than commercial—again, not true.

Commercial Modeling

Basically, commercial models play rolls. They represent working mom's, construction workers, police officers, doctors, etc. I know a very active commercial model (Aaron Marcus) who wrote a book on commercial modeling. I mention Aaron because I think I saw him recently in a national TV ad (very strange roll, he wound up dancing around in a cheerleader outfit). He could play anyone, he is that good (well, maybe not the working mom, but who knows, he is talented!) Most people could work as commercial models, but the closer you are to "mainstream" looks (attractive, young, healthy), the more opportunity you will have to work. However, as I have said in the past, sometimes they want a big, dumb, bald, white guy, then I get to work, and have. These jobs are fewer than you probably think, so I don't get called often. Remember the "Where's the beef?" lady? Or the woman who did some ads for Snapple? Hardly young, attractive, and well, maybe they were healthy, who knows. These are commercial models, and they work when the casting calls for a person who looks like they do. The more flexible the look, the more available and reliable you are, the more you will work. And far more potential models will find work if they chose commercial modeling.

Commercial agents load up on comp cards, featuring as many looks as they can. The prospective client calls, a commercial agent wants to have models who fit the client's needs. Now, some commercial agencies (the more successful ones) do specialize in a particular look for their market as a way of differentiating themselves, so one agency may have more ethnic models than the others in their market, or more beefcake males, or more Spanish-speaking models. (Spanish speaking? Yes, most commercial agencies do castings for TV commercials, this is part of the business!)

So, a good commercial agency will represent as many models as they can, and will accumulate as many quality comp cards as possible. Also, commercial agencies are always on the lookout for qualified male models, as males play a very important roll in commercial advertising. Keeping track of the models, maintaining updated records as to phone numbers, addresses, getting current comps, freshening the agency book, all play an important roll in the daily activities of a commercial agent. It is a hard business, but commercial agents do far more bookings in shear numbers than their editorial counterparts. Virtually every city of any size in the United States has a few good commercial agencies, and some larger cities support more than a few. Editorial agencies are quantitatively and qualitatively quite different from their commercial counterparts.

How does this fit Miami Beach? Well, commercial fashion clients come here, and want (or think they want) the big deal editorial models, so they go to agencies who have them. By the way, that also defines South Beach. Clients looking for editorial models do come to South Beach for the season. They do not go to a hundred other markets I can think of. If you can establish your editorial credentials as an agency by successfully finding, developing, promoting and managing a few high profile models, they will call you and other agencies like yours. In Miami there are maybe seven such agencies and maybe thirty other relatively successful commercial agencies. But those seven get the big calls for the top dollar catalog and advertising work. Do they really want those sixteen year old new faces? Yes, in Miami, they do. If the girl can deliver, they want them most of all. They are cheaper, and they are "fresh". Everyone wants to get in on making one of those fresh new faces successful. Everyone wants to share in the "glory". ("Oh, I made her, I gave her her first real break, she was nothing before us! Trust me.") Oh yes, all part of the business.

If an agency can get to a position where it is thought of as an editorial agency, it raises all the boats. Again, here in Miami, the agencies like Wilhelmina and Irene Marie have substantial commercial books. Most of their models are commercial models, because even commercial clients will call Irene Marie and Wilhelmina first. Why? Because they are thought to have the best models. They get to pick, so they must be better. And the commercial clients pay. Irene Marie's bookings for commercial models are better bookings than those the exclusively commercial agencies get. It all works down hill for Wilhelmina and Irene Marie, because they have the reputation (deserved or not) as having an editorial board, so they get the cream of the commercial market as well. ("Board", means a separate part of the agency where the bookers only work with a select group of models, the editorial "board". The comps are kept separate on their own rack, hence the name "board". The bookers in that part of the agency do not cross models with other parts of the agency.)

