MANDARINA MODELS 2.0

Fashion and modeling more than any other of its components are often the subjects of misinformation, rumors and other types of fantasies. The mass-media regularly delivers an inaccurate image of this business and, first of all, seem to forget very easily that it is an actual business, misleading people on the reality of fashion professions such as model. It would be too easy to blame the regular media only, though. Several insiders and professionals actively participate or contribute to creating and maintaining this distorted image for various and sometimes merely relevant reasons. Modeling as seen on television is all about glamour and glitter, styling as shown in most of these so-called fashion magazines is synonymous of outrageous and burlesque luxury.

These facts are true in most places in the world but seem to have reached an unparalleled level in Eastern Europe. After decades of communism, those countries embraced some western values in quite an excessive way. Wealth had suddenly taken an immoderately positive meaning and fame had followed as its most obvious avatar. And there enters fashion on stage, as the tight relation between fashion and fame is a commonly accepted association in people’s minds. The fashion-related press in these countries, often published under the banner of internationally famous groups that have franchises in almost every place in the world, displays editorials that blatantly ignore the most elementary standards of styling and have created an idea of fashion that totally disregards the initial meaning of this word. Locally produced visuals showcase almost all the clichés one can ever imagine about fashion translated in a barely digestible profusion of heavy make-up, twisted wigs, fur, golden jewelry, more or less fake leather and leopard-printed items.

Of course, this understanding of fashion doesn’t seem to take notice that style is a matter of good taste and styling a task that requires creative skills to associate garments, set an atmosphere, tell a story etc. And these skills are miles away from the simple accumulation of luxury items. Fashion is a business of creating an image that breeds dreams that sell clothes in the end. A fashion picture has to be the reflection of this image and therefore the visual support of these dreams. Unfortunately, most of the stuff produced by and published in the major magazines of eastern countries offers a vision that you would rather associate to the concept of supermarket than to effortless elegance and refinement.

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The fact that the press pretending to deal with actual fashion or self-proclaimed fashion magazines usurping the names of their foreign homonyms create or promote a huge amount of shamelessly talentless contents resulted in a total misconception of fashion and style. And one of the consequences of this misconception naturally affects the understanding of what a model is or should look like and moreover, of what a model agency’s work could be. The lack of quality of these local markets is unfortunate but it doesn’t stop there. Countries where fashion market is weak become exporters of models as their chances to have a sustainable career drastically increase when they work abroad. In theory, this would mean there are two types of model agency with parallel businesses and different targets. But reality is different, trickier.

The misunderstanding of fashion and style naturally induced a misleading conception of beauty or, at least, beauty standards that are diametrically the opposites of beauty standards in high fashion markets such as Paris or New York. It should be obvious then, that some agencies’ role would be exclusively to supply local magazines and clients with the appropriate kind of models suitable for the local demand while some others’ job would be limited to export their talents to foreign fashion markets. Reality is different, though, and the barrier between these two types of agencies is extremely tiny and porous, if not completely inexistent.

So, that the local market doesn’t understand or respect the primary standards of high fashion is one thing. That agencies working more or less closely on the international scene is a totally different problem that contributes and even encourage the overall misunderstanding surrounding fashion and perverting or even damaging its image. The basic reasons behind this lack of will to improve a harmful situation for a whole profession/business might be that it remains much more convenient to abide by tacit rules than to try and succeed in changing the way fashion and modeling are perceived by the general public. It is much easier to command attention and attract the masses using the worst clichés than to put an extra effort in creating a better and more relevant image. Many mother agencies keep playing this game despite it induces a risk of lower quality and an unappealing image of the country to the eyes of the scouts working for prestigious agencies from abroad. Romania has been too often, too long considered as a second level area for model agencies from Paris, New York, London etc. A huge part of this disdain is directly due to a total lack of image and organization.  The bad quality of portfolios displayed online or visual materials used in the promotion of upcoming Romanian models has led international agencies to disregard the country as one of the main sources of new faces. The weakness in the scouting process in Romania resulted in a rather low number of highly respected models coming from this area compared to the size of the population. And it’s a couple of more or less hyped model-search or other events of this type that helped things getting better. Far from it, the press and media and all kind of communication used in this system only led too poorer quality… and even more damaged image.

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What future for modeling in Romania, then? Why some neighbor countries, despite of suffering from the same effects of a misleading image of fashion inherited from the post-communist period, are able to place themselves on the map? Some people from the industry (both locally and internationally) will suggest that “genetics” aren’t as good in Romania than in Ukraine, Poland or Baltic countries (which all have a similar level of fashion knowledge as Romania). There is a popular belief that models with blue eyes and blond hair are granted to be more successful. It is something that needs to be rectified as, if it might have been true, it is far from remaining true today. Of course, this beauty-type is slightly easier to promote in some markets but the recent years have proven wrong any theory of better perspectives for blue-eyed blondes. The diversity of phenotypes having great results in fashion increased dramatically and still keeps growing at a constant pace. And if that was not enough, let’s just name a few countries that aren’t specifically known for having a large population of blue-eyed blondes yet appearing to be major providers of models: Canada, USA and Brazil, which are just the most obvious examples.

Another parameter that has to be taken as seriously as possible is the quality of the scouting systems. Nowadays Holland is considered as one of the best sources of models worldwide and every week a large number of scouts are visiting almost every agency of the country searching for new faces. What seems to have existed forever was far from evident less than a decade ago. There were only a handful of Dutch models working in fashion, a portion comparable to the percentage of Romanians today. It is the hard work on the scouting field and the vision of the smartest manager of this small country that placed The Netherlands as one of the global leaders in modeling business. Drastic improvements done on both the image and the level of management have changed the face and reputation of that country.

One more parameter shouldn’t be forgotten while we are talking about the changes that happened in the Netherlands. The largely improved efficiency of the scouting/placement/management scheme wasn’t enough to bring the country to the highest level. In recent history of modeling, the “Dutch wave” followed closely the “Russian invasion”. The rise of the Dutch girls literally coincided with the downfall of Russian models’ popularity in the business. The fact that the latter need visas to travel certainly played a certain role in these changes but this couldn’t be the sole reason behind. An agency from New York or Paris will never be afraid of sweating to do paperwork for a great model with perfect English and behavior. And it got more and more common that Russians are well-known for showing too much bad attitude and limited English skills while Dutch were significantly more fluent in foreign languages and quickly became famous for their balanced personalities. The modeling industry is almost overcrowded and the survival rate of a career has visibly diminished over the past few years. In a fashion world flooded with hundreds of tall, slim young ladies, face and measurements can’t be the only ingredients to ensure good career opportunities for a girl starting to model. Hard work, commitment and English level are the key points that make the difference today, hence the crucial importance for mother agencies to concentrate on that aspect as well.

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These few facts bring us to what we can consider as the conclusion of this article. The elements to keep in mind to raise the current level to a better one can be seen as a blend of smart and sophisticated scouting system, flawless management and focus on the model’s personality. Though, one thing shouldn’t be overlooked: fashion usually hates revolutions and is highly reluctant to overnight changes. We should never expect to see our efforts to change the situation to result in fast modifications and instead of it, should keep our hard work and trust in our vision. A step-by-step approach combined to a constant will to perfect our new system in-making are the only ways to get closer to our targets. Even if only one among the main agencies of a country stays on the right path, the benefits for the whole area in terms of international image as well as in improvements for the local market are significant. It has nothing to do with an idealistic vision or with some unrealistic dreams; it is the only way to build a durably sustainable business here.