This Model Life : Documentary series about the model industry

[sethii]

Made by Jane Treays

First shown on Channel 4 in the UK, back in 2003. I know if you are in the UK and have Virgin digital TV service you can watch the whole series through their TV show archive. Altogether there were maybe 4 episodes - each being 1 hour long (long time since I saw it).

A great documentary about the world of modelling. It follows 3 models who are at different stages of their careers. One is Erin O'Conner who is the established supermodel. Another is Ruth Crilly. She is fairly new and struggling hard to establish herself. The third is a brand new face (forget her name) who is not modelling full time and her mother goes with her everywhere. I think she just does 1 catwalk show in the whole series. The documentary has a little bit about one girl who is what we might call a 'seasonal top model' - who for a while was making big money and appeared in Italian VOGUE, but at the time of filming her career is already over, she has been droppped, and now works as a shop assistant (still very young).

What I like about the series is the long interviews with models and agents. Unlike other fashion films or reality shows, this does not portray the fashion world as some kind of neverending party populated by supermodels and fun. The impression it gives me is of a very unstable and psychologically challenging 'career' which in most cases doesn't amount to much.

here is Channel 4's own synopsis

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]We've heard about the glitz and the glamour, the tears and the tantrums - but what's it really like to work at the (kohl) face of the fashion industry?
With unprecedented access to one of London's leading agencies, this series gets the inside story on the world of modelling from the scouts, the bookers and - of course - the models themselves.[/FONT]

 

[sethii]

Because it's quite old and not well known I can't find any clips online sorry. My only hope is that someone recorded this, or can record it from Virgin Media digital TV and upload it.

Here is an article written about it from British newspaper The Telegraph

Highs, lows and haute couture



For a year, film-maker Jane Treays followed two models on the gruelling fashion circuit in London, Paris, New York and Tokyo. Erin O'Connor earns a fortune and is fêted wherever she goes; but for Ruth Crilly, the modelling life means debt, anxiety and broken promises

In a backstreet in Paris, the French designer Jean Paul Gaultier is folding a length of yellow velvet around an exquisite, elongated wrist that belongs to Erin O'Connor, the 24-year-old model from Birmingham. He is effervescent in his appreciation of her.

Unique: Erin O'Connor

"The first time I saw Erin, I felt she was great, different, unique, with her own kind of beauty," he says. "I mean, what she does to the clothes is completely elegant and very clever. She is a complete inspiration, and she thinks only about how something can be even more beautiful."

Such is Erin's success that she gets this kind of plaudit from designers all the time. Rumour has it that she can command £1.5 million a year; she has just moved from a small, one-bedroom apartment in SoHo, New York into a £1 million warehouse apartment in nearby Tribeca.

I filmed with Erin for over a year in Paris, London and New York. She is six foot one, flat-chested, narrow-hipped and effortlessly sexy. Some weeks, she crosses the Atlantic four times; some days, she can't remember where she is. Her flat in New York is stuffed with donated designer clothes that she rarely has time to wear. Boxes of nail polish and discarded make-up clutter her bathroom and a £20 note is stuck to the fridge to remind her of her roots.

Erin never meant to be a model: one of three girls in a working-class Catholic family, she grew up mortified that she was the tallest and skinniest at home and at school. "I used to be called 'witch fingers' at school, but now I love them and so do the people I work with. Some people still consider me to be a freak of nature as I'm so tall, but modelling has given me peace and acceptance. I can now accept my shape as womanly."
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At 17, she planned to become a teacher, and was sporting a brace and smudged mascara when she was spotted by Ellis, the chief scout for the agency Models 1, at the Clothes Show in Birmingham.

"Does this job make you vain?" I asked her, one afternoon, as she was folding herself into a £40,000 dress. "I realise now when I look my best and when I look terrible," she said. "The biggest challenge has been learning to be myself when stripped down, casually dressed with no make-up."

