The Man In the Mirror #2 (FINAL FEATURE)

Mazen Hassan
Introduction to Journalism
Final Feature Story
“The Man in the Mirror”
I had lost 18 pounds in a week. Having a major photo-shoot coming up with a widely publicized up and coming designer left me incredibly nervous. As I already had my measurements taken and the clothes were made to fit accordingly. A lot of money was poured into this project; and my agents warned me that I needed to pull this off impeccably in order to secure future gigs. Needless to say, the pressure was on.

I was extremely sick at the time and couldn’t keep anything down, yet was trying to force-feed myself and do pushups to beef up. On the day of the shoot, I walked in, trembling, worried that I would be fired on the spot for being underweight. But the second I put the clothes on, I was struggling to fit into them or even close the buttons. “PERFECT, your body is just perfect!” yelled out the designer, Minh Tran, who declined to comment. “Do you do Pilates, diet, or what’s your secret to maintaining that figure?!” As I watched the stylist squeeze me into a tight-fitting turtleneck, pulled over my protruding ribs and sunken in chest, I didn’t know whether to be relieved and flattered or disturbed and offended. I was being celebrated for being emaciated. “This is what they want me to look like; this is what will make me successful?” I thought to myself. Turns out being a male model isn’t as fun or glamorous as it seems.

Abiah Hosdevlt 21, model and artist, couldn’t agree more. Hosdevlt says he “grew up loving fashion and photography, and when I was scouted I thought I had stepped into a fantasy land.” Hailing from Jamaica, he was discovered by a photographer at Washington Square Park while skating with his friends at fifteen, a mere two years after first moving to New York. “I thought the guy was some sleazy perv, but when I looked him up online with my mother, we saw that he shot some really huge legit campaigns with a lot of top models. So I decided to pursue it, though I had no idea what I was going myself into.”

Though Hosdevlt started working rather steadily, he didn’t make much money, and had to sacrifice a lot for what he did make. Hosdevlt, like many other young struggling male models, found out rather quickly that in order to not only achieve but also maintain his success as a model, he had to change and give up a lot.
Spending 8 to 10 hours everyday running around to different castings, meetings, fittings and shoots replaced spending time with his friends and family. His grades in school started dwindling, and he eventually had to drop out of high school altogether as his work hours became too much. Eating what little “healthy” food options served on set replaced his favorite and most important pastime – eating family dinners with his loved ones. He never saw much of them, and barely had anytime for himself. Things were changing rapidly, but Hosdevlt felt that it would all pay off in the end…or he hoped it would anyways.

After six months working with different photographers and building his portfolio, Hosdevlt was told by his agent in NYC that he had been requested by a booker at Ford Europe – one of the, if not the, biggest and most-well known agencies in the world. Hosdevlt recalled the miraculous moment where his career got taken to the next level. “It was unbelievable. I had these hotshot agents telling me they were flying me to Paris first class, giving me a driver and limo, and putting me into a luxury agency apartment right near the Eiffel Tower on their tab” Hosdevlt said, lost in thought at just how quickly everything took off for him, seemingly overnight he said. “It all just seemed too good to be true.”

That dream illusion was shattered shortly after Hosdevlt arrived in France, and was shown to his “luxury” apartment. He was escorted into an old cramped, dingy, unfurnished, cob-webbed apartment to meet his fellow model roommates – all eight of them, who were stuffed into a tiny open living space like model sardines.
“It was a mess. There were roaches and mice crawling over us while we’d try to sleep, which we couldn’t even do as there was no air conditioning or even a fan in the sweltering heat,” Hosdevlt said recalling those early days. “There was no space for any of us to be comfortable, even being forced to share what was essentially one room and one broken bathroom amongst nine stinky young guys…it was uninhabitable.” Though it wasn’t just the living conditions that were tough; having enough money to survive daily was an added issue. Hosdevlt claimed that “there were days we didn’t even have anything to eat, as the agency gave us the equivalent of $20 stipend a week – that’s nothing in Europe. I was literally a starving artist.”

Being in such close quarters all the time with the same guys you are competing against for work, doesn’t exactly create the smoothest living situation either. Hosdevlt said that age played a big role in the living issues, saying “even though I was only 16, a lot of the other guys were kids – 14 years old left to vie for themselves, homesick lonely and depressed. So getting booked and making money, to show that this would all be worth it was a priority for all of us,” Abiah explained as to why he kept going even though the experience had not been what he thought it would be.

Eventually the situation went from uncomfortable to unbearable, as the internal envy and jealously began to boil over with the boys in the apartment. He recalls stories of how certain models tried to sabotage each other, destroying each other’s personal belongings, taunting the younger kids to drive them out in order to have less competition. Point blank, none of the boys trusted each other, and it was every man for himself, though the agents were technically supposed to act as their guardians, seeing as most of them were minors. Hosdevlt claimed it wasn’t so, and there was no supervision as “the agents never intervened or took care of us like they promised our parents they would. We were like young malnourished painted up beasts vying for ourselves in a crazy fashion jungle.”

Having completed a slew of high profile jobs after two months in Paris, Hosdevlt had been eagerly anticipating his first big check from the agency. When he finally did get that first check though, something wasn’t right. “I looked at the gross amount of the check and saw $21,500 and was floored. I couldn’t believe I had made so much money in eight weeks!” Hosdevlt recalled how his elation quickly dissipated after the reality of the finances of this business took hold. Hosdevlt continued, “I then took a closer look at how much was actually made out to me, and saw $964 as the actual amount. I felt like I had been cheated, tricked and scammed.”

