Photo: Takahito Sasaki
Name: Jack Curd
Age: 21 in November 2013
Agency: Storm Models
Height: 6' 1.5" / 186.69 cm
Chest: 39" / 99.06 cm
Waist: 31" / 78.74 cm
We sit on a makeshift bench, near the reading room. The model I’m interviewing has been in Vogue Russia alongside Kendra Spears, walked in shows around the world, and he’s just getting started.
And he’s at university – two incredibly different spheres are so rarely combined (currently, the notable exception is probably Edie Campbell). The world is out there, at his feet; he’s signed up to one of the most prestigious modelling agencies on earth, he is in demand.
Jack Curd started modelling at 17. He was approached by Storm Models for a test shoot, and then signed up to the agency – though this wasn’t the first time he had been approached. “At 15 I was scouted by Models 1, but I didn’t follow it up because I thought I was too young.” Balancing modelling and school was tough, and after he completed his A-levels he left for five months to travel. In Autumn 2012, he started his Spanish degree at the University of Durham. Next year, he plans on focussing more intensively on modelling whilst in Barcelona.
Why university? His parents insisted on him going, but also – and here marks an important difference between female and male models – his career has only really just started. It will only start to ‘truly’ evolve once he’s left university. “It’s a young woman’s game, but for men it’s in the early 20s that things really start to happen.” So though the phone keeps ringing with opportunities that he has to decline, it doesn’t matter too much. Plus, a degree is important: “I have a friend who works full time, left school at 17, and is being paid well, but I’m not sure it’s something I want to do – If you can do the campaigns targeted at an older clientele at 30 then yeah, but if not then things get difficult.”
Nonetheless, he says, it’s frustrating not to work.
Photo: Takahito Sasaki
“Because of university I missed shows in London, Milan and a trip to Tokyo. And when you’re gone for that amount of time it’s like you’re starting anew. It’s difficult to compete when you see guys doing it full time – they book a show, and a major campaign, and their career flies through the roof.”
And, unfortunately, there were missed opportunities due to bad timing. He knew Russell Marsh, one of the most influential casting directors in the world, who was formerly the casting director for Prada (he launched the careers of Daria Werbowy, Lara Stone, Sasha Pivovarova and other supermodels). “He liked me and was interested in casting me, but when the time came for the Prada casting he wasn’t there.” (Marsh left Prada last year to work as a freelancer).
Photo: Takahito Sasaki
It’s immediately apparent why Jack is so in demand – the model good looks are there, obviously, but so is a type of insouciance, one that belongs to a carefree, relaxed spirit. A model that could become anything that you asked him to be, but could bring that element of – and here adjectives fail me. Irreverence? Rebelliousness? Words don’t quite capture an essence. It is this same essence, I think, that makes Cara Delevingne one of the most sought for models today – an essence that embodies an attitude, the current mood.
“You need a strong mind and the right attitude in this industry, or you won’t make it.” The world of fashion is “a doggy dog world”, where you hear people fight crazily over the telephone, “but when they meet up afterwards it’s all like ‘Hello, darling!’ You have to get used to it.”
He talks of his first casting aged 17. He was very nervous, waiting alongside dramatically different models: “some had tattoos all over, others had massive beards.” He says he “didn’t know what to do. With male models it’s like a single swim, they throw you out there and you have to cope. The people at the casting asked me to walk and I wasn’t sure what to do – women are taught all these things before, I knew almost nothing – but then after a while it became easier. Now it’s all very relaxed, I’m not worried about it.”
Photo: Takahito Sasaki
Single swim is right. “When I first came to Milan, I was asked to go to 10-11 castings in a day. I had no idea how I was going to make the castings in time, not knowing the city at all, but you learn. And then it’s easy when you go back.”
He says that you have to learn how to dress according to the casting. “If it’s for Tom Ford, say, you want to look slick. The look varies depending on who you are seeing.” But everything depends on how you look: “They don’t care about what you are wearing. River Viiperi comes in a tracksuit, shakes the casting director’s hand and says ‘I’ll see you on Wednesday!’ I wish I could do that!”
Jack was recently photographed by Takahito Sasaki. The shoot announces a change in appearance. An older, more mature look replaces the boyish softness of his teenage years. “I love the pictures, they are the best ones yet.” No-one would guess that they were taken the next day after a night out in Brixton – he hadn’t slept, and doesn’t know how he managed. “I just drank the biggest cup of coffee!”
The older look has opened doors: In January he featured in the Tommy Hilfiger Tailored Men’s RTW Fall 2013 showcase. He was the youngest model there by around seven years. “The people there didn’t want to believe that I was still at university, or why I was still at university.”
Next year he’ll be in Barcelona. “It’s another great opportunity, and hopefully it’ll be beneficial – fingers crossed!”
xoxo
Alex
Email: stylemauritius@live.com
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