So how do agencies do this in Miami? Well, first they find models who look like editorial models to begin with. They will be tall, young and uniquely beautiful. You don’t cheat. If you say the girl is 5'9, she is 5'9, if you say she is 19, she is not 24. (Cheating comes later, after you’re successful.) First you have to show you know how to pick. Then, after season in Miami, you have to be prepared to move the models to Milan or Paris to get their true editorial credentials. There are probably twenty times more fashion magazines in Europe compared to the US. The pay stinks, but the pictures are fabulous. Every young boy with a camera in the US wants to shoot for Playboy, but every young boy in Italy wants to shoot for Vogue—and their work shows it. Then when they come back to Miami or New York, the young new faces DO have those editorial tear sheets—the covers. And their commercial rates go up. AND you’re an editorial agency. Ultimately, the agencies and the models wind up in the same place. Commercial bookings pay the bills for all the agencies and the models, both commercial and editorial. But how you get there, and what rates a client is willing to pay for those commercial bookings, differ significantly.

Commercial modeling is a huge field, encompassing most forms of print modeling (modeling for photographers), and modeling which doesn't involve photography. I’ll mention a few areas of modeling you may not be familiar with.

Promotional modeling which includes convention type events. At conventions or trade shows, models are used as greeters at booths, they hand out literature, handle promotional items such a hats, T-shirts, key chains (one booth I went to a year ago, a model handed me a yo-yo, great item, we still play with them at the studio!), and sometimes answer basic questions such as when seminars or demonstrations are scheduled. Yes, the girls are sometimes eye-candy, but any good planner will tell you that the right model can increase traffic through a booth substantially. One of the most successful models in the Washington, DC market (where I started) works two or three convention/trade shows a month. There she develops contacts with the marketing people (who work the booths) to get print work. She has favorite clients and virtually all of her print work comes from these contacts. She has learned the customers product lines and is now considered an invaluable asset, often traveling (at corporate expense) to major cities for these companies when they are participating in a trade show. While most trade shows pay $100 to $300 a day, she now commands $500 a day plus expenses with her best customers. Promotional modeling also includes passing out samples at cosmetic counters (often during the Christmas buying season) during special promotions arranged by the companies, and events like beer or liquor promotions at local watering holes (Bud Girls, Miller, or TQ Hot, a spicy Tequila). You have to be 21 in most jurisdictions for these jobs.

Showroom modeling. Not a cat walk, but a fashion show usually arranged by a local department store where clothes are shown in an informal atmosphere for select customers at the store or sometimes at a nice restaurant. Sometimes the models are expected to be able to answer simple questions like how comfortable the fabric feels, price points, even cleaning instructions. Contacting the local stores will allow a model to find out if these events occur in your area, and how you arrange to be considered for the work. Some of the major stores have teen boards, where local high school age models are used for local fashion shows. If you are young this is a good way to get started, if you like fashion runway.

Now the areas of commercial modeling that involve photography...

Commercial Print is exactly that, models used in photographic advertising. Models can be any size, age or type. They must just be appropriate for the ad that is being shot. While the vast majority of print models look like models (attractive), I worked in a print ad campaign where the art director told me they needed a thug, and I looked like a thug! Go figure. I also wound up in a movie because the roll called for a big, dumb, bald, white guy. Turns out they are hard to find at your local agency. I qualified for SAG and they wanted to get me an agent. (I turned them down as the type of romantic leading rolls I am constantly offered are so boring.) Commercial print includes catalog modeling, beauty products, life style (such as models who appear in health club ads, vacation layouts, et al), fashion ads (even those famous models doing Versace ads are doing commercial print, not editorial work), anything where a model is used in an ad to sell a product or a service. Most glamour print modeling such as swimsuit calendars, posters, etc. are a form of commercial print work. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is editorial, and personally, I consider the Playboy centerfold (of this type of magazine, only Playboy, and only the centerfold) to be a form of Editorial modeling.

Kids. All kids are commercial models, and many observers consider men to be primarily commercial models. Commercial models are used in television ads and instructional or corporate videos. This is a very specialized but lucrative area of modeling, and why another good friend, Gino Cox in LA, often recommends getting involved in theater classes and school plays while you are in school. You have to start somewhere, why not while you are trapped in the educational system anyway? Commercial modeling is by far the largest and most diverse field of modeling, and while the average income of commercial models does not approach the levels of the top editorial models, many commercial models make very attractive incomes, and work steadily with long careers. In truth, in the US all agencies not located in New York are really commercial agencies, even the branches of the majors like Ford and Elite (but don't tell them I said so, they can be very touchy about this.) Okay, this is a quick overview of commercial modeling. I have hardly scratched the surface, but it will give you a sense of the breadth of the field.

