Based in London’s Covent Garden, Models 1 is one of the oldest and most respected agencies in the UK. I met up with managing director John Horner (who also sits on the council of the UK’s Association of Model Agents) to find out what makes them top of their game.

Model 1's MD, John Horner. Photo: Calvin Holbrook

How was Models1 formed?
Models1 was founded 40 years ago – it started with just three models on the books in Fulham, London, and it grew and grew from there. The men’s division was launched 20 years later and it now represents about 30% of total business so it’s been an important development. Ten years ago the owners decided they wanted to retire and they offered the business to two of the head bookers, and I was brought in then to look after the financial side of things. We have around 500 active models.

How do you compare with the other UK agencies?
In the UK we’re probably the largest agency based on turnover; I say ‘probably’ because this industry doesn’t publish data. With the UK agencies, you have two big ones at the top, Models 1 and Select. Below us are Storm and Premier, and then below them you’ve got an agency called Nevs.

How does the UK modelling scene compare with the international scene?
Modelling is actually a small industry in the UK. It probably has about a £40million turnover. People think that it’s a vast industry but it’s not. And it’s modestly profitable, not hugely profitable. The truth is models make a lot of money when they go abroad, because British clients – by and large – don’t have the budgets to pay. The international scene is very important for models and for us.

Booker Julien Miachon. Photo: Calvin Holbrook

What’s the set-up at Models1?
We have 33 staff and several operating divisions. We have the main board (women’s) and within that we have an image division, and also New Faces, which finds and develops models. Image girls work regularly for little money; believe it or not, you only get £75 if you make the cover of Vogue! And in that case we don’t even charge the model commission for that – it’s too rude! Everyone wants our male models – we have some of the biggest in the business at the moment.

Agyness Dean on i-D. Photo: Walter Pfeiffer

Only £75 for Vogue! So where’s the money in modelling?
Campaigns. So what happens is the big girls, the Agyness Deyn’s of this world, will get fewer jobs – lots of little editorial jobs – fewer big jobs, but when they get them, they may well be exclusive and they will be earning big bucks. Agyness wears clothes fantastically well and that is her great strength as a model. She’s not the biggest we have, but she’s a significant model and very high profile. Every day in every paper, there’s a photograph of her. Whereas our more regular models are hard-working: they do lots of work for catalogues, smaller advertising campaigns, and they can make a perfectly good living through that work.

What’s the typical day like for a booker?
Bookers work flexitime and start between 9am and 10am and work through to 6.30pm. They will receive calls from clients who are either looking for a specific model, a range of models for a job that’s up-and-coming in which they’ll have a casting session, but mostly what happens these days is that it’s all done on the internet. So when the client sends a brief or profile, we select the appropriate models for the job and the images for each of those models that best represents them for that specific job. We use a system called Portfolio Pad, which a lot of agencies use, and upload the images to the file and we send the URL to the client. They then click on the URL and they can select from the models and print cards off if they require. Ninety per cent of the time the clients will want to meet the models.

So how has the internet changed the modelling industry?
It’s transformed it. Ten years ago we were working on a very old booking programme and the email system was switched on just twice a day – that’s all – so mails would only go out twice a day. Two things happened. One was that you could now send packages of images so our card turnover has dropped dramatically. Cards are important – clients want to look at them. While the internet has obviously helped business, at the same time, sadly for me, too many now just send emails and there’s no dialogue between booker and client. I keep battering my staff, saying ‘Get on the telephone!’ If a client doesn’t want a model, it’s always better to get on the phone and ask the client why because maybe we have another model that could fit the brief. Saying that, email is critical. We would never be able to operate today without it.

Will Chalker. Photo: Models1.co.uk

How important is it to be international?
A great part of most agencies’ portfolios are now international and what we do is bring in girls and boys from throughout the world. There are a number of reasons for this: the opening up of the global market, secondly the growth of the internet, and the EC has allowed everyone and anyone to come to UK shores. As models, a lot of Eastern Europeans coming here will be earning in a day what they would earn in a month back home, or two months, so they’re all very hungry to come here. The percentage of foreign models has grown and grown and I would suggest around 40% of all UK model industry model earnings are from foreign models. So to get those people, what we do is travel. We go to foreign agencies and we choose models from their books. Those agencies are called the ‘mother agencies’ and we pay them a percentage of the model’s earnings. And foreign agencies do the same. In America we work with DNA which is a very high profile agency and Marilyn, which are good and strong agencies. We work with agencies in Paris and Italy too.

Do a lot of new faces come to you via the internet?
We are inundated from wannabe models. In the most part we find them ourselves; we run competitions, we do model search programmes with magazines, etc. We then have ‘walk-in’ days when about 400-500 models simply come into the office. We probably get 5,000 emails a year from people wanting to be models and we have to go though them all!

What advice would you give to an aspiring model?
There is nothing better than turning up at an agency; if we are going to take you on we are going to need to see you in the flesh anyway. Aspiring models should always have a back-up plan. It’s a career – it’s not a hobby. You have to work and go to bookings and castings. If you let the client down you are letting the agency down as well.

Supermodel Amber is on Models1's books

How do you look after the younger models?
We have health experts that come in and talk to girls about possible eating disorders but as far as we are aware we have never had any cases. We are like their parents, some girls are very young – 16 or17, so they are great friends with their bookers. You have to love them, kiss them, smack them, nurture them, just like if you were their parents.

How is Models1 different from other agencies?
One of the strengths of Models1 is that we have always grown and nurtured our own talent. Models1’s first six months of this year have been our best-ever in terms of turnover. We are a very polite agency. Some of our competitors are very harsh, very aggressive, and I think clients have great pleasure in dealing with us – we have a Models1 way of working. We’ve done independent research and we’ve come out tops every time in terms of the best agencies to work with.