Well, it’s different here than anywhere
else! The way they do things here is much more agency-controlled. For
example, anywhere else, going to a casting means just me showing up with
my book and they look at me, maybe give me some clothes to try on, take
a picture or two, and say goodbye. But here, going to a casting means I
meet at the agency, and my managers drive me and the other models to
the casting together, take us in, introduce us, talk about us, tell the
client about our other work, we try on clothes or just get pictures
taken, and then we all go back to the agency together. It seems that it
is only that way because the models do not speak Korean, but there is
almost nothing said at castings! Which is why everywhere else models are
allowed to do it themselves, but here, apparently we wouldn’t be able
to handle it. The managers also attend every job with us. So any time I
have a shoot, there is a manager there. I believe it is for translation
purposes, so that the photographer/client can tell me what they want me
to do, but I have had two jobs so far where my manager was not able to
go with me, and I did just fine understanding what they wanted. I speak
broken English almost as well as I speak normal English.
One of the other big differences with modeling here in Seoul is that all of the clients and managers are so obsessed with “the pose.” One of the very first things I was asked when I got here was, “Can you show me the pose?” They want me to just do pose after pose after pose after pose. And they have specific poses they like for different types of jobs. I personally think they are almost the same, but “the pose” for each type of job is very important. For Home Shopping (which is a catalogue, but for them Catalogue is a different category) they like a lot of walking poses. For Catalogue, they like walking poses but also they like some simple poses. For Sportswear, they love stretching poses. I feel like I do just about the same poses for almost everything, but they seem to like it.
There are goods and bads to the Korean system, I would say. The head manager, James, is always telling us models exactly what we should wear and how we should have our hair each time! That doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I appreciate that he knows his clients well enough and is willing to tell me what to do to give me an edge to get the job. The other models, however, view it as him being too controlling and taking away their “style.” It has led to a couple of blowups and fights in the agency. James is quite blunt and direct, but I think it is more of the language barrier that makes it hard for them. I don’t know if it is because I have always followed whatever he tells me or from something else, but I have booked a lot of work! So much so that James doesn’t tell me to do anything specific anymore!
One of the other big differences with modeling here in Seoul is that all of the clients and managers are so obsessed with “the pose.” One of the very first things I was asked when I got here was, “Can you show me the pose?” They want me to just do pose after pose after pose after pose. And they have specific poses they like for different types of jobs. I personally think they are almost the same, but “the pose” for each type of job is very important. For Home Shopping (which is a catalogue, but for them Catalogue is a different category) they like a lot of walking poses. For Catalogue, they like walking poses but also they like some simple poses. For Sportswear, they love stretching poses. I feel like I do just about the same poses for almost everything, but they seem to like it.
There are goods and bads to the Korean system, I would say. The head manager, James, is always telling us models exactly what we should wear and how we should have our hair each time! That doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I appreciate that he knows his clients well enough and is willing to tell me what to do to give me an edge to get the job. The other models, however, view it as him being too controlling and taking away their “style.” It has led to a couple of blowups and fights in the agency. James is quite blunt and direct, but I think it is more of the language barrier that makes it hard for them. I don’t know if it is because I have always followed whatever he tells me or from something else, but I have booked a lot of work! So much so that James doesn’t tell me to do anything specific anymore!
The good news is that I actually like my managers! They really do take care of me. They are so concerned all the time that I am getting exactly what I want or need. Irene is the one that goes with me to all my jobs and up with me to the castings. If I even cough from a dry throat or taking a drink of water, Irene will ask if I am sick or if I need some medicine. Um, no, I just coughed. Irene does a really good job at selling me to the clients! For example, we have our own Airbnb apartment that is not model housing, so she will tell clients, “He is so much of a top model that he refuses to live in model housing and lives in a hotel.” It’s true, but it makes me laugh.
The first job I booked was for a magazine called Noblesse. Here is the link to the online article if you want to look at it. It was a very fun shoot. One thing that was new was that there are so many people there who all make decisions! It almost felt like there were too many cooks in the kitchen. In Korea, so many people get to say their opinion and so it takes a while to decide what happens. But everyone was so nice and the photographer worked very quickly! Here are a few behind the scenes pictures Irene took!
It’s a bit different in Seoul, but I really like it here. And they seem to like me!