Editorial (Fashion) Modeling

True editorial modeling is much smaller in scope and is limited to a few select cities. Most importantly, it is defined by the models themselves. Remember that concept.

Editorial fashion models are tall, young, and thin—as in “mother wants to take you to the doctor” thin. Claudia Schiffer is 5'11 and was reported to weigh 118 pounds. The industry takes a lot of heat about this for creating unhealthy images for young (and not so young) women, but that doesn't change the reality. A girl 5'5" and 130 pounds is pretty close to perfect, but that won’t cut it in Big City fashion. Are there exceptions? Sure. A height of 5'9" is usually the minimum, but Kate Moss is actually around 5'7. Cindy Crawford at the height of her editorial career weighed.... well, lets just say that she weighed more than 118 pounds. Above all else editorial models must be beautiful—not necessarily blonde and blue eyed—but unique, and in reality, truly feminine.

When they start, most editorial models are way too young to be doing this. Sixteen to seventeen is a median age for new faces. There is simply no way women this young can possibly be prepared for the stress and commitment editorial fashion demands of them.

So why am I getting into all this? In part because most young people who consider modeling are familiar only with editorial models, and very few will ever possess the physical qualifications for an editorial career.

The editorial model plays herself. She defines who she is, the roll does not define her. Editorial models are promoted and exposed (sometimes literally), ......and they are managed carefully. This also differentiates the job of an editorial agent as well, for their job is not so much keeping track of models, but finding exquisite creatures and creating a market for them.

Create a market? Not possible you say? The market is there, you fill it. Not really in editorial modeling. Yes the market is there, but it is the job of the agent to prepare and promote their models in such a way that the market comes to them. Initially the agent is looking for high profile jobs, not necessarily high paying jobs, particularly with a new face. Get that model known, create a demand for "Cindy", not a 5'9 brunette with high cheek bones. Get those editorial tears, get some covers. The pay is lousy for those jobs? Tough, you will be better known, you have been picked! And there is the rub. Someone "picked" the model. First the agent who signs the model, picks. (got a great comp? But you're not really 5'9, and you're really 26, not the 21 you told someone? Fogeddaboudit! And this is where an editorial agent lives and dies—you have be able to tell who has the "look". If you can't do it, your gone. Grizzly business. Then the magazines get to pick, the editors pick the models for the fashion editorial spreads. Why? Because all the models want those jobs, theoretically the magazine picks the best! Right.

What really happens is that the agents spend a lot of time calling, schmoozing, arm wrestling, what ever it takes to get the model a go-see for those jobs. Makeup artists have favorites, they push certain people. A high rolling client likes a particular model? They pay the bills at the magazines, you use that leverage. (Think of the models the Marciano brothers have literally created with their "Guess" campaigns.) Getting picked. Think about the leverage Sports Illustrated has in editorial fashion, they pick, the model becomes a bazillionaire, her agent buys a new car. Sports Illustrated pays next to nothing for those girls, and why should they? Suck up to Sports Illustrated (or in my case, CBS)? You bet! As the guy said in "Pretty Woman", we are talking about major league sucking up! Getting picked. That's editorial fashion. The clients know next to nothing, but if a good agency picked the girl, if a magazine used her in editorial spreads, if another high profile client picked her, then the client thinks she must be great! I want her! I'll pay for her! Anyway, that is how it is supposed to work. And, it does for the most part.

The top fashion agencies give only exclusive contracts, usually two to five years for a “new face.” They have the contacts with the fashion magazines to help you build that "name", and they expect to benefit from that relationship through that exclusive relationship. Their resources are directed solely to the development of the models they represent, which is why you see the term "Model Management" in so many of the agency names. If you want Karolina Kurkova, you call DNA, not Ford. If you want Gisele Bündchen, call IMG, not Wilhelmina. The "inventory" of a commercial agency is it's clients (Coke, Kodak, Xerox), The "inventory" of an editorial agency is it's models (Kate, Gisele, Karolina, Adriana). In short, commercial agencies have clients and find models, fashion agencies have models and find clients.

