Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling

by Amanda M. Czerniawski

  Plus-size models, too, are susceptible to this uncertainty and are at the mercy of an agent and his or her willingness to try to sell her look. Velvet D’Amour experienced this firsthand when she took her chances at a top New York City modeling agency after losing eighty pounds as a result of taking Fen-phen:

  I remember going in and she looked at my pictures and she said, “You know, your nose is too wide. Your chin is too long. And your eyes are too close together.” It was very, very berserk. Here I had lost all this weight and I was thinking, “woo hoo,” and thought I looked really great.

  This agent had a well-defined concept of a marketable model that Velvet could not match; yet, Velvet received more than a simple rejection. She gained insight into a beauty ethic espoused by the fashion industry that is not always consistent. One hopeful plus-size model may be turned away by one agency and signed by another the next day. Body aesthetics change. Agents, as gatekeepers within a cultural industry, navigate through a fluctuating market demand for models.

  What these cases demonstrate is that the modeling industry has strict yet unpredictable standards of what is considered marketable. While proportionality of body and facial features is required from any model despite prevailing trends, a desirable look can vary from season to season because clients “shape taste and inculcate new consumerist dispositions rather than respond passively to consumer demands.”4 It is the role of the agent, as mentor and job hunter, to assess trends in fashion and guide his or her models through this uncertainty. It is the agent who advises the model on how to dress for a particular client and what to say to land the job.

  Beyond possessing a desirable (i.e., marketable) look, a model needs to know how to sell that look through posing. To evaluate a model’s posing aptitude, an agent first sends her to a photographer for a test shoot. A test shoot evaluates a model’s capacity for affective labor, i.e., her ability to emote well for the camera. These shoots are also an opportunity for the model to test her skills and figure out which poses flatter her body. One agent equated this test shoot with entering a trade school to learn a craft. According to the agent, “This first step [the test shoot] is Modeling 101. The next step is Modeling 102, learning to smile and work with the arms.” A model can learn how to effectively pose from testing in front of a camera and later surveying the proofs. As one model mentioned, she studied her proofs to learn how to pose for the camera:

  I analyze each shot on the CD to nitpick and improve on what I’m doing. Clients want the shot, so I need to deliver within a few shots. They’re not going to wait around all day for me to get into the zone.

  By carefully examining each frame, she learned the most effective way to perform for the camera. Her goal was not only proficiency but also efficiency. This testing process is ongoing; it is not without cost.

  The startup costs of modeling can be a heavy burden for a model, as photographer’s fees and prints resulting from a single mandatory test shoot can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the photographer and the number of looks to be photographed. These test shots, along with composite cards, at the bare minimum, are required as the model’s basic marketing tools, but some models may also attend modeling workshops and classes, schedule regular salon appointments to maintain a camera-ready appearance, and invest in tailored garments. All of these preparatory expenses add up. These sunk costs do not guarantee future modeling work but are necessary to compete in the business.

  While a single test shoot is not ideal, an agent may be sensitive to a model’s financial situation, as Bobby had been in preparing me for the economic reality of modeling:

  You see, for every new model we work with, we would like to have them shoot four or five times. Realistically, who has that kind of money? I mean, unless, you are a countess or something or you have friends who are photographers who can work a shot. It’s a process. After you make some money, I would test again.

  As stated earlier, building a model’s book is a process that involves capturing a variety of marketable looks that clearly display the model’s physical appearance and demonstrate her ability to convey personality on film. These looks can range from high-fashion editorial to commercial and catalog.

  As fashion styles change, a model’s portfolio may need updating, as well. At the request of her agency, Clarissa, a size fourteen commercial print model, needed to update her book. After a decade of appearing in catalogs and promotional campaigns for both domestic and European retail outlets, her agency decided that she needed edgier, more high-fashion looks in her portfolio. Although she was a commercial success, Clarissa’s agency wanted her to widen her appeal to a market that was shifting to a younger, edgier look. So, even she, with a book full of tear sheets—a page cut from a magazine or catalog to prove the publication of an image—from dozens of ad campaigns, had to reshoot and overhaul her modeling image to remain current.

  Even my agent made a similar recommendation: “You look young. Once you work a bit and need to reinvest, I will send you to someone else [a photographer] and go younger in the looks.” Unlike Clarissa, I had the opposite issue with my book. My original test shoot produced looks that were on the edgier side, so my second agency recommended I test again for more commercial looks. Since a model’s book is her resume, a diversity of looks helps to appeal to a greater number of clients and maintain employability despite fluctuating market demands. Above all, marketable youth and beauty are the goal of any look in a model’s book.

