If you put my sister and I side by side you would guess that I was the youngest and my sister was a twenty-something hot shot. Do you?
Well fun fact: She is 16 and I am much older.
But this height reality got me thinking about the model industry in NYC. My sister is a signed model with an agency called Direct Model Management. Surprisingly, their office and home base is equivalent to the size of my closet that is directly located across from the Empire State Building.
agency link: http://directnewyork.com
Even though she is a young sixteen year old in one of the most competitive industries in the most prestigious city, she gets the jobs and castings. But in order to get these, she has to build an image for herself. She has to build a unique identity. She has to stick out from the rest. The designer and photographs need something different to identify with rather than that tall blonde youngster. Therefore she has created her identity, Christine Myrie.
The next part to being successful in the model industry would be scoring the jobs. Once the identity is built, the models and agencies have to contact all possible photographers and designers in the desired area. How do they do this? Calling Cards. (which is basically equivalent to a fact sheet for a person). They send them out to all possible opportunities and when the model arrives, they even give them another one.
Christine’s Card:
Once a casting or job is complete, the pictures and lay outs are then handed to the agency and used to build Christine’s portfolio.
On the job photo during London Candy Shop photo shoot:
But let me finally get to my point, the model agency is basically Christine’s PR firm. The agency contacts the outlets (photographers, designers, etc.) via calling card/portfolio (fact sheet about model) and then benefits from all of her jobs and casting by receiving parts of the profit.
Since I am currently a PR student and studying the in and outs of the industry, I find it very interesting that my sisters agency acts exactly like a PR firm with one goal in mind: to help her become a figure in the model industry (who can say that they hugged and went to Betsey Johnson’s show during fashion week? why of course, only models can).
That’s it for now! But just a little humor for all non-models and short people…
At least we never have to worry about pants being to short on us 🙂
andrea elizabeth 
That is hilarious! It is much like me and my sister. People confuse us because of the height thing – which is pretty strange seeing how its not like we are 3 and 6 and height = age. I stand at a whopping 5 feet, and she is pushing 5’8, Really makes for interesting pictures.
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haha yes exactly! Height does equal age! Almost everyone we meet think that she is the oldest. Interesting pictures it is, I am the shortest in the family also!
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