5 minute read
re-emergence
from EM Magazine 2020
by EM Magazine
Cheryl Hughes
a positive re-emergence beckons...
Advertisement
These unusual times are totally changing the face of every industry and sadly modelling, beauty and fashion are not exempt from this.
My love affair with modelling started when I was six years old when a lady called Pat Burke who owned a children's fashion shop in Australia asked my mother if I could model some clothes in a seasonal fashion show. My mum said yes and instantly my total love for modelling began and still lasts to this day.
Looking back over the years I enjoyed achieving every milestone. I started my working life as a school teacher but I was head hunted by the June Dally Watkins School of Deportment & Grooming in Australia to teach for them and model for their agency. Woo hoo, already I was taking the first step in my ‘Life Plan’ direction!
I absolutely adored it and after some years the opportunity came for me to start my own model training academy & agency in Brisbane. This career found me working for June Dally in Hong Kong, Barbizon in New York, John Robert Powers in San Francisco and The London Academy of Modelling in Bond Street which I ran for two years until it closed due to huge rental increases by the Bond Street Traders Association in the early 1980's. I was then offered the job of starting and managing a Classic Division for International Model Agency in London's West End. This led me to observing a gap in the market for larger sized models and so I created Hughes Models to fill the void. It was the birth of the first model agency worldwide to specialise in plus size models and the beginning of a totally new trend in the world of
modelling. It soon became the first and foremost plus size agency in the EU and remained so until I sold it seven years ago. Now almost every agency worldwide has their own curve division and it still continues to be a powerful influence on fashion today.
Since then I have worked as a Consultant with EMG. I have so enjoyed working with Ruth, meeting and working with so many of you to launch your careers into the modelling world which I love so much.
As I mentioned earlier, It is with some sadness that, in my opinion, we have all come to the end of an era. The coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented and in no uncertain terms a huge ‘wake up call’. It will change all of our lives.
However, I must also say it is with huge excitement that I look forward to the future. What next? That is really down to all of us.
We all need to work together now to orchestrate a very positive re - emergence! Just a few months ago none of us would have believed we would all be a part of making history. Our world had in many ways become a place of excess, in waste, pollution, cruelty,selfishness, greed, decline in all things nature, birds, animals, insects etc and of course including water and food… the list just goes on.
It would be lovely now to reemerge from this pandemic having seriously thought about our real values and how we will achieve them.
To Quote Anna Wintour (Editor of Vogue NY) who said “But what will that re-emergence look like? I think we’ve all gotten past the idea
that life will simply snap back to normal. Our economy is struggling in profound ways and will be struggling for some time to come. As all the scientists tell us, this virus will not simply disappear.
So, we must change as we reemerge. We must adapt. We have to. And I hope that change will be positive, that we will re-emerge thinking about what is meaningful in our lives. Will we be more practical? When it comes to fashion, will we want more of a uniform? Or will we be more creative and expressive than ever? We’re talking about this a lot at Vogue.”
I personally have been reading some fantastic literature coming out of the fashion industry, with amazing suggestions how as an industry it needs to change and suggestions on how they can make it less polluting and more sustainable. Things like showing their collections digitally and of course the choices of the fashion industry will have huge impact on modelling, as will changes in the beauty industry. What does come across very clearly is they do not intend to go back to previous bad practise.
Gucci’s Alessandro Michele on what comes next: “We will go back to life. But, I hope, to a different life”
We have all had to adapt and rethink our lives during Lockdown. I for one have actually loved it. It is the first time in my life when I have had absolutely no set commitments!
For me this has been so refreshing and what I’ve done has been so much fun.We have built a gorgeous
little rose arbour. For twenty years it sat tucked away in the corner of the garage as one of those jobs, as we Aussies would say, for Ron! Yet here it is completed in a matter of a few weeks (see left).
The weirdest thing was when our very inventive Chiropodist said she was not cancelling our appointment because she could totally comply with all the restrictions and do our appointment OUTSIDE. Well here we are (see right). Unbelievable!
We are now planting up our kitchen garden (another job that was previously for Ron) We hope to work over the next few years to be totally self sufficient. The list of jobs goes on and I never thought I’d get such enjoyment out of it.
For me after the re-emergence? I am a wife, a Mum and also a Grandmother and am filled with excitement reading all the positive articles emerging every day about how we can change the way we all live and in return create a world that will be able to support the human race for generations to come. A complete rethink!
Even more exciting, during the Lockdown, I have hatched a new business idea which I know will be of benefit for people of all ages to move forward easily and positively and to cope with the changes in the industry after the re–emergence. Watch this space!
As temporary custodians of this gorgeous planet on which we live I hope we can all give it our BEST SHOT! Let’s make 2020 go down in History as a truly remarkable Year.
