With national ad spend expected to grow by 15.5 percent in 2016 to Rs.57,486 crore, there’s continuous demand for fashion, product and services models: Paromita Sengupta

With consumer product, automobile, fashion, banking, telecom and e-commerce companies jacking up advertising and sales promotion budgets year after year, product/fashion modeling has transformed from a part-time pin money vocation into a full-time career choice. With national multi-media advertising expenditure expected to grow by 15.5 percent in 2016 to Rs.57,486 crore, there’s continuous demand for fashion, product and services models to launch and promote an array of brands as also creations and collections of fashion designers. Increasingly, a rising number of youth are gravitating towards fashion and product modeling to reap fame, and perhaps fortune.

This growing community can be broadly divided into ramp or live modeling, photographic (fashion) and product modeling professionals for the print, electronic and digital media. The main attributes required of aspiring models are good health and complexion, good head of hair, height over 5’7’’ for females and 6 ft-plus for males. Inevitably, a photogenic personality is the most important prerequisite. Apart from this, knowledge of the basics of acting, camera-friendliness and self-confidence are also valuable qualifications.

While fashion runway models must be preferably tall and slim with the ability to gracefully sashay down catwalks and face crowds confidently, acting skills and charisma are required for models aspiring for film promos and/or TV commercials. Today, the most successful models work in all fields including catwalks, commercials and videos and pose for fashion magazines and ad campaigns.

STUDY PROGRAMMES

No specific qualifications are required of fashion or product models who usually learn on the job, although some training schools have been promoted by former models in Delhi and Mumbai. Among them: ICE Creative Excellence Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai; Gladrags Career Academy, Mumbai; International Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi; R.K Films and Media Academy, Delhi and the Frankfinn Institute of Modeling and Acting (FIMA), Delhi. These private institutes offer short-term courses of 40 days-three months duration.

It’s also advisable for wannabe models to enlist the services of a professional photographer to shoot a portfolio which can be shared with established model coordinators/agencies.

PAY & PERKS

Though the career of a fashion/product model is short-lived, most of them are well-remunerated and could earn a fortune in a few years. A fresher ramp model can expect to earn anything between Rs.500-10,000 per show while an experienced model can demand — and get — Rs.20,000-Rs.50,000 per day. Print, TV and film models can expect pay packets of Rs.10,000-Rs.50,000 per shoot.

Models may be contracted for a particular brand or prefer to freelance. Although modeling is a short shelf-life profession, most successful models sail smoothly into fashion design, films, television serials, choreography, model coordination and events management.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

“Many young people are interested in a career in modeling as it offers not just the chance to make quick money and achieve fame, but also because it helps you develop confidence and poise and focus on building your health and fitness,” says Rajesh Korn (24), an engineering graduate of the Sambhram Institute of Technology, Bangalore, who has promoted top fashion brands such as Levis jeans, Flying Machine, US Polo, Flipkart among others.

Bangalore-based Korn was always interested in fashion modeling but waited until he completed his graduation to follow his passion full-time. “After completing my engineering degree, I realised I wasn’t cut out for a nine-five job in an office — my heart was in modeling. Luckily during my college days, I had participated in some ramp shows and print shoots. But it was difficult to get a break. So to get noticed on a national level, in 2013 I entered AKS Eventz, Mumbai’s Mr Glam Hunt, Bangalore competition. I bagged the runners-up position and the exposure got my new career going,” recalls Korn.

According to Korn, behind the money, glitz and glam, fashion and product modeling is not as facile as it appears. It’s a fiercely competitive, high-stress vocation with erratic working hours. “The working hours are long and unpredictable. But for people who love the spotlight, these are minor disadvantages. There’s a lot of satisfaction in creating and completing a great shoot and receiving public adulation,” says Korn, currently a photographic (fashion) and product model who in the long-term wants to act in films.