She is about to be drawn by the fashion artist David Downton and looks extraordinarily linear and precise in a sequined black Chanel suit.
Silhouetted against the window, she is all arched nose, elbows and jutting hips. The effect is spectacular, as Downton points out: "It works amazingly well by being imperfect. Her angles all echo each other and she is in command of her beauty. She's like a lighthouse where the beams come around."

Ruth Crilly is 21 and also on the books of Models 1. She looks more like Bridget Jones than the Queen of Couture, and her blonde hair, gorgeous curves and gapped front teeth give her an air of quirkiness. At 5ft 8in, she's unlikely to make it big on the catwalk, but she has masses of what the agency calls "personality". She's bright, too, and was spotted by Ellis when a law undergraduate at Birmingham University.

Quirky: Ruth Crilly

Her small bedroom at home in Redditch is overflowing with make-up, toys and clothes. She owns seven pairs of Dolce and Gabbana jeans; she also has debts of £10,000, a combination of credit cards and student loan. To help clear her debts, Models 1 has sent her to Tokyo on a kind of financial detox.

"There are two reasons to send girls to Tokyo at the beginning of their careers," says Karen Diamond, one of the directors of Models 1, as she rearranges Ruth's book, stripping out all the pictures that she feels won't appeal to Japanese clients. "It teaches them to work very hard and understand that things don't come easily. It's also one of the few markets where girls are guaranteed to make money, which means they can then finance themselves to go to Paris, Milan or New York and help their careers move forward."

I am surprised to discover how hard it is going to be. Ruth is driven from Tokyo airport to Image, her new Japanese agency, at 10pm. She has been travelling for 24 hours. Hitomi, her booker, introduces her to eight Japanese scouting agents who can't speak English. As they tousle her hair and measure her waist, they take Polaroids and sigh with pleasure. Before she has even had a bath in Tokyo, Ruth has a job - for a bridal catalogue, starting at seven the next morning.

From the first day, she is caught up in a relentless round of castings and the odd job - any kind of routine struggles to establish itself. Every morning, I arrive with the film crew. Ruth is often tired first thing, as a combination of jet lag and the phone ringing through the night takes its toll.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/main.jhtml?xml=/fashion/2003/03/03/efmod03.xml

 

[sethii]

continued...

"It's very hard to explain the physical strain: leaving home at 8am and spending the day in a van with blacked out windows with six other girls, being driven around the city to eight or 10 castings and then standing in front of a lot of men who don't speak English and don't seem to understand anything about fashion."

Ruth is given a tiny, two-bedroom flat to live in, which she shares with Sophie, a Danish model. It overlooks a graveyard and a wedding dress shop. It is quickly filled with bags of disposable and recyclable rubbish as the girls struggle to maintain order; the fridge is empty and the ashtrays full; the beds are unmade, and there are clothes strewn on the floor.

Ruth is always out looking for work. Her rent is £1,300 a month and she has had to pay for her own airfare. One morning, Ruth's mum, Christine, a schoolteacher, rings to say that she has been telephoned by bailiffs wanting payment on two of Ruth's credit card debts. Christine has had to give them money she had set aside to pay her builders.The work quickly proves hard going. "Ruce is shawming", the Japanese say of her, but they don't book her as often as she had hoped. The gap in the teeth, so beloved in London and New York, is regarded uneasily in Japan and soon Ruth is struggling.

One afternoon last May, she lay slumped on her table waiting for the phone to ring, with 20 stubbed-out cigarettes in the ashtray beside her. I began to hate the way the golden girl I'd got to know was reduced to an insecure wreck by the silence of the phone. It was, for her, like an unrequited love affair: as soon as it rang, she went running off, with a smile on her face.

I often wondered whether the modelling business was worth it. I found it a difficult and unappealing world: too many promises, last-minute cancellations and egos. In Erin's case, it definitely was worth the trouble, but she is one of a handful of girls at the very top. For the majority of girls on the books of Models 1, the story is different. I was amazed to learn that the average fee for a job is £350 and that most girls consider themselves to be doing well if they make £30,000-£40,000 a year.