  Some agencies, like full-service agencies that manage multiple divisions, will front the initial costs of a test shoot with an in-house photographer, printing fees for prints and composite cards, salon appointments for hair cut and style, and a suitable wardrobe for the beginning model. Later, they deduct these costs from a model’s subsequent earnings. This system can save a model from the initial financial burden; however, it also leaves models indebted to the agency until these “loans” are repaid.5 Models have gone into debt, despite a steady work schedule, because their agency appropriated most of their earnings to cover agency fees charged to their account. After all of these expenses and deductions, models make far less than expected. Consequently, any work becomes good work, as models cannot afford to be choosy in the types of job opportunities they accept. This leaves them vulnerable and dependent on their agency.

  In smaller, boutique agencies, agents refer models to select photographers and stylists for their test shoots. The models, themselves, pay the expenses of the photography sessions, including the hair and makeup artists and the additional costs associated with retouching and printing the enlargements and composite cards. The agencies establish relationships with these aesthetic professionals and rely upon them to provide feedback about the model’s behavior and modeling potential while on set for the test shoot. These evaluations weigh in agencies’ general assessment of a model. If an agency decides not to enter into a contractual agreement with a model, she may use the photos from the test shoot with another agency but that agency may want something else, like the agent who wanted to see more commercial shots of me. For a model just starting out, retesting may be too much of an initial financial hurdle. With the high start-up cost and continual self-investment in the body, most models can only hope to break even in the end.

  To Sign or Not to Sign

  Is it necessary for a plus-size model to sign with an agency? Many of the plus-size models that I met during my fieldwork hopped from one open casting call to the next in search of work without being represented by an agency. Several freelanced with an agency or two, i.e., an agency agreed to send them out to castings without signing an exclusive contract but collected a commission from any booked jobs through them. Models without agency representation trudge through what one agent described as “the underground modeling market” alone and often unprepared.

  Marilyn, who as a teen started her fashion career as a straight-size model and transitioned to commercial print, runway, and fit modeling as a size fourteen/six
teen model, offered advice on how to navigate this “underground modeling market”:

  If you are looking for a fun and interesting hobby, then by all means shoot with anyone you can [a photographer or client] and have a great time. You can submit to casting calls online. They are often posted on Craigslist. But realize that often these jobs may only be to trade for photos or occasionally clothing. Often the jobs that pay or the clients with jobs that pay go through agents. I have worked for some smaller startup companies that initially paid me very little, but as they grew, they used me again and paid me more. So you never know.

  As Marilyn explained, work generated without the use of an agency is usually not paid work. Instead, a client offers the model prints from the shoot or clothes from the show in exchange for her services. Amateur photographers will often do this in hopes of capturing good-quality images that serve to bolster their own portfolios. Designers and boutiques use models in showrooms aimed at fashion buyers for large department stores. Runway shows are unpaid but provide exposure for models. From working for free or in exchange for goods to being required to sell tickets to fashion shows, beginning models comply in order to gain experience and add prints to their portfolios.

  Unsigned models learn to navigate the local and regional levels of the modeling market without the aid of an agency. This can become tedious, as they need to scour multiple Internet sources to find modeling opportunities. As Marilyn stated, these models resort to websites like Craigslist and Facebook, online forums dedicated to plus-size modeling, and listservs to find information about castings. This can be risky, as the fashion field is rife with those who prey on naïve, uninformed models. Without an agency to legitimize a casting, a model may fall victim to a scam. Most scams typically involve high-pressure sales pitches for modeling classes and photo shoots that can range in price from several hundred to several thousand dollars. A tell-tale sign of a scam is an “agent” who charges a model an up-front fee to serve as her agent. The unregulated nature of this “underground modeling market” means that anyone can post a notice for a casting, leaving unsuspecting models vulnerable to those with nefarious purposes.

  These worst-case scenarios aside, a model can still find legitimate and profitable work without an agency. After Janice lost her fit clients because of her dramatic weight loss, she surreptitiously managed to get the contact information for several intimate apparel companies from a former client. She brazenly contacted the clients directly in search of work opportunities, successfully booking a few jobs. Unsigned models rely upon informal social networks to gain access to work opportunities. Consequently, they tend to band together, creating their own community of support and information sharing.

  For those without agency representation, former models and runway coaches serve as mentors. Several of the models shared a mentor named Carol—a veteran plus-size model who worked as an image consultant. As someone with more than twenty years in fashion, she was their “fashion godmother,” arranging meetings with agents and using them in her various projects from runway events to on-air fashion demonstrations for morning news television programs without charging a commission for her services.

