Inside the model circuit: Bangkok
The “models’ night” is nothing new to Bangkok, but lately our attention has been piqued by a cloud of controversy hanging over the regular circuit of restaurants and clubs that proudly take their nightly turn to host the “beautiful people.”
With Bed Supperclub - the original models’ night - every Wednesday, Flix every Tuesday, Koi and Zantika practically every night and Met Bar once a month, it was only a matter of time before the topic came up in BangkokRecorder’s online forum.
Perhaps predictably, most forum users were against bars and clubs providing free drinks and meals to models in exchange for borrowed glamour.
One regular voice in the forum said: “It’s not that I don’t like models it’s more that I find the concept extremely shallow. The clubs are basically giving free drinks to people that were lucky enough to have good genetics. Thailand is already fixated with beauty, there’s no need to encourage more prejudice by rewarding beautiful people and making normal people feel inferior.”
After all, Derek Zoolander once said, “I’m pretty sure there’s more to life than just being really, really, really ridiculously good-looking.”
When we asked partygoers out and about, one unhappy camper told us: “At all of these places, models drink or eat for free and the other customers pay inflated prices. We are basically subsidizing their party life.”
“The concept feels a little ‘rent-a-crowd,’” commented one well-heeled young Brit. “In London, it’s usually a last-ditch marketing attempt, but it seems more like an opening gimmick here.”
With the models’ night concept meeting such hostility, we decided to get to the bottom of what makes it work and how it can be simultaneously so popular.
Let’s take it from the beginning…
Bed Supperclub started Bangkok’s first models night in 2004. Of course, models’ nights did pre-exist in other parts of the world, and in fact Bed’s marketing advisor and models’ night innovater Jonathan Apichari has also organized similar nights in New York, Berlin and Budapest. “In New York, I didn’t really have to give away anything free at all… The models come in and they pay for drinks,” recalls the half-Thai, half-American businessman, who also manages four other companies.
“Even though the club doesn’t provide a free luxury lifestyle for the models, [they] would come anyway because… if a club’s hot, people in the fashion and entertainment industry will come.”
So, you may ask, what freebies are models privy to?
“We issue a models pass card,” says Jonathan. “[That] allows models to come on models night and any night of the week, free of charge. Any other day than Wednesday, they get two free drinks. On Wednesday they get 10 tickets and a bottle for every three models…Models get a main course. We don’t want to stuff them up too much, because the agencies might complain!”
Elsewhere, the freebies can be even more free-flowing. Sylvia Andreas, PR Executive at Koi, says that models show their pass to receive “complimentary dinner and drinks…every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.”
The next logical question: why must models in Thailand be offered a “free luxury lifestyle” when models from elsewhere in the world seem to be more self-sufficient?
From the models’ perspective: “It’s a different culture…in NY and LA, the novelty of modeling is not at the same level as it is in Thailand…[Here] it seems like a lot more of a big deal. You’re treated like a semi-celebrity.”
Bed Supperclub’s management appear to have approached it in a more philanthropic light. “Well, first I did some research into the modeling industry in Bangkok,” explains the 26-year-old Jonathan. “It turns out that each week the models get paid an allowance, about 3,000 to 5,000 THB, but then you have other expenses… in the end they have very little left. They have to go to the agency and ask for advances.”
Models agree that working conditions are tough.
“The market has gone down in Thailand,” says Roline Robertson, an unusually older 26-year-old model. “I did some commercial campaigns two years ago for a lot of money, but now the pay isn’t as much.”
Another model we talked to at Bed’s models’ night said the apartments provided by the agencies were squalid. She mentioned that competition was fierce due to an over abundance of models in the city. Many have said that almost half their earnings are eaten up by agency rates and expenses. “There is also rivalry between Thai and foreign models because Thai models feel that we are taking their jobs,” revealed the aesthetically pleasing punter.
Most foreign models work in Bangkok on a temporary cash-in-hand basis on three-month visas. Jonathan is certain that the government will soon start cracking down on tax-evading model immigrants. He says he likes to see himself as a “resolution” to the problem.
“The main objective is not just to provide a free luxury lifestyle for models at Bed Supperclub,” says the cherub-faced Bed advisor. “It’s also to bring in people from the fashion industry closer together…At the end of the night, people land jobs. I would say that for each week, two or three models get jobs…People are starting to see what we’re trying to do here…it’s a win-win situation.”
The situation is so “win-win” that several other venues around town have started their own models night, though perhaps without the charitable intentions of creating “a friendly working environment” for the fashion industry.
First finding success in Los Angeles before expanding to New York and now Bangkok, Koi Japanese restaurant has quickly won over the model set.
“New blood will go [to Koi],” says Rosalind Morias, a casting agency owner who frequents Bed Supperclub’s models nights. “It’s the first place they hear about.”
We asked Sylvia to explain the objective of Koi’s models night. “Well, the whole concept behind Koi is that it’s chic, trendy and sexy,” says the half-Swiss, half-Thai PR executive.
Even though Sylvia insists the models are only a “small part of that concept,” Koi has launched itself as a model hangout from day one.
“I definitely think [Koi] uses models as kind of a marketing thing,” says a 23-year-old model, Matt Marshall we met at Koi. “I know for a fact that they market themselves to come to Koi because there’s beautiful people here.”
Another issue that one of our outspoken forum users had was that models “rarely mix outside their circle, let alone in the wider community.”
“There is a [model] scene definitely,” says Matt Marshall. “You don’t want to go to a bar … with JUST Thai people.”
“They sort of stick in their own groups,” says Rosalind Morias, a casting agency owner that frequents Bed Supperclub on a Wednesday night. “These are really beautiful people and sometimes … they’re still socially insecure and I don’t actually see them date outside of their circle, which is a pity. They’re a bit insecure about mingling.”
“It’s easy for us to go to Koi together,” explains the perfectly-chiseled Matt. “We’ll probably end up in Zantika or Flix, but that’s not to say we don’t mix with other people from different agencies.”
Now, that’s progressive thinking.
As long as there are swarms of partygoers happy to follow Bangkok’s beautiful crowd, models’ nights look set to continue spreading throughout the city. Bed’s Jonathan calls the concept an infectious ‘virus’, while others feel it has gotten out of hand.
“I think the whole theme of models attending models’ nights is over-rated,” says the petite Rosalind, who looks remarkably young for her 33 years. “Models night is basically to get them seen and scouted but for the models it’s like, ‘I get free drinks’ and it just turns into that.”
With freebies every night of the week, some model partygoers seem to be growing excessively cheeky.
“There is such a thing as models taking advantage of [models night],” confides Jonathan. “In the first five months of models night, they got a free bottle for every model… What they would do is to first to test out, they go for the cheapest kind of vodka and tequila. Then by the end of the month…they start ordering Grey Goose, Absolut Vanilla, 4,000-baht bottles of tequila…”
When the first monthly model bill came, Jonathan had to have a bit of a lie down. It was for over a million baht.
But at the end of the day, we have to admit we would probably do the same thing. Free drinks are great. It’s scientifically proven that they taste better. Resentment towards the models themselves is misguided, as models nights mushroom throughout the city.
While some Bangkok clubs genuinely strive to create fashion industry buzz, the rest use the model concept purely as a marketing ploy that can lead to overcrowding and an oxymoronic antithesis of exclusivity.
Perhaps three time male model of the year winner, Derek Zoolander summed it up best: “If there is anything that this horrible tragedy can teach us, it’s that a model’s life is a precious, precious commodity.”
Add comment April 13th, 2006
