General Advice for New Models.

Modelling is hard work. The vast majority of the models who make a success of it do so, not because they charge a fortune per hour but because they work hard. Damn hard. The harsh reality is that the frock is made before the model is booked. If you do not fit the frock, you do not get the job.

Modelling is not easy. Holding poses is one kind of physical effort but try this. Hide away in your bedroom and take your knickers off; put on another pair. Then change back again. Then change again. Keep doing that at the rate of 10 pairs an hour for three hours. Then have a 15 minute break and a cup of tea and then do it again for another three hours. Then you get a lunch hour and repeat for the afternoon. Do that for a week and your back will be on fire. You will be in considerable pain.

NO ONE WILL CARE and if you fail to turn up on the Friday you will be marked down as unreliable and not be booked again. That can be the reality of catalogue underwear modelling. You get paid. You don't get a credit and all the public see is mid-thigh to lower tummy. Try boasting to your friends about that!

You will achieve nothing by trying to be your heroine in the modelling world. She, whoever she is, is already better at being her than you ever will. You must be you, as you are the very best you there ever has been or ever will be. So be you. You are valuable, an impersonation of Twiggy or Jean Shrimpton (who they?) will get you nowhere.

You will never get more than a small percentage of the jobs on offer. Do not fret about that because that is real life and you can not change it. If the job needs a 60 year old man, you don't get it. If it calls for a 12 year old child, you don't get it. Etc. etc. etc. If it calls for someone your size, age, body-type, colouring..... you MIGHT get it.

What will make the difference that means you do get it?

Three things:

RELIABILITY
RELIABILITY
RELIABILITY

Get a reputation for NEVER No Showing.
For ALWAYS being  a little bit early
For ALWAYS being reliable.
For NEVER complaining. That includes moaning about last weeks shoot, what you boyfriend did to the cat or that Jeremy Corbyn just got re-elected as Labour Party Leader.
ESPECIALLY never tell a photographer another photographer's trade secrets.

If you want to do fashion you must be the right height, weight and body shape. That does not mean that you will only make money from taking your clothes off. There is a lot of scope for Life Style models. Indeed they can keep going for a lot longer, career wise. You must examine the market place. Decide where you want to be in that market place and sell yourself into it.

If you decide to take your clothes off, the ONLY person who can decide that is you. NEVER let a photographer make that decision for you. ONCE YOU HAVE DONE IT YOU CAN NEVER UNDO IT. If the images are out there, they are out there forever.

NO ONE will beat a path to yor door.

You must be organised. Keep a note-book with you at all times. Make notes of possible new contacts and how to approach them. Keep notes of who you have communicated with, how you communicated and what was said. Note when you need to follow up and do so. The hardest thing of all: strike the right balance between reminding people you are available and being a pest. That is very difficult and needs some social sensitivity in reading how people are responding.

If that does not put you off then you may have the character that you will need. If it does put you off, then consider that it is not for you.

ABOVE EVERYTHING KEEP SAFE. There are lot of nice people in the industry but there are also some total animals who should have been shredded by the mid-wife. You do not know which is which. Be careful. Read the Keep Safe articles.