Our regular readers will already be familiar with the lovely Simon Kuzmickas (FM Models), as we have featured him a few times already; once in our coverage of the London Collections: Men and then again more recently with our pretty damn cool editorial by Cecilie Harris "Let it Rain". We caught up with the Lithuanian-born Londoner after his shoot for the ‘Let It Rain’ editorial and made sure to chat to him about his hidden talents including sewing (we were very impressed with this little nugget of information indeed!), hobbies like his passion for photography and problems caused by a combination of high fashion and non-rideable bicycles!
This 20 year old BMXer is full of enthusiasm and we love what he has to say about his future, his thoughts on the fashion industry and his view on taking pictures. If you haven't checked out Simon's Boyd by Girls editorial yet then you can find it here, meanwhile read our full interview with this amazingly cute boy below.
How long have you been modelling for?
I've been modelling for or over a year now. A year and three months.
Is there an interesting story about how you were discovered?
I don’t know, depends how you define interesting... I was just walking down the street and discovered by these guys and they scouted me there and then. I did this like unsigned model search with Swarovski Crystallized, it was sort of a campaign.
Above: Simon wears Chinos by MQT DENIM, Cap MIKO SPINELLI and Santo Navy Derby shoe by OLIVER SWEENEY.
Polaroid by Cecilie Harris.
What is your favorite part of modelling so far?
Obviously I've been meeting a lot of people. I’m really interested in photography and I’m meeting a lot of photographers and sort of seeing the whole process… and of course free food, free booze.
What’s your favorite show you’ve done so far?
My favorite show I’ve done would probably be Topman Spring/Summer 2013. It was really nice working for Topman, because in general everything is often quite unorganized, but with Topman it’s more controlled, and they’re really nice people so.
What’s the craziest shoot or show you have done?
I did a Trussardi show in Milan which was an outdoor show, they had dogs there as well and they asked me if I could ride a bicycle down the catwalk instead of walking. I tried but the thing is that these bikes are made to look good, they don’t have brakes or anything. One catwalk starts sort of going down a hill and I tried a couple of times but it didn’t really work out… So I just sort of had the bike next to me and walked.
Aside from modelling, what do you spend your time doing?
I spend the majority of my time on photography because I’m doing photography at university. So I spend loads of time taking pictures, developing, printing. Also, I love riding my bicycle, riding my skateboard. Just chilling, which takes up a lot of time as well, because when you’re really tired and you just get back home after your lectures or something, you just chill.
Do you skate a lot?
Not really, I used to ride BMX but then when I moved to London, obviously I had to sell my bike, I couldn’t bring it here. I kind of miss that feeling you know? Just going down a hill with your music on at like 2am in the night. It’s just an amazing feeling, so I thought why not try skateboarding? Because I got a skateboard.
Can you do any tricks?
Yeah I can do some tricks but I’m not like a proper skateboarder, not at all.
What kind of stuff do you like to photograph?
I’m trying to try everything out and see what really attracts me the most, but I think I’m leaning more towards like editorial, portraiture and documentary so that kind of thing. I like fashion as well, but I don’t really know if that’s my thing.
So where do you see yourself in five years time?
I see myself on a bicycle, barefoot, in swimming shorts, going down a hill to the beach in LA or something. That would be the plan.
Just enjoying life!
Yeah, just enjoying life and chilling!
Would you have your camera with you?
Of course, I have my camera with me everywhere!
Give us a random fact about yourself.
My parents are designers, so I like sewing and making my own clothes. I wish I had a sewing machine here in London. The thing is, in Lithuania, the vintage second hand clothing shops are so cheap. Like you can buy a kilo of shirts for like £2.
If we could grant you three wishes, what would they be?
To get an unlimited credit card, but not because I’m greedy or something. It could allow me to do stuff I love without thinking about money. Another wish would be, I sort of want to try acting, like pro acting, proper movie acting.
That would be cool!
Yeah, like a film star. Another wish would be to get my eyes fixed, because my eyes are pretty bad. Instead of wearing contacts and glasses all the time.
That’s a good wish! And to finish off; is there anything you’d like to say to the BBG readers?
I’d like to say that Boys By Girls is really awesome, I didn’t expect it to be that awesome which is really cool. Umm… Yeah just keep reading Boys By Girls!
Cheers Simon, we send you hugs and kisses.
