'You don't earn as much money as the girls': a day in the life of a male model
It's one of the few industries where men earn less than women, so why do they do it? New face Tommy Marr talks about the ups and downs of the job over the course of a day hopping between appointments across London
Lauren Cochrane
The Guardian, Friday 7 March 2014 14.41 GMT
Tommy Marr lives with his mum in Ealing, west London, shops in Topman and follows Tottenham Hotspur. He tweets about everything from his toenail falling off to "giving it large in Croatia" and posts pictures of his coffee cup decorated with a smiley face because the "Starbucks lady 100% fancied me". So far, so your average 18-year-old boy in 2014.
That coffee comment might not have been just adolescent bravado. Marr is likely to turn heads, even of the most harried barista: he's 1.9m (6ft 2in) tall, blond with green eyes, a cheeky grin, a baby face with added cheekbones. He's also a male model. On the books of Next, one of London's biggest agencies (they also look after supers including Arizona Muse and Malgosia Bela), today he's on his way around London for appointments with Longchamp, Burberry and Margaret Howell.
These are castings – open model auditions – for shows at London Collections: Men, the menswear fashion week that takes place in January. He is on his way from his agency's office on Old Street to a casting for a Longchamp presentation around the corner. Once inside, the world of the male model starts to take shape. Five or six other boys, all accompanied by the telltale "book" – a black A4 portfolio with photos of previous work inside – and regulation cheekbones, sit on benches in a reception area, staring straight ahead in silence. This is not an industry where friends are easily made. Marr, who also plays football semi-professionally, says "it's almost as competitive. I have a couple of model friends but not loads. You don't tend to go around together".
When Marr's name is called, another aspect of his day-to-day reveals itself – quite literally. Marr strips off to be photographed in one of the brand's suits. He's wearing pants with the Superman logo on the waistband. He's still just a boy. He may have started his career with an exclusive on the Calvin Klein catwalk in Milan, but he's inexperienced. "I have done shoots when I have to pretend it's summer, standing in my pants, been in a bath and asked to blow bubbles," he says, with a smile at the mysteries of the industry.
Following Marr – chosen at random from a selection of new faces – is a study in one of fashion's least high-profile industries. Every move of the zeitgeist's current favourite model Cara Delevingne is followed in its minutiae, but her male counterparts are left well alone. Ask a passerby to name a male model and they would probably say Derek Zoolander, the antihero of Ben Stiller's hilarious 2001 spoof of the industry. While the 80s produced a couple of models that edged towards household name – Tyrese, Marcus Schenkenberg – the trend hasn't continued.
The idea of a stable of male supermodels equivalent to Naomi, Kate, Claudia and Christy seems remote, sure, but men's fashion is on the up. Estimated to be worth £10.4bn in 2013, it's grown 12% in the past five years, and a study by Mintel suggests this will continue, with growth to 2017 predicted at 11%. In line with this change, the interest in male models is also growing. Forbes magazine now publishes a list of the highest-paid male models alongside its one for women, and there are a couple of names on there – David Gandy, Sean O'Pry – that might just resonate outside of the industry. The March cover of US men's magazine Details features 10 of the biggest names working in men's fashion today.
Male models are still small fry compared with the female of the species, though. The combined total earnings of the top 10 male models – £4.85m – is dwarfed by their female counterparts, who earned more than £50m. Sarah Vickery, Marr's agent at Next, is quite upfront about it. "It's the only industry, apart from prostitution, where men get paid less," she says.
Vickery – who has the unenviable task of organising the lives and careers of a bunch of teenage boys – is sanguine. "The day rate for a catalogue model is around £3,500 for a guy, but it's £8,000 for a girl," she says. "There's not really much you can do about that."
Patrick McKenzie, who began modelling in the noughties was paid $500 (£307) for appearing in a Gucci campaign, while the girls "were probably on $10,000. I didn't care – I thought it was a fortune". Fifteen years later, Marr is resigned to the difference, too. "Unless you're David Gandy, you don't earn as much money as the girls," he says, sat on the 55 bus from Old Street as it lurches around another corner on its way to Hackney Central. "I guess it kind of makes sense – there's a lot more focus on girls' fashion."
Indeed. Menswear's £10.4bn worth has nothing on the women's industry, which was estimated at about £20.7bn in 2012. This massive disparity could be down to the fact that, for an average Joe who likes fashion, an interest in models is not an extension of being interested in clothes. According to Kevin Braddock, editor-in-chief of style magazine Sleek (which published a special on masculinity earlier this year), "Any heterosexual guy found staring at another guy is going to have an elbow in the ribs from his friends."
