[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

^^today in age it isnt possible, which is why boards usually split up models with bookers...or they will split jobs with bookers. If an agent has a better reputation with client A then they will handle models for that particular job

[JustABoy]

Clearly you're right about it being difficult to manage all these tasks, but let's wait to see if these girls fail before we completely rule out the possibility of this working. AFAIK there is a very small list of examples that we can use to evaluate this approach, so blanket ruling it out seems precocious, especially when we know that in 6-18 months if it is a completely failure, the movement thus generated will be documented on this forum. Also I'm sure there will be other people supporting this business in a specialized way, as happens in larger agencies ...

[fritmayo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TREVOFASHIONISTO ^^today in age it isnt possible, which is why boards usually split up models with bookers...or they will split jobs with bookers. If an agent has a better reputation with client A then they will handle models for that particular job

I 100% agree with you.
People just dont imagine how many things there is to handle, to make it impossible to be done just by one individual.
The most obvious being that a top girl works in different countries, and that a top agent in NY is relatively unknown in other countries, so that anyway, the management of a girl must be shared internationally which automatically limit the possibility of real "close management".

in the recent years, one agency has been near the maximum of 'close management' concept, it is Silent. In Paris, the 2 owners was caring of 90% of the booking of the main girls, and they were moving in NY when needed, like for fashion week. But of course now they grew up a bit in size and had to change that a bit, even if it still clearly the philosophy they follow.

beside that, of course when a top girl arrive in a new agency, or that a very promising new face is launched. the main booker or the boss will use his contact, to organize her a few special meeting with important clients, it is nothing new, it has always been like that, but it is for limited period of time, to boost the beginning.

[nothingless]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marsnoop2 Interesting tweet from thehisssquad: "Methinks Mr Habberly is working it for his girls right this min. Is private mgmt for a super-select half dozen girls the future? I ponder." I'm guessing Richard is just booking his girls jobs directly, this doesn't ever really work out for models, does it?

Which girls was he managing at Elite? Alessandra, Ana Beatriz, Bambi, Dree - does anyone know who else?

[agee]

I am not assuming that if a top agent / booker strikes out on his own that that means that he is doing all the scouting, booking, billing, scheduling, book assembling, phone answering, photocopying and coffee making by himself, presumably he will have paid help and I am pretty sure like others in the fashion industry he will have interns and even wannabe models to pitch in. All I am saying is that infrastructure wise, that it is actually less of a barrier these days than in past years. For example, twenty years ago you had to go out and buy the magazines and wait for them the come in the mail, clip the images and then put them in the models books. These days you "clip" the images from an electronic source like zinio or even tFS and create the books that way, in fact I think that there is software that assembles models' portfolios. It is like opening up a restaurant, the odds are that it will fail but that does not mean that it cannot be done by one person and his / her staff.

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

^yeah there is software to assemble it for the online book, but they still go out and buy the magazines to have the actual copy. Agents hate when they dont have the original copy of something because that means they have to order prints (extra money), and if a magazine or campaign is hard to find then they will have one or two copies mailed to them or an email with super hi-res images to order prints for. Models usually have 2 or 3 books and depending on how big they are they will have more, so agents try to have as many of the originals of an image, unless its a test shoot. Model Agencies usually have an account with a nearby magazine store, so that they can just pick up magazines and have them charged to the agency.

[theBlueRider]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TREVOFASHIONISTO ^yeah there is software to assemble it for the online book, but they still go out and buy the magazines to have the actual copy. Agents hate when they dont have the original copy of something because that means they have to order prints (extra money), and if a magazine or campaign is hard to find then they will have one or two copies mailed to them or an email with super hi-res images to order prints for. Models usually have 2 or 3 books and depending on how big they are they will have more, so agents try to have as many of the originals of an image, unless its a test shoot. Model Agencies usually have an account with a nearby magazine store, so that they can just pick up magazines and have them charged to the agency.

^correct
the power of digital this and that is changing things but more in the exposure of work rather than the infrastructure.
despite the ease of email and booking software, agencies still use messengers and all the top agencies have multiple portfolios for their girls which they cart around for clients...

the whole talk of one booker or two bookers managing a select group of models at different levels (new/fresh and established) and being successful at it does not work. i know of some agencies in ny who operate like that but it just does not work and those are the agencies that are basically a joke (to you, me and everyone else except for the girls on that board...).
in order for one booker to branch out and work on his own with his own girls, he needs a team working beneath him--and that is essentially the basic structure of any top agency just on different sizes. even silent paris had a team beneath them to do the bitch work and bread and butter work because time=money and time cannot be wasted.