  While these kinds of social resources can aid a model’s quest, working with an agency is a model’s best route for advancing a career in fashion because agencies provide models with a larger and more prestigious client pool. For example, Lane Bryant primarily hires models who are represented by either the Ford or Wilhelmina modeling agencies. Agents are at the heart of a field of cultural production that consists of a network of models and clients. Potential models, like Caroline from chapter 4, seek out agent representation to increase their network connections. Part of an agent’s job is to develop relationships with designers, photographers, advertising agencies, and related fashion professionals. Agents connect models to potential clients. For example, if a fashion designer needs a model for an upcoming advertising campaign, agents will present their models for consideration and make a case for them to the designer.

  Agents develop and commodify embodied actors, similarly seen in Deborah Dean’s study of stage and screen actors in her book, Performing Ourselves: Actors, Social Stratification and Work.6 Dean found that perception guides the casting process. Typically, casting directors send agents a brief and usually vague description of a character. Then, the agents select which actors, in their opinions, suit the character and direct them to the audition. Agents influence the casting process by offering their choice in performers and negotiating with casting behind the scenes. In modeling, agents similarly seek and proceed to “talk up” their models to clients. They paint an attractive and profitable image of their girls by selling their corporal strengths. Ultimately, agents receive a commission based on this verbal transaction. Agents not only develop the embodied attributes of their models, they package them to clients in an appealing narrative.

  While it is possible to find work as an unsigned model, these models usually freelance with an agency or two; such was the case of Marilyn. She explained the benefits of a non-exclusive working relationship:

  I am signed with an agency. They are wonderful to work with, and having an agent certainly helps expose you to clients that have the jobs that pay well. I am non-exclusive, so I am able to freelance, but I have found that since I am represented by an agency I can ask for higher freelance rates than I got beforehand.

  Models may also be signed with different agencies in the different modeling markets. For example, one model used one agency for work in New York City, a second in Los Angeles, and a third in Miami.

  Being represented by an agency is generally the best course of action, especially if the model is serious about pursuing a career in modeling, because of the hierarchical organization of the profession. Unsigned models working in this “underground market” at the local and regional levels in catalog and boutique showrooms constitute the lowest levels of the hierarchy, followed by models signed to specialized, boutique agencies. Those few models signed to large, international modeling agencies and, thus, more likely to appear in editorials for fashion magazines and on runways in New York City to Milan are at the top of the career ladder. While it is possible for a model to move up the ranks, her career prospects depend on a combination of chance and genetics, in addition to hard work and persistence despite continual rejection.

  “Let Me Show You My Board”

  Overall, the agent’s role is to discover and market the strengths of his or her models. The structure of modeling, like many body-centric fields, is essentially a network of differential relations between social actors that involves both a highly developed canon of body techniques and those social actors who can synthesize these techniques.7 Focusing on the relationship between plus-size model and agent reveals a discourse of power and control. This is epitomized by the booking board, which is at the heart of the modeling agency.

  Comprised of sleek shelving that holds rows of composite cards, this booking board is a tangible nexus of power for the agency, cataloguing the collective body capital of the agency, i.e., its roster of signed plus-size models. This instrument is centrally located within an agency and is continually referred to by the agents as they pick and choose which models to send out to castings.

  Agents exude pride when speaking of their board. After an interview with an agent, he or she enthusiastically asked, “You want to see my board?” This pride also translates into how these agents perceive and work on their boards. As one agent described, she continually tweaks the board, focusing on the color palate and the angles used in the photographs, because “it all speaks to my division. It is about the energy of the board, which clients read.” The agent personally picks the photographers used to shoot the models, designs the layout of the composite cards for her plus-size models, and chooses the layout, angles, and colors for printed booklet advertisements that the agency sends out quarterly to clients and photographers.

  The board represents the agency itself and the kind of models it produces. In
a paternalistic manner, agents take ownership of their models and their images. “Their girls” are their creation and their moneymakers. With strict standards of business, agencies demand much from their models because, as every agent insisted, they give one hundred percent to their girls.

  Agents do more than manage the logistics. As an agent described, “We look into women’s souls. We show them [the models] how beautiful they are. We walk them through a process of awakening. We offer spiritual and emotional self-help.” This help can range from the type of critique Bobby offered regarding my test shoots or one that is focused on motivating the model during periods of self-doubt and rejection. Agents encourage their models when they do good work and offer constructive criticism when needed. For example, Bobby offered this motivational piece of advice to beginning models:

  When you go to castings where most of the girls will have full portfolios, you don’t have that much in the book. The ones on your comp card will be the only pictures you have. At times, it could get a little frustrating. [But] it only takes one person to believe in you.

  Beyond these types of motivational talks, agents demonstrate their confidence in their models by developing a close professional relationship with them.

  Agents take their work personally and are protective over their business, expecting loyalty from their models. The agent-model relationship is a partnership built and nurtured over time, which explained one agent’s disdain for models who switch agencies. He viewed it as an act of disloyalty to the original agency.