The pressure is on from day one. "The average length of time at the top is now three to four years," says Ellis, who has been scouting for 17 years. "The industry demands new girls all the time. Gone are the days of the eight supermodels staying at the top with vast earnings. These days, what the industry wants is turnover. And Ruth is part of that turnover."

After four weeks, Ruth flew back to Heathrow clutching an envelope containing £7,000. She had made most of it being "a cheesy bride, not the sort of the thing I'd do in England at all" and within a week flew out to New York, again to find work through a sister agency of Models 1.
She arrived in Manhattan with her eyes on stalks. Within a day, she abandoned her old shoes for a more sassy outfit - a sun dress and lace-up espadrilles costing £160. It was 100 F and she slept on old grey blankets in a room where towels were used as curtains. A previous model had left a terrapin, bought from a stall in Chinatown as a pet, and Ruth spent her days fussing over it as she waited for work. Six weeks went by and no work came. The trip to New York cost Ruth £3,000, almost half of what she had saved in Tokyo.

How different things were with the unique, haughty looking Erin O'Connor. We made an incongruous pair - Erin a foot taller than me in her Converse trainers - as we criss-crossed the shows in London, Paris and New York. We'd walk down West Broadway and boutique owners would tap on the windows and beckon her into their shops. She'd be recognised and given discounts or presents.

Disarmingly, she would whisper seductively into my ear: "Treat yourself!" One day, she took me to the Marni store on Mercer Street. A particular long brown striped jacket caught her eye and I tried it on. It looked appealing until I saw the price tag of £1,300. "Buy it," she urged and I resisted.
"Look, I'll try it on and you'll see it looks better on you than me because you have breasts and curves and I don't." Incredibly, the jacket hung limp from her shoulders.

For the next three days, Erin nagged me to go back and buy the jacket. "Every woman should treat herself to something she looks fabulous in." Eventually, I agreed and, feeling sick, handed over my credit card. Erin was triumphant and took me out to lunch to celebrate. "Now that you've trusted me, I'll trust you and we can make the film."

One morning, we were racing through Paris, from a Dior show to a Valentino fitting. The traffic was heavy and Erin was late. She was wiping her make-up away from her face, preparing herself as a blank canvas for the next show. Four or five times a day, she has to turn herself into a designer's image and alter-ego.

It occurred to me that I had never seen her when she wasn't rushing from one deadline to another. "Could you do an office job?" I asked. She paused for a moment and turned to me.
"No," she said. "I can remember my nose growing bigger and bigger and my cheekbones appearing, and I was growing out and upwards and I wasn't sure if I wanted any of this to happen. I wanted it all to stop. When my school photograph was taken, I was so tall I was placed at the back with the boys and I was devastated.


"But when this opportunity came, out of the blue, I knew it would be almost sinful to refuse. Modelling has saved my life."

 

[sethii]

After the show was aired, there was a webchat thingy with Ruth

Chat Ed : Welcome to this evening's THIS MODEL LIFE chat with RUTH CRILLY!

CEB : hello ruth!
Ugly_Spottie_Boi : hi Ruth!

Ruth Crilly : Hi everyone, I've just finished watching the programme - I'm ready to chat!
Friskydoughnut : What happened to the turtle...?

Ruth Crilly : The turtle was set free in Central Park - he was too hot in the apartment so we let him loose.

ninimonkey : why did u have to pay ur own expenses while living in NY?

Ruth Crilly : Because basically if you go over to a different country on a direct booking (which means that you're going over for a particular job that you've been booked for) you get your air fare, your accommodation and a chauffeur all paid for, but I was basically going over to establish myself and see clients which was my choice so I had to pay for it myself because there wasn't a client at the other side who had booked me. It works like that for everyone actually.

