My Fashion Moments
DAVID GANDY By Gabriela Cambero
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David Gandy, phwoar!
ALTHOUGH HE’S ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC MALE MODELS IN THE WORLD, THERE’S MORE TO DAVID GANDY THAN A CHISELLED JAW AND THOSE INFAMOUS WHITE TRUNKS IN THE DOLCE & GABBANA ADVERTS. HERE HE LETS 22 IN ON SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN HIS EXCITING CAREER.
1.Probably
the one most pivotal moment in Gandy’s career to date is when he first started modelling, thanks to a competition in the daytime TV show This Morning in 2001. One of his friends entered him secretly and he ended up going through to the finals, although at the time “being in TV wasn’t exciting for me because I’m quite shy but after 12 years, I’ve learned how to hide it”, he says. Not surprisingly, he won and got signed by top London agency Select Model Management. But contrary to what you’d expect, his career didn’t suddenly skyrocket. At a time when skinny androgynous male models were the norm, tall and rugged Gandy was simply not what the industry was after. He reasoned that biding his time was sure to pay off.
2.The next moment was not a single one, but five
cumulative years’ worth. It was the time between his entering the industry and the Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue campaign. Gandy had secured a great deal of commercial work, but not the editorial jobs he yearned for. He made use of this time by observing and gaining experience. “You can’t walk into something and think you know it all. You’re way down the ladder from the people who have been in the industry for 25 years so you have to learn from them,” he says. “I learned the ropes of the job and what worked for the industry, I learned to think for myself, not to follow trends and to differentiate myself by playing to my strengths-I was told to lose weight, so instead I got bigger”.
3.Tandy
Anderson, head of Select and responsible for much of Gandy’s success, saw something special the moment she signed him, despite the fact that his looks were not ideal for the industry at the time. This was not quite the case for superstar photographer Mario Testino, “I met Mario within my first weeks of modelling, and he looked at my polaroids as if I was an alien,” he laughs. Tandy, however, identified his look as “so Dolce & Gabbana”, a prescient comment that was soon to pay off after sharing that with Mario Testino. And since then Mario’s come round too, for just as fashion changes, so to do fashionable models.
4.In 2002, he first walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana in a show where they gave every model the same haircut, which subsequently put pay to
other commercial gigs later in the same season. Six months later, Gandy refused to do it a second time. He was told, ‘David, either cut your hair or get out of the changing room’, so he walked with his head of hair intact. «Looking back, I’d do it again», he says, as to him, it was a matter of principle. “I think they respected the fact that I stuck to my guns”.
5.One
of the most important moments in his career was when he dropped every client he’d gained up to that point, in order to pursue what he really wanted to do. “I was in a very comfortable position, but I wasn’t happy: I wanted more. I wanted to create something, to push the boundaries” he says. Due to his admiration of the Levi’s models back in the 80s and the infamous launderette campaign starring Nick Kamen, he realised that was exactly what he wanted –something iconic. He told Tandy, “we should get something big or I don’t want to do this anymore.” Initially, people considered him crazy for leaving all the lucrative commercial work behind, but slowly he started getting more credible editorial jobs. This decision was undoubtedly the game changer for his modelling career.
6.
No one knows when you might meet your fate, but Gandy knows it was at top photographer Mariano Vivanco’s birthday party. Tandy from Select was invited, and when she learned that Domenico and Stefano would be attending, she knew she had to secure an invitation for him too. When he walked up to them to say hello, it was clear that they were interested in working with him again after a hiatus of five years
7.In
2007, David Gandy the brand emerged from the beautiful coast of Italy, as a result of Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue ad campaign which inadvertently turned the fragrance into a top international best seller, making it a Cool Water of the noughites. This iconic campaign was the catalyst for making him into a household name. David Gandy was no longer just about looks, but about what he represented. He became a product in himself and his name became a commodity. The Gandy brand boomed “When they use me now, brands get much more exposure and it all came about from Light Blue.” Thanks to the campaign that launched him into the world of celebrity, he’s now often able to control the concept, clothes and team on his shoots, something most models only
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dream of, “something I learned from Mario Testino is to bring a team you love to work with you, so even when things don’t go right, you still have a good time. In all my shoots, it’s always such a fun atmosphere”, he says. Fortunately, industry insiders state he’s still one of the nicest, humblest guys around. “I try to bring in as many talented people as I can to my team, to give them an opportunity.”
8.Gandy’s
first public relations coup was appearing on The Jonathan Ross show in 2010, as the first male model ever to be featured. «People got chance to put a name to the face and I stopped being just the ‘guy in the white pants’».
9.His
modelling success has also allowed him to dip into other interesting ventures. He recently launched his fundraising ‘Blue Steel Appeal’ – a cheeky nod toward the infamous Zoolander pose, and he also supports Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, becoming their first ambassador in March last year. He writes a popular blog for Vogue.co.uk, a monthly column on cars for GQ.com, and contributes to Man About Town magazine. He’s also the subject of a recently launched book, David Gandy by Dolce & Gabbana, which documents his most important and exciting shoots. When not making women salivate, he recently completed the Mille Miglia in Italy, a three day road race that covers 1000 miles, in which he drove a classic Jaguar, accompanied by fellow petrol head and supermodel Yasmin Le Bon. “We had no idea what we were doing but it really was a dream come true. My friends were laughing at me-‘you’re in a classic car, you’re racing, and you have a supermodel next to you, it can’t have been that bad’”, he says.
10.The time Gandy spent at university studying
multimedia computing and marketing made him realise that the path his life was going down wasn’t for him: “Hating university inspired me to do something else” he admits. However, despite the fact that further education wasn’t for him, “it helped me realise were the future was going, I knew it was in technology-based” – he has successfully launched two lifestyle apps for men, David Gandy Fitness and Training and David Gandy Style Guide for Men. He also took from the marketing side of his degree all of the knowledge he applied into creating his own personal brand “I’m not sure I’d be here today if it wasn’t for University.”