[woemwoem]

I also think that as a lone wolf handling a small number of models, it would be extremely difficult to be plugged into the pipeline for new girls. Why would an agency in Russia or Brazil or China or Slovenia deal with a one-person operation when it could deal with an agency with the resources to manage a girl? Just ask yourself: If you're an agency somewhere in Europe and you want to send your brand new girl with star potential to New York, would you send her to this one-person operation, who has a terrific reputation and track record, but is still just one-person? Or would you send her to IMG or Next or Women or Ford who has a whole team of pros to help develop her?
And if you're not plugged into the pipeline of new girls, you cannot survive these days. The business is so driven by new faces now. Unless your little cadre of girls is comprised of Gisele, Kate, Lara, Karen Elson and other A+ girls, there is no guarantee that in one or two seasons, any of your models will be booking any serious work, so you need a continual flow of new girls to keep your clients interested.

[bothsidesnow]

This obsession with newness is interesting. It makes modeling more about the agency and less about the model. Its like the models are merely flag-bearers for their agency... they walk their hundred yards and then pass the flag on to the next girl. I think the tough part of an agent's work would be telling the girl to let go.

[woemwoem]

It's more about the clients than about the agencies or models. Editors, photogs and designers are the ones who push this incessant need for new faces. When the business got flooded with all these bland non-descript girls, there were these theories that designers were reacting against the glamazon supermodels of the 90s who attracted all the attention to the detriment of the designers and their creations.
I think this obsession with new girls is a manifestation of the same pathology. If you have this constant flow of new girls, there's less of a chance that they will become the new supermodels.

[bothsidesnow]

Yes, and I get the impression too that there are magazine editors, photographers and even some bloggers out there who are forever competing with one and other for the kudos of "discovering the next big thing".
It's now become a sport!

[agee]

If a small / new agency focuses on new faces, then it has decided to play in the transactional / commodity aspect of modeling as opposed to finding / developing / managing a few select girls and getting top bookings for them - think fast food restaurant versus four star restaurant. I don't think that another supermodel era is imminent, but I do think that the pendulum is swinging back towards models with personality and star power.

[fritmayo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bothsidesnow Yes, and I get the impression too that there are magazine editors, photographers and even some bloggers out there who are forever competing with one and other for the kudos of "discovering the next big thing". It's now become a sport!

There is also a simply and rude economic reason which push the business in huge new girls turnover, it is that to avoid the girls to become the new supermodels, means that the tariff stay under control.
So i also think that it is an important reason why clients prefer to often renew the girls.

So automatically, this gives to agency a big need to have new things to propose all the time, but that need has always been there, it has just changed a bit in the last years.

The new faces blogging thing is a funny things, nowadays, it is clearly laughable. It started with few bloggers with good eyes, spending time to spot good girls. Now they all become lazy, they receive girls proposal in their mailbox sent usually by the worst mother agents for who blogs is the only way to be visible, so the level got down the pants. Except models.com who is still rather selective about what they feature (and who are anyway the only site really regularly checked by the industry) i hardly read any other blog nowadays.

[fashunviktim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fritmayo There is also a simply and rude economic reason which push the business in huge new girls turnover, it is that to avoid the girls to become the new supermodels, means that the tariff stay under control. So i also think that it is an important reason why clients prefer to often renew the girls. So automatically, this gives to agency a big need to have new things to propose all the time, but that need has always been there, it has just changed a bit in the last years. The new faces blogging thing is a funny things, nowadays, it is clearly laughable. It started with few bloggers with good eyes, spending time to spot good girls. Now they all become lazy, they receive girls proposal in their mailbox sent usually by the worst mother agents for who blogs is the only way to be visible, so the level got down the pants. Except models.com who is still rather selective about what they feature (and who are anyway the only site really regularly checked by the industry) i hardly read any other blog nowadays.

i thought agencies had to pay to get their girls coverage on models.com?

[woemwoem]

^^I don't know but if that's so then MDC would have absolutely no credibility. If an agency has to pay MDC to get a girl ranked, then the rankings are a fraud. I've heard that agencies from time to time have issues with MDC. They refused to list DNA girls as being with DNA for a little while about 2 months ago, but I've not heard that an agency actually had to pay MDC to get coverage for their models.