When a model is first signed to an agency, they are told upfront that all initial costs are being covered by the agency, until the model begins to make sufficient enough money. That is not always the case. Once the model starts working and making money, they first need to reimburse the agency for travel and living expenses, test shoots with photographers, the cost of their portfolio and actual pictures, any stipends handed out, placement and promotion of the model on their website, and other miscellaneous costs. No set, exact system is in place for a model’s reimbursement or rights in America; only in Europe do models have set, standard, legitimate rights (I.E. model cannot work more than X amount of hours, must be paid a “base rate”, need X amount of breaks, etc.). So in the end, the model has to essentially work just to pay back their bookers, and they are lucky if they break even to make any profit whatsoever.

Though female models endure the same thing in the beginning of their careers, they are way more in demand, bring in higher salaries, and are generally more taken care of by their agencies and the designers they work with. Male models are often overlooked, and are seen as “props” in photo-shoots, rather than the focus.

Nathan Morales, head of the men’s division at Orb Models, a boutique agency in NYC, comments on just how different the business is these days, saying “when I first got into this business in the early 90s, male models had Adonis-type built muscular bodies, were getting paid six-figure salaries, and had private jets and drivers.” Morales persisted, “the industry has changed radically, and that is the result of the designer’s vision, and ultimately what the consumer looks for – and fashion just responded.

Morales continued explaining the state of fashion and male models today “the eye has changed; clothes now are tighter and tighter. Guys are younger and younger.” When asked why he feels standards have become so rigid and why it has become even more difficult to break into and maintain success as a male model then ever before, Morales declares “designers like the skinny guy. It looks good in the clothes and that’s the main thing. At this point you might as well save money and just go over to the little boy’s department, that’s just the way it is now.”

Other industry insiders agree that the issues surrounding male models (ranging from age, maintaining strict body types, receiving accurate payment, to the rate of disposability) are prevalent, overlooked and not made a priority.
A well-known and prominent casting director, who asked to not be named in order to retain close connection with his clients and protect his brand’s anonymity, said, “if a guy comes into a casting and is over 150 pounds, I won’t even look at his portfolio. If a guy comes in and looks like he’s over 23, I won’t consider him for a second” he said without a hint of cynicism or malice. “Honestly, these days, no one wants just a beautiful women or a beautiful man anymore. People are afraid to make any statement of what it means to be adult, or a masculine adult at that – it’s all about androgyny.”

In the fall of 2009, it had been about nine months since Hosdevlt’s whirlwind descent into Europe, and he was growing restless and weary. He was constantly traveling, alone of course, if not accompanied by other models guzzling champagne or doing rails of coke on any surface that presented itself, just to deal with grueling schedule of having to be up and “on” all the time, he claims.

Though Hosdevlt said he didn’t ever get a chance to experiment like most normal teenagers his age before modeling. He eventually found himself partaking in the late night partying, excessive drinking and habitual drug usage of his fellow models, which he claims to have been rampant. He had come that far and wanted to “make it”, and felt pressured into doing it to save face and fit in. But like everything else, it began to take its toll physically and mentally.

Hosdevlt’s already thin frame was shedding even more pounds by the day due to lack of sleep, rare consumption of any food, and severe depression and homesickness. His angular face becoming gaunt to the point that he couldn’t even recognize the man staring back at him in the mirror anymore, he said. Yet he continued to get booked for more and more photo shoots.

Most photographers were bizarre, pretentious and rude he claimed; and every shoot became the same dull repeated sequence of pout, pose, and flash. “Here I was working all over Europe with famous creative people, but I was doing things and being put in positions that went against all the morals and values I had been raised with…I felt empty inside,” Hosdevlt expressed about his success and confusion to accept it. Though he did his best with situation he found himself in, and tried to remain grounded amongst the glittering prospects, vapid adulation and alluring temptations that came with the territory.

Early one morning, after having worked 14 hours straight with a seal on an ocean-themed Japanese Vogue Hommes shoot (apparently aquatics were “totally in” that season and all the rage), he decided that it gotten to be all too much, and that he needed a fresh direction. So he packed up all his things, called his agent to tell him to cancel all his bookings, and went back home to New York City.

After having taken some time off and being home, Hosdevlt is still modeling, and trying to go to college. “I don’t regret my decision to get into modeling, but I do wish I had been older, had more support, and been more educated about the business aspects of it,” he said, “because people forget - it is a business after all. And I’m just one small piece of what makes up million dollar corporations, so it is a lot of pressure,” Hosdevlt says still wrestling with whether or not this is a good or healthy career choice.

He sums up his experiences and thoughts about being a male model as a whole when asked why he’s still in a business that he claims is unhealthy and treated him harshly. “Look, at the end of the day I’m getting paid very good money to travel and take pictures – it’s not rocket science. Though my mentality is different now than it was at 16, I’m 21 now – I understand my role.”

Hosdevlt refers to the fact that every model has a “shelf life”, and at some point some new hot young guy will come alone, and he will fade into obscurity, as many male models do, if they are not careful and career-conscious. Hosdevlt acknowledges that “I know that I’m a product, so I will continue to do it and save money before people don’t care about me anymore. Fashion is all about change. Until then…I’m just trying to enjoy the ride.”

In a world where getting sick is the ideal way to lose weight, where a size zero is the definition of beauty, and where a seal gets hair and makeup done for the cover of a magazine – that’s all you can do. Buckle up and watch what happens, and hope at the end of it all, you can still look at – and respect – the person staring back at you.