You are going to read an interview with Louise Dyson, who runs the successful Louise Dyson Model Agency in Birmingham. In this interview she answers some girls' questions. Choose which answers A-J fit into the numbered questions (1-7). There are three extra paragraphs which do not fit in any of the questions.
A. Ask someone who uses them. Ask your parent to ring your local newspaper's woman's page editor and ask who they book models from. Most major cities have model agencies, and sometimes even smaller towns have one as well.
B. I hear about dodgy agencies all the time, and people who have paid to appear in modelling videos or to take modelling courses. They're useless.
C. Fashion modelling is only a tiny part of modelling — we provide models for everything from catalogues to advertising and editorial (magazine) work to TV. Girls under sixteen are often needed for 'family shots', and advertising products aimed at teenagers. Younger teenagers can expect to take home about one hundred and fifty pounds a day, and more for TV work.
D. It can actually be quite difficult. Model agencies don't have to prove to anyone that they know what they're doing. Even the dodgy ones will probably be licensed and follow local council and employment rules. There's an organisation called the Association of Model Agents (AMA) which encourages its members to reach good standards, but it's mostly the big London agencies who are members, and just because an agency isn't in the AMA, it doesn't mean it's dodgy! The best rule is to trust your own instincts. If warning bells are ringing, don't ignore them because you're so keen to make it as a model. Dodgy agencies only survive because some people are so keen to make it they ignore what their common sense is telling them.
E. It's true that most of the London agencies look for girls of 5'8" and over for fashion modelling but lots of other agencies take on anyone from babies to teenagers and they realise that they still have lots of growing to do. As long as you're right in other ways and agencies think you have the potential, they'll still take you on.
F. For our young models we look for 'wholesome' girls who are above average height, with good bone structure, good hair and skin and a nice smile. It's just as important to be confident and natural. If that sounds like you, you could be model material.
G. There's at least one good agency in most of the major cities — Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and plenty in London. It doesn't matter if you don't actually live near that city though obviously it helps if you have to go in for meetings or castings. We get about a hundred letters a week from girls wanting to get into modelling and from those, probably one is invited in for an interview.
H. Get someone to take a few really clear photographs of you — some head and shoulders pictures and some full-length. Then send them with a letter including your height, weight, measurements and age and enclose a stamped envelope addressed to yourself. Agencies should reply — especially if they think you're any good.
You don't really need to send any special photos to an agency — snapshots will do. If the agencies don't think you've got what it takes to get into modelling, it's disappointing but do take their advice. They're professionals and know what sort of girl will get lots of work.
I. If you are naturally the right type, a good agency will teach you what you need to know — if anything, a modelling course does more harm than good. The only training that's helpful is drama classes.
J. Occasionally, a designer comes along with a look so distinctive and unusual that it's not so much about fashion as a whole alternative aesthetic. When it's right, and captures the right people's imaginations, it can make tidal waves in the cool waters of ready-to-wear. The first Marni collection arrived in the shops in the autumn of 1991, and gradually she added to the base of quality leathers, on a mission to reintroduce colour and texture to a world dressed in black.