NS : Hey Ruth, well done on this program! You give models a good name
angel : What is it like waiting for an interview for hours then not gettin gthe job?

Ruth Crilly : The interview that was shown on the programme, that wasn't for a particular job that was for a casting agent, so he would look at you and if he likes your look then he'll keep you on his books for future reference. I have actually been on jobs booked through him now, so it turned out well in the end.

kelly : Hi Ruth, is the modelling lifestyle more hard work then glamorous?

Ruth Crilly : Yes! Basically you do all the hard work so that you can have a glamorous lifestyle and it's much the same as you saw on the programme - if you do castings it's really hard work, but once you get the job it's really glamorous - you get to stay in really expensive hotels, get all your food paid for and get a chauffeur driven car. So it's a bit of both really. You have to do the leg work to get the glamour.

Kat : how did u get into modelling?
june : What age did you start Modelling?
MikeOxford : don't forget what Erin does...live cheap and save like mad!

Ruth Crilly : I started at 20. I was at University and I decided to take some time out because I hadn't had a gap year and fortunately I got scouted by Models 1.So thought I'd give it a go. I recommend anybody that was thinking of trying it to get their education first though so that you have something to fall back on.

country_bumpkin : do you ever regret giving up university?

Ruth Crilly : In some ways yes...because I only had one year to go and I would have my degree by now and letters after my name but I know that there's a strict time limit on how old you can be - you've only got a small window of opportunity in the modelling world so you have to catch it while you can and you can always go back to education at any time. So it was the only way I could have done it really because I was already quite old when I got into it. So kids, stay at school!

Kim : Do you think this tv show is going to help your success?

Ruth Crilly : I've had a really good response from clients but I don't think that people in the fashion world will be so easily swayed just because I'm on TV. It will just make people know me a bit better. Hopefully I'm seen as a good ambassador for the modelling world. So that's good. So yes I think it will help my career but not in the way that you would have thought - I think people are more kind of proud of me than anything.

Es : Ruth ... I just want to say I think you are lovely and unassuming - a good role 'model' who knocks spots off all these fake girls

Ruth Crilly : Aah, thank you! It's nice to have positive feedback and to have people appreciate personality as well as looks.

GemmaM : what do you think of the other models in the show?

Ruth Crilly : Well, they are all friends of mine because all the models at the agency kind of know each other. Erin and Anna are both gorgeous people. We all have very different personalities. Erin and I both deal with the pressures of the job in different ways I think and Anna is quite a lot younger than me, so I probably relate more to Erin. People might think there is bitchiness going and that the girls all hate each other, there's actually so little of that. We find that we get on so well because we are all under the same pressure and we can all relate to each other's problems.

Sugarplum : What will you do when the modelling ends
Kim : Do you think modelling will lead to other work like acting etc?

Ruth Crilly : I'm going to go back to Uni and finish my Law degree. Or writing or journalism. We'll see. Hopefully it's a few years off yet. I'm always thinking about it though - I don't get complacent. It would be nice Kim. It can do for a lot of people. The contacts are there but again we just have to see how it goes - a lot of it is being in the right place at the right time. If the auditions came up then yeah I'd give it a try. You have to try everything once - you never know until you try!

Photographer : Ruth who was the best Photographer u worked with ?

TASHA AND KEV : Ruth, just want to say well done. You've come across as a star!!!!!

Ruth Crilly : I've worked with so many good ones, they are all great in their own way. There isn't a single one that I've worked with where I haven't enjoyed it. Even new photographers - you can see potential in them and everyone I have worked with has been exceptional, so I'm very pleased.
Chanel : Does that gap in-between your teeth stop you getting work?
Josephine : what happened to your teeth? why have you got a gap?
Ruth Crilly : No, the complete opposite.

Ugly_Spottie_Boi : I think the gap is cute
GemmaM : WE LOVE THE GAP!

Ruth Crilly : I hated it when I was younger and I had a brace put on to close the gap and it didn't work, the gap was just too stubborn.

