What has changed in the way modeling agencies work, more than a year after the covid-19 emergency began? The world of fashion and models have always been synonymous with travel, among other things. And travel has been one of the most penalized aspects of all in recent months. And then the safety measures, the so called ‘social distancing’, the travel restrictions, the objective difficulties – and those placed there on purpose to discourage travel and social interactions … If you think that your life has been damaged not only by a virus but also by how the emergency was managed (often very badly) try to imagine how the world of modeling agencies has also been disrupted, and what about the lives of models who for a year remained practically ‘parked’ at home?
We talked about it with Antonio Venuti, Director of The Wolves Model Management in Milan. I have known Antonio for a few years now, and I can say that he is one of the few real people in a world I try to keep a relative safe distance from. With Antonio we also talked about how aspiring models can contact modeling agencies to start a modeling career, and what they should expect from this job – especially at the beginning.
The models come from other countries, local emergencies dictate the openings and closures, and in a context like this we must try to make plans, forecasts…
More than a year has passed since that infamous February 23, 2020, the day they turned off the power to our lives here in Milano. What has changed in the way you work? How did you organize yourself to try to cope with the increasingly stringent limitations?
A lot has changed, our way of working has changed. Laws and regulations keep changing and we have to adapt practically in real time. The models come from other countries, local emergencies dictate the openings and closures, and in a context like this we must try to make plans, forecasts. It’s not easy, believe me.
As far as customers are concerned, the landscape has also changed. The showrooms, at least at the moment, have been almost decimated, they are working in a different way because to adapt to the situation of this period they do everything digitally, and obviously they need much fewer models. There are few girls who work – perhaps for a long time already – with a certain showroom, and these girls continue to work, but everything is done more and more in a virtual way, there are no longer all those castings that were done before in order to select a new girl. Castings have dropped a lot. The girls who come to Milan think they will come and make a lot of appointments, casting, but because of the covid-19 emergency customers can no longer, and no longer want to see two hundred girls in person in one day as they did before.
As you can understand, it is difficult for us to make the girls understand that they can easily come to Milan and work, even if they will not do the casting in person. This causes us some difficulties, also to convince the ‘mother agencies’ to let the girls leave. Here we use all possible precautions imaginable, especially for their apartments. Just think that to guarantee the ‘social distancing’, each model apartment now houses only half as much girls as before. Today the new girls arrived, at the moment we have about forty girls in town. We had to let them enter the agency in groups of six, to comply with the current emergency regulations.
So the models go around the city a lot less, once they used to go around from morning to night with their portfolio…
That’s right, they have fewer appointments, but this does not mean they work less. Obviously things have changed compared to the past, I can’t deny it. We try to reach the budget almost always. But the number of models is smaller, the number of jobs too. To counter this situation we make a more careful selection of the models, and so we already know that the models will not waste time, and at the same time we do not lose it, this way neither side loses money. The goal is always to work to the maximum, otherwise if the girl does not work, the agency does not work either.
Where do the models who are in Milan come from now?
European markets, Poland, Holland, France and Germany above all. But now they can arrive from Ukraine, with a visa. The borders have opened up a bit, the girls can start arriving again. What is completely blocked (June 2021 ed.) is Brazil, very closed at the moment. Do you what caused us a lot of difficulties? The fact that until a month ago all the girls who arrived were forced to quarantine, imagine the problem of getting them to arrive, not being able to see them immediately, they arrived on day one and could only leave the apartment on day six. We had to do the shopping for them … you know that Holland, for example, asked for the PCR test to fly, and for every model that left we had to book it, organize it… in short, very difficult.
Let’s talk about aspiring models and how to get started. How does a girl, an aspiring model, propose herself to The Wolves Models, and what happens after she has sent her photos and personal information?
With the new site we just put online, we have a submissions page. There the girls can upload their photos and information, every morning we check submissions and select them, and we respond very quickly to the models that interest us.
Clearly when we answer we ask the model to send us more material, we organize a videoconference, because before we get someone to come to Milan we have to make sure that they understand the language, that they are really the person they say they are (because there are girls who are very good at retouching their photos before sending them …) then the last step is the invitation to the agency, and the signing of a contract. From there she begins her adventure/career with us.
…every morning we check submissions and select them, and we respond very quickly to the models that interest us…
How has the way of scouting models changed and how have the dynamics changed within the agency?
Federica, my close collaborator, given the impossibility of traveling for scouting, has devised a new, virtual way of traveling. She started organizing online meetings with other modeling agencies around the world, and organized scouting days as if she had physically gone there, to the agency. Instead of going in person to see the girls available to come to Milan, she organized everything in a virtual way. She managed to replace scouting trips with video conferences. And so she organized ten, fifteen virtual scouting video conferences a day, a major success for us. This is something that makes me proud, people who believe in the cause and make it their own. As well as Miki, another very valid colleague of mine, who managed to make his exclusive agreements with clients who now only work with us. We are a very young team, we get along very well, we found our dimension. One of the owners of the agency loves to put everyone on the line, he helped us to grow, to strengthen the sense of the group, he stimulated the comparison between everyone. I am the manager, but I only make a decision when I have heard from all my collaborators. Every day I want to know what my collaborators think, otherwise it’s not a team…
You told me that you do an incredible job behind the scenes for girls, you even shop for models if they are in quarantine… does this mean that the agency has to take care of the models in everything?
Yes, as you know we pay for the flight ticket, in case the models need an invitation letter to come to Milano we prepare it, and then the models stay in our apartments. One of the objectives of the skype call in which we meet the model is also to show who we are. In my opinion this is the fundamental part of this job, I am old school, I need to see who I am working with, even if only on skype, even if only five minutes. If you come to Milan we have to see each other, I would never be the agent of a girl I have never seen in person. We have to talk about what we have to do together, what we will try to build together.
Fortunately, many customers are choosing to have a more varied range of girls, also for what they have to offer…
What is the type of girl you are looking for right now or who works on the Milan market?
Fortunately, many customers are choosing to have a more varied range of girls, also for what they have to offer What we are doing at the moment is scouting for all types of customers we have. We aim for high fashion, but we must also give a profit for the property and therefore we are looking for girls who can do commercial jobs, a girl who is not ‘super strange’, but above all we look for a nice personality. You can also see her personality from her look, from how she dresses, from how she wears her hair. Fortunately, many customers are choosing to have a more varied range of girls, also for what they have to offer. Not all girls are perfect, thank god, otherwise think what a boring world if they were all blondes, refined … all looking the same. Also because real girls aren’t like that. Sometimes the height, measurements … can be irrelevant. But there are always customers who want certain measurements, certain sizes, so those parameters are not completely abandoned.
ADVERSUS