While society sees a direct link between female models and how young girls feel about their looks, Braddock believes their male counterparts have less impact on their sex's self-esteem.
"A successful guy is never going to reach the heights of Gisele [Bündchen, the world's highest-paid model, who earned more than £25m last year]," says Ryan Frost, a men's booker at London agency, Models 1, "but if you're an 18-year-old kid, the money isn't bad."
Marr models only part-time, but he's giving it a good go. Now at the casting for Common – a Swedish brand making its debut at LC:M – in an industrial estate in Hackney Wick, he's struggling to get his footballer's thighs into regulation skinny trousers. Not that he lets that trouble him much – for a young model, it is all about casting your net wide. Rejection from one designer might mean open arms from another. He has high hopes for Burberry and Tom Ford, both of whom tend to use more athletic body types. "You have to be quite resilient," he says, on the walk to the train station, checking his phone for his next appointment. Marr's look – healthy, fresh-faced and with good bone structure – works in his favour. Adam Hindle, a casting director who works across Tom Ford to Damir Doma, says the aesthetic changes depending on the client but "it has been more grownup over the last few seasons".
"People want healthy at the moment," Vickery adds, "kind of like Bruce Weber but less bulky." Marr, with a bit of fake tan, would fit right in.
Even with all this on his side, Marr should be prepared for a shockingly short career. Frost says out of 10 boys that Models 1 might initially sign, only three or four move from new faces to the main board – where established models are grouped – and therefore stand the test of time. Even then, an editorial model – a boy who has an indie rather than boyband look – could be modelling for only four years.
As with the women, male models are often young and naive when they start to work in a grownup industry. This can spell classic "too much too young" trouble. Patrick McKenzie, the Gucci model, started working in 1999 after he was spotted by a casting agent. He started at the top. The California native's first job was in front of Mario Testino's lens, paired with supermodel Jacquetta Wheeler. For a 19-year-old boy, it felt great. "Guys are happy to be an object of desire," he says.
But he quit after five years because he felt overwhelmed by it. "You're in your formative years, legitimately an adult but really you're just out of high school. And living like that, it really does a number on you because there's no accountability other than turning up on time."
Now 33, he's since rejoined the industry, but works as a film-maker. He's art-directed videos for big names such as Taylor Swift, and he is currently working on a documentary about the alienation of the male model experience. It was partly prompted by the suicide of several friends, including Josh Sangster, a Canadian model who died after a work trip to Tokyo. McKenzie is keen to stress that modelling wasn't to blame for the tragedies, but says that it's an easy industry for young men to disappear without a trace. "These guys had some serious emotional and psychological issues before becoming a model, but the lifestyle is certainly not conducive to a man prone to depression," he says. "There wasn't anything unusual about staying in bed for a week or doing copious amounts of drugs to escape."
While Marr seems too much of a happy chap to succumb to this dark side, he says modelling has made him grow up. "I used to be a right little ****," he admits with a smile.
The new mature Marr does still make a few mistakes. After those December castings, he's in Tenerife with his mates during the crucial post-Christmas flurry when designers such as Tom Ford and Burberry – the big guns – are on the hunt for models. Back in London in time for the shows, he is booked for just two – Bobby Abley, the young London designer who is part of the MAN initiative, and Superdry, clothier to the masses. Watching him walk in Abley's show – with bunny ears and cartoon-printed top – followed by the hoodies and jeans of Superdry is a surreal snapshot of 24 hours in the life of a male model.
It turns out, though, it's one Marr is turning his back on, at least for the moment. He has been signed elsewhere – to play as a fullback for League Two side Chesterfield. "This is my last show for six months," he says, backstage at Superdry. "I hope I can come back to it."
Vickery has little doubt he can. "He's a classic cool boy, so has longevity," she says. "The football might even add to his appeal – clients these days want personality."
To be a male model seems like a transient stage in a young man's life, a moment in front of the camera on the way to something else. The prize might not be as greenbacked as Gisele's but – if the floodlights of a football pitch don't come calling – other rewards are certainly theirs for the taking.
One thing's for sure, though: a male Cara Delevingne won't be on the scene any time soon.
• This article was amended on Friday 7 March 2014 to correct the spelling of two names. Patrick McKenzie's name was formerly given as Patrick Kenzie and Josh Sangster as Josh Stagner.
And what a cute face... He's truly outstanding.