Gemma20 : It is unique
APerfectCircle : long live the gap!

Ruth Crilly : Every client that books me says they love the gap in my teeth. The only place that didn't was Japan - but that's a strange market anyway. Gaps rule!!!!!

marco : how did u cope with the Japanese? How did u find living there??
Daytona : Why wasn't there any translators in Japan ?

Ruth Crilly : The manager that escorted us to each casting acted as the translator but he had 10 or 12 girls that he was dealing with each time. It would have been too time consuming for him to translate everything to all of us. It's a different work ethic there. Living there was great - you get treated very well. Working there was difficult and the food was strange and very, very expensive. I'm hoping to go back in a few months actually. I had a lot of people there who were friends so that helped a lot.

Oliver : Why do you think the Japanese market is so focused on Western women?
mo : what did u do with the blue peter money tower that u made in japan

Ruth Crilly chuckles
Ruth Crilly : I had to leave the money tower there because it wouldn't fit in my suitcase because I'd bought so many things over there. I was going to carry it through as hand luggage but I thought they might think I was a bit mad! It is weird how they want to see girls who are so different to their own cultures, but they love all things Western. - all the European labels etc. It is a shame that they don't use more Oriental girls though.

icklejo : Hi Ruth you are an inspiration to me and all young girls. What did your parents think of you leaving uni and becoming a model?

Ruth Crilly : They were shocked at first because we're a very academic family but the fact that I was slightly older, I think they trusted me slightly more to make a good decision. They saw me travel and becoming more and more independent and developing my own personality and now they couldn't be happier - they're really pleased. They do want me to finish my education at some point because it's a shame to have a brain and not use it, but they are really supportive.

samantha : would u encourage ur children if u had any to take up modelling?

Ruth Crilly : Ooh...that's a hard one. I think, if they really wanted to, and I felt that they were mature enough to make that decision, then yes I would let them, but I'd be quite wary because I know all the pitfalls. There's no way I'd let them do it unless they had done their education because it's just so fickle.

country_bumpkin : Which are?
tally : what are the pitfalls?
GemmaM : what pifalls are there?

Ruth Crilly : You've got to be able to handle rejection because you might do 10 castings a day and each one is emotionally wearing - it's a bit like a competition each time, so it's quite taxing on your emotions. You have to have a very hard shell. And also it's very risky. Some girls leave school before their GCSEs - they might do 4 or 5 years of castings and jobs for no money then they have no education and are unemployable really. You have to be strong and clued up and have a good support network behind you. It's a very changeable business and you need to be aware that things could just flop the very next day.

Gemma20 : Has anyone ever made a clay sculpture from you?
CEB : What has been the best job you have done so far?

Ruth Crilly : No, I'd hate to have a sculpture made of me - I could not sit still for that long so fair play to Anna! Best job... I've had some great jobs where I've been flown to Monaco and Nice, you know, hot places. Too many to count actually. I've enjoyed working with every single group of people. I've been quite lucky. I have done a lingerie shoot though on an English beach at 5am, so that's the other extreme!

adam : what was it like when you saw yourself in a magazine for the first time?
Lauren : is it weird watching yourself on the tv ruth?

Ruth Crilly : It was weird, I was dressed as a cowgirl - I expected it to be all sexy and pouting and I ended up with this mad expression staring back at me from this magazine. It's especially weird when you see your name in print at the bottom of the picture. I felt quite proud of myself.

Louise Helen : How have your friends reacted to you being a model?

Ruth Crilly : They're really proud. They took the mick at first because I'm blonde as well. They love it though. They ground me too because they still treat me the same as before.

paul wilson : Hi. Whats the most you have earned in a day?
Thom : What is the most expensive thing you have blown on a credit card?

