Model.Live, a collaboration between Vogue and modeling agency IMG, sponsored by Express.com and co-published by Bebo, purports, X-Files-like, to “reveal the truth” about professional models’ lifestyles and the rigorous requirements of their jobs.
And like Agent Mulder, I want to believe, but it’s a typically melodramatic pitch from an industry that’s constantly trying to prove the seriousness and importance of what is an innately superficial enterprise. Models make loads of money for brands — why anyone in that industry feels a need to invoke a higher calling or rationalize that job beyond money is beyond me. It’s like people telling you their dreams. Boorish.
That said, Model.Live’s fun to watch. In the first episode we’re introduced to three young IMG models whose exotic looks are matched only by their Star Wars cantina-esque names: Austria Alcantara from the Dominican Republic, Cato van Ee from Amsterdam, and Madeleine Kragh from North Carolina. Each of the girls explains her backstory and motives — seize the day, do something different, etc. — while the camera follows make-up artists readying the girls for a shoot.
We’re then privy to an IMG strategy session, in which the agency execs discuss each model’s strengths and weaknesses, and how they’ll pitch the models to new clients. Alcantara, being only 16, hasn’t learned how to be instantly camera-ready, and travels with her mom. Van Ee’s done modeling work for Prada, but now she’s beholden to a variety of clients. Kragh’s never traveled the entire modeling circuit — New York, Milan, London, Paris — and isn’t accustomed to the demands of the job.
The execs also do a great job at explaining the different skill sets each model needs. “You know, the casting agents are going to call up and say ‘who’s brand new?’, and you’re going to give them someone who’s brand new and they’re going to, like, throw seven-inch heels on her, and then they’re going to be like ’she can’t walk!’,” one quips. It’s a more serious, less facetious look at modeling than, say, America’s Next Top Model, in which modeling skills are unveiled only under the klieg lights of public humiliation and the self-aggrandizement of an aging supermodel. The series is also shown on the social networking site Bebo, where members can interact with the models by friending them and following their daily exploits through text messages, blog postings and posted shoot schedules.
If there’s anything uncomforting about Model.Live, it’s how awkwardly coltish the girls look. How they move, how they eat — the full zoo voyeurism effect. As with zoos there’s a feeling of wonder (how strange!) and sadness (in cages!). But with modeling shows like this you have additional emotions — envy (the lifestyle), schadenfreude (the painful heels), and maybe even self-disgust for being so enthralled with it all.
