What are typical attributes of a fashion model

I'm one of those photographers that love to shoot fashion; however, since I am not located in one of the fashion capitals, I tend to select models from places such as Model Mayhem, Broken Doll Models or even Facebook.  I judge the potential models based on my own experience about what a fashion model should be like. 

Now some of you may say well, why don’t you get one from a local agency?    Well, the answer to that is that for many of my smaller scaled projects I don’t want to have to deal with all the red tape and headaches that goes along with an agency model.   Besides, many of the models that I referred to at the above boards are going to be either joining an agency or already belong to an agency.

For the purpose of this article, I just want to state the criteria that I use to determine if a particular model would suffice for a particular project.  Each project may have its own particular set of dependencies.  For example, a pure editorial / fashion (non-beauty related) project will normally  require the following criteria:

Note: Since I rarely work with male models, the following will only pertain to the female models. 

Physical Dimentions:

·       Height-minimum: 5'8" – 5’11”

·        Measurements: 34-24-34 (give or take a couple of inches)

·        Dress size: 0-4 (unless you’re going for a plus size or model)

·        Age: typically 18-26.  (note; in major markets age of 24 is usually a model’s retirement age) 

·        Face: Symmetrical features.  The eyes are most important and need to be almond shaped and well apart from each other.  High cheekbones and a chiseled, oval shaped face with semi-full lips would be ideal.

·        Long elegant neckline

·        Nice hair, but can substitute wigs.

·        Shoe size 8-10

·        No visible Tattoos hopefully because otherwise it means post work, which I like to avoid as much as possible.

Intangibles:

·        There should be an x-factor to the model.  This is something that you’re just born with.  It’s also referred to as being photogenic.  I’ve photographed models that were gorgeous in real life, but the camera hated them.  I also have photographed models that were average looking in real life, but the camera loved them.  If anyone’s watches “America’s Next Top Model”, they notice that a majority of the winners are ones with average or goofy looks in person, but something about them really stands out when they’d get in front of the camera.

·         There are 2 basic skills required for every model

1.      They must be able to pose.  Fashion poses are different than posing in other genres.  A fashion model must be able to pose elegantly and angularly.  By elegant, I mean she should look long and thin, neck elongated, and she should be able to create proper angles in relation to the camera with her arms and legs.  Also, remember, that sexiness is not really used in fashion photography.  You’re not selling yourself as you would in Glamour modeling; instead you’re trying to sell you and the clothes, jewelry, etc. as one piece.  When other women look at you they should be thinking that if they wear what you’re wearing, they can also look like you.

2.      Models must be able to create proper facial expressions that go along with the pose, the theme of the shoot and the wardrobe.  The most important components of creating a good facial expression are the eyes.  If you’ve watched “America’s Next Top Model”, you undoubtedly heard something about “Smizing” from Tyra Banks.  Smizing means smiling with your eyes.  According to Tyra, if you can make your ears wiggle with your facial muscles, you have what it takes to Smize.  The face, other than the eyes are not a big part of the expression and it is preferred that the rest of face only supports the Smizing minimally.  By the way, Smizing doesn’t mean just smiling; instead, it means creating all the required expressions with your eyes. 

In one of the shows Tyra used a cardboard cutout of a shot of her as a war time correspondent, kneeling low to the ground in combat fatigues, and trying to take a battleground picture.  The face was missing from the cutout and each model had to put her face in the hole where the face was supposed to be and make the proper expression that went along with the attire and the theme.  That task seemed to be a tough one for most of the models and as I recall not many graded too well on that task. 

The model should be able to feel what the theme requires as an actress would, and put forth the proper expression such as fear, excitement, anger, jealousy, etc., thus creating the required mood.  The photographer should only need to give her a starting point and explain what he’s trying to do and the rest is up to the model.   The more fluidly the model changes poses and expressions, the better for the photographer who can then concentrate on what he/she does best: photography! 

A good model should get plenty of rest the night of the shoot and be on time to the shoot with a clean face and no makeup, washed hair without tangles.  This allows the makeup artist and hair stylist to create the right look with minimum effort.  If the model is late or not washed up properly, it only delays the shoot.  This causes undue stress for the photographer, and the costs begin to climb.   If the model decides to party or stay up late the night before, she has to deal with baggy eyes and low energy level.  All this leads to a high chance of a failure for the project. 

There are many more points worthy of discussion about this subject and I plan to go into them at a later date. 

-Romel Evans