Ruth Crilly : Ooh, erm... £7,500 is the most I've earned. Although I made £12,000 on one advert that repeated and that only took 45 minutes to shoot. Shoes and jackets which I could probably have a mortgage on is what I spend the most on. I tend to get given lots of stuff too. I have a coat worth £3,500 which was given to me.

fashionchic : Don't you feel uncomfortable with any of the outfits you have to wear?
Merlin : what do you really think of some of the designers clothes?

Ruth Crilly : Some of them are completely off their rockers and you feel like a complete lunatic but it's all part of the job and it can be a laugh. You just look at each other and have a laugh about it. You can feel uncomfortable though. Some designers like to celebrate the female form a little too much
; )

simone : Ruth your a wicked person! As well as a wicked model so keep up the good work!!!!!
GemmaM : got to go ruth...i wish you every success in the world..bye
Kat : byeeee Ruth!!
Holly2003 : Bye Ruth, Good Luck in the future, you sound like a very nice person.
iwanabamodel : byeee!
Ugly_Spottie_Boi : Ruth!
heiko : well done ruth!
Ruth Crilly : Thank you for all your lovely comments and support. It's nice to know there are people out there with their thumbs up for me and don't forget to watch next week!
fashionchic : byee! thank 4 answring my qs
Becky : byee ruth good luck

http://www.channel4.com/community/showcards/T/This_Model_Life_-_Ruth_Crilly.html

 

[Style-Addict]

This sounds really interesting, I'd love to watch it!!

Hopefully someone has a copy somewhere and can upload to youtube or megashare (or whatever all those downloading sites are called)

Thanks for the info on this- sounds really cool and interesting!

 

[Suburban Snob]

Sounds great. I wish I could have seen it in the US.

However there was a show from England about models that aired here about 6 or 7 years ago. It was similar to America's Next Top Model but it was more realistic..you know with actual pretty girls who were thin. LOL. One had a bad skin problem I remember. I wish I could recall the name of it. In the final episode they were filming in like Antartica with sled-dogs....and fur, it was fabulous.

 

[sethii]

^ maybe 'Model Behaviour' ? From 2002
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/M/model/news19.html

It was like ANTM (they all shared a flat + got eliminated one by one) but the models actually did real castings for proper clients and serious fashion editorials (testino etc). Boys and girls competed together in that show. I remember one guy from it went on to do very well.

 

[carmen_kass]

^Nathan? Yeah I think he did Armani...and now he has some very bizzare videos up of himself on youtube.

 

[sethii]

OMG I just found it on youtube!!!!! The whole series!!!! (hoping that people outside the UK can view this )

Episode 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9UthK-LpKU

Episode 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2abkUwPI5Q

Episode 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9T8110KSwU

 

[Lamia]

^Unfortunately not,it's blocked for my country

 

[sethii]

Thanks for letting me know...I'm gonna look for a solution....

edit: Do these links work for you?

edit2: nevermind

edit3: Ok so you can get around the country restriction by using a simple proxy website, BUT the videos are set to 'embedding disabled by request' which stops this method working for me

 

[Sam12]

The proxy website thing doesn't work either, it still says its blocked.

Is it possible for u to upload it somewhere?

 

[dumbfairy]

Can those of you outside of the UK watch 4od? Because if so the whole series can be viewed here:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/this-model-life/4od

 

[sethii]

Can those of you outside of the UK watch 4od? Because if so the whole series can be viewed here:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/this-model-life/4od

Thanks! I didn't think to go to their own homepage

If people outside the UK can't view that, a proxy website should work. (use one which will give you a UK ip address)

Maybe someone who knows more about these things can post a good solution?

 

[cold_sun]

I cant watch it on there either

 

[Sisley]

^Unfortunately not,it's blocked for my country

for my too

 

[isa.b.elle.]

same for me

 

[visualeyes]

i found it on google videos, works in the usa.

 

[PENG.]

same for me

me too

 

[sethii]

i found it on google videos, works in the usa.

Can you post links? I could only find this 3 minute clip http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...&ei=tNZlS43GK5e62wKm39W4CA&q=this+model+life#