You have to look for a unique quality in that person and it's not just always physical. I don't think models are great models because of their face or their body. Obviously, I think their physical characteristics are important, but I think it's very much about your personality and inner beauty and really understanding how to be a great model instinctively. And that's where it all comes from.
Michael FlutieI think as a scout you have to pick. It is harder. You have to talk and explain that this is not just about standing one-dimensionally in front of a camera.
Michael FlutieLack of discipline. First of all, I think some of them fail because they just don't have natural talent, and they shouldn't even be in the business to begin with.
Michael FlutieThere's something I call telegenekicity, and it's not about just models. Of course, I can reference Iman, Tatiana Patitz, Kelly Emberg, Bonnie Berman - I go all the way back - but I think that you develop an eye to register iconic images - like Greta Garbo and Elizabeth Taylor.
Michael FlutieA girl's career today doesn't have the same kind of life span, whereas it used to be a collaboration and a partnership and it continued. Peter Lindbergh still uses girls - like, look at Amber Valetta - so there are some photographers that have relationships long-term with models. I also think that the industry can't support the amount of models that exist right now and therefore the relationships between photographers and models and even the clients is short lived.
Michael FlutieAmerica has always been the most fertile ground for models - and they were always exported to other countries. When Eastern Europe opened up its doors to the rest of the world, a lot of the girls that were basically working there for $1 a month realized that if they were beautiful and that they could go to Paris and work for $1,000 a day versus the $10,000 that the other girls were demanding. So it created a huge imbalance in the financial structure of how clients could budget out campaigns. The market became flooded.
Michael Flutie