Tough business behind the face of glamour

Modelling sounds glamorous and lucrative, but most wannabe models never reach the catwalk. As a new model agency opens in Dublin, Eoin Lyons looks at the business behind the dreams

Modelling seems so easy. You pose and walk around, dressed by the world's best designers, and get paid a fortune to do so. American Maggie Rizer, a star model and Vogue cover girl, lives the life many girls and women dream of. She reputedly receives $10,000 per catwalk show. Consider advertising campaigns on top of 80 shows a year and you can see the financial attraction.

There's more to the dream than fame: the world has acknowledged you as special - you're beautiful.

Few models reach such a level. Michael Gross, who wrote the book The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, would agree: "The fashion industry is like a sausage factory. Ten thousand girls go in one end and one model comes out of the other."

To have any chance, you need to move to New York or Paris and have a very, very good model agency representing you. For those who remain in Ireland, three Dublin companies are among those offering aspiring fashion models the most opportunities: Morgan The Agency, 1st Option and Assets.

A new agency, Chic Model Management, has just been opened in Dublin by Nicolas Alexander, an ex-model from Melbourne, Australia, and Aphria O'Brien, an Irish businesswoman. "I think there's a hunger for models that aren't overexposed here. We also believe there is a market for models from different cultures and nationalities; we have people from Asia and South Africa on our books," says Alexander.

There appears to be no shortage of young women who want a career as a fashion model. "Most of our models are new to the business and have either come to us or have been spotted by Nicolas, myself, or one of our 'eyes', those people we know who can see model potential in someone walking down the street," says O'Brien.

Rebecca Morgan of Morgan The Agency has been in the modelling business for 20 years, and explains the appeal. "It's perceived as glamorous, a job where you make a lot of money, travel, and have a great social life." Amanda Wong, a new model signed to Chic, says, "I want to be a model because it's an exciting lifestyle, it's fun and opens new opportunities."

It's a lucrative lifestyle, too. But what a model earns can vary. "We charge an hourly rate of €95 and a daily rate of €650. That's for photographic work. If there is repeated usage of a model's image, say for advertising, there is an additional fee for the model," says Julian Fallon of the 1st Option Model Agency.

The rate at Morgan The Agency is the same. "With fashion modelling, earnings depend on the type of work - showroom fittings would obviously be lower paid than a catwalk show. Money can of course go much higher when working internationally."

At Assets, John Crompton declined to give any figures, but said, "Rates are negotiable".

And yearly income? "There really is no average. A lot of it depends on where the image is used. You could do one great job and have your income made for the year," says Rebecca Morgan.

All three agencies take a 20 per cent cut of the model's fee. "A model is essentially self employed," says Rebecca Morgan. "An agent organises suitable work, advises and directs her career."

And there seems to be plenty of money to be made. "Great money is the reason I model," says Sinead Burt, who is with Morgan The Agency, "After four years, it's not as interesting as at the beginning, but it gives me a lot of free time which I probably wouldn't have otherwise."

Is there room for newcomer Chic is this competitive business? Morgan The Agency and 1st Option happily admit to flying in models from European agencies if a client wants an experienced model that the Irish market has never seen. Chic can certainly supply some new faces, whatever about very experienced models.Whereas other agencies have full-time models on their books, most of Chic's models will work only part-time to begin with, and only in Ireland. "As a new agency we can't guarantee anything yet. I won't be encouraging any of our models to give up their main source of income," says O'Brien of Chic, "unless you have particular contracts, it's a business where you don't know what's going to come from week to week."

Chic is eager to abide by the standards set by reputable agencies. "We're going to work with the same rates, take the same percentage and won't be charging for test photographs or grooming," says Alexander.

This expense can be one of the big rip-offs in modelling. "We have had many young women from other agencies come with poor photographs for which they had paid a lot of money, but still hadn't got any work," says Alexander. "They don't really have what it takes to be a model but have been told they do. We don't want to give people false hope."

Fallon agrees, "there are agencies who will accept anyone and charge them money for photographs, put them into a commercial section - and the model just won't get any work."

As well-intentioned as Chic may be, the only requirement to set up a model agency in Ireland is to obtain an Employment Agency licence from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

This is a licence that applies to a potential employer in any business and is relatively easy to obtain, meaning in theory anyone can be a model agent and anyone can use the guise of a model agency to take advantage of girls and women desperate to become models.

In Britain, industry practices are set by the AMA (Association of Modelling Agencies), but there is no such body here. "Many years ago I set up an association with the three main agencies of the day - ourselves, Geraldine Brand and Grace O'Shaughnessy. The other two left the business, and the idea died," says Rebecca Morgan. "It covered both how a model should be treated and the requirements that a client should expect from a model."

"I would wholeheartedly support an organisation to govern Irish modelling agencies," says Fallon, "it might help stop the undercutting of model rates. That damages everyone. Photographers don't like to see models in the studio one day and waitressing the next. Why is that happening?

"In part, it's because rates are being undercut and so the model finds it more difficult to make a full-time living."

John Crompton of Assets is less enthusiastic about the idea. "It would depend on what the conditions were. I can't really see what the point of it would be."

The point, suggests Morgan, is to create a forum for agencies to overcome problems within the industry.

"The guidelines set down in the past covered fees, bookings, cancellation charges, stand-by rates, illness and more. It can't be enforced - there are still cowboy agencies in England - but it is an ethos, a base of accepted conduct."

"It's not that we want to know each other's business!" laughs Fallon, "but competition should be between the models, not the agencies."

Even though fashion models must be slim, the Irish agents insist they can spot an eating disorder and will not tolerate it, no matter how successful the model might be. "You can tell if someone isn't eating healthily because it shows in their skin, hair or teeth. I always look for a glow. Most models eat well and have a fitness regime," says Fallon.

But anorexia isn't always immediately evident. "Although it's impossible to diagnose on sight alone, anorexics don't always look awful," says Dr John Griffen, director of the eating disorders unit at St Patrick's Hospital, in Dublin. "From what I see on the catwalk, many models seem to be below the weight they should be in relation to their height."

Models working in Ireland don't have to be as extremely thin as those in Paris or New York.

"Irish magazines and advertisers don't want that look because they get criticism from their public if they use very thin models," says Rebecca Morgan.

"If you don't have an excessively thin physique, you can still make plenty of money and work internationally. The high-fashion market that want that look is only one section of the business."

But it's no coincidence that the handful of Irish models - Jane Bradbury, Linda Byrne and Sorcha Tunney - who became well-known on the international circuit were, at the peak of their careers, very slim indeed. It has to be said that Catriona Balfe, the Irish model and star of recent ad campaigns for Marc Jacobs and Moschino, is also thinner than many of those working at home.

But for all that, Chic, like the other agencies, has young women phoning every day. "We get 30 to 50 calls a week from people who want to become a model. We might find one model out of a hundred girls."