Editorial models are (as Jacque Duroi, a good friend who worked in Paris and Milan, said) expected to live the life. You model, that's it. You may wait tables or something else part time to pay the rent when you start, but you model. If you were not in front of a camera today, you had a bad day, money or no money. You take jobs or work with certain photographers for your entire career which pay little or nothing, simply because they build your name and give you exposure. I can think of no other career where the "prestige" jobs pay so little. Most here would be stunned to learn how little a model is paid for the cover of Vogue or Elle, or for the purely editorial layouts inside those magazines. So why do it? Because it builds a name. Then when an advertiser calls the agency, they are not asking for a "type" (brunette, athletic, Asian, bald, dumb), they are asking for Gisele, Karolina, or Kate. There may be a thousand beautiful blondes, but because of all of her magazine layouts and covers, there is only one Claudia Schiffer. Once your name and image are established, you go to the bank big time doing fashion ad work (commercial modeling). Why? Because the ad agency or designer wants Claudia, not a thin, busty blonde. There are lots of busty blondes, but only one Claudia. And you PAY for Claudia.

Every editorial model spends some time in the trenches, go here, go there, shoot with this photographer, cut your hair, loose some weight, go to the agency, get your go-sees. Had a bad night? Tough. Went on six go-sees yesterday with no bookings? Too bad, here are four more, do it. Live the life. Models don’t "try" editorial fashion modeling, fashion tries you. It’s hard and it’s suppose to be hard. That’s what makes it great. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

I’ve worked as a professional photographer, both commercial and editorial. Like modeling, this is not an easy business to get started and stay in professionally. Those that survive are passionate about what they do, you wouldn't stay with this if you didn't love it with an emotion that’s hard to describe. However, depending on what side of the street you work on (commercial or editorial), your experiences and expectations of models and agents can be radically different. I work almost exclusively as a commercial photographer and represent myself as such, but I have worked with fashion agencies and fashion models. I like commercial models, they are gifted and talented people. And they want to get paid. I love fashion models, they want great pictures, if you can't deliver, forget about it (trust me on this one, the world is full of fashion models who can't remember my name!).

I have left out one very important (and bizarre) value attached to editorial modeling. This business, particularly at the upper levels, is one of processionary caterpillars. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, processionary caterpillars are caterpillars who travel through the jungle with the head of one pressed firmly against the butt of the caterpillar in front of it. They travel along like this until a food source is found. It is said that if you gather a string of these caterpillars and arrange them so they form a circle, they will march around happily until they starve to death! The comparison to advertising is that if someone else is doing it, or using a certain model, then by gosh, we should be doing it too! The old saw in business is that no middle manager ever lost his job recommending AT&T or IBM.

How does this apply to modeling and photography? Well, this is why editorial assignments are held in such high esteem. Theoretically, a major magazine—say Sports Illustrated for example—can chose any model they want to appear in the swimsuit issue. Virtually every model in the business likes to travel, go to exotic locations, get fawned over, pampered, and have all of her expenses paid, so who wouldn't take the assignment? In addition, the magazine could probably pick any photographer for the assignment, pay only expenses, let them shoot some of the most delightful creatures on the planet earth, and I doubt they would have any problem finding takers from the most talented and successful photographers in the world. Now, here is the rub. Since most models want the assignment, and since most photographers would kill to shoot it, the magazine gets to pick the people they think are the best. And guess what? It doesn't matter who they pick, a ton of other people will now think these chosen ones walk on water, and will stand in line to hire these silly rascals for a lot of money. A lot, lot, lot of money. Why? Is it because they are truly the most beautiful, the most talented? No. Who can possibly say that any working model is not beautiful? Or that one is more beautiful than the rest? You see, it does not matter, Sports Illustrated said they are, so they must be! A major advertiser wants to refresh their ad campaign…maybe introduce a new product or two…guess who they want to do it? Why the most beautiful woman in the world, the Sports Illustrated cover girl. She must be the most beautiful, Sports Illustrated picked her!

Now you know why any model should want to be on the cover of Vogue, or the spring fashion editorial spread in Elle, or the....well you get the picture. And why photographers would kill to shoot those same assignments. Pay? Again, fogedaboutit! Who cares? They know that if they get picked by the lead caterpillar, the others will soon follow. And they will pay for the privilege.

Well, that should keep you thinking for a while. In Part 2 we’ll see how prospective models get started in the business of modeling.

John Fisher
www.JohnFisher.com
Miami Beach