The snow has subsided and London has stirred to life. So I was back in business and hitting the scouting trail this morning. At my first appointment I had an interesting meeting with a London agent. He was talking about the problem he and many other agencies in the world have when they’re sharing what is commonly known as a ‘top girl’.
A top girl may not yet qualify for the status of super model, but there are people in the background betting on her and putting all their available energy and talent into making just that happen. “The people in the background” will invariably be the top in their respective fields–editors, designers, photographers and above all, agents.
Such a model will have agencies in more than one market (city/country). She’ll have an agency in NY, Paris and Milan to be sure. But she will probably also have an agency in London and perhaps also Spain, Germany and Tokyo. And not to mention her mother agency, which is the agency which found and/or started her in her home country. And things get complicated when each one of those agencies wants to put their booking on her chart. But the agency holding her chart, which is usually where she is currently building her career–NY or Paris, often does not look kindly on those bookings. When a top girl is on the escalator to supermodel status, the agency managing her career has to keep a global eye on how this lass spends her days.
So getting back to my meeting of this morning, the London agent was telling me of such a situation where he had a booking for a top girl for a nice catalog paying roughly $50,000 for a few days’ work. Nice work if you can get it. The only glitch was that the Paris agency, the one holding her chart, felt that this client–well-known but only ‘top’, not yet ’super’ themselves–was not worthy to be associated with their (hopefully) future star. And so would not give the green light for her London agent to take the booking.
I can see the point from both sides. But what I couldn’t help thinking was, “No one’s asking the model’s opinion on this.” And doubtless she doesn’t even know this tug of war is going on.
I’ve seen from experience a situation where a girl with great potential and whose agency has great hopes pinned on her can barely pay her rent while her agents wait for the ‘right’ client to show up. It’s a calculated risk. If it pays off, it pays off big-time. If not, well….
It reminds me of a model friend of mine who once said to me, “I just want to be a star at my bank.”
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