![]() Now Gaultier’s casting director, Bedrossiantz credits the late stylist Ray Petri – father of the Buffalo collective, who actively crafted the ’80s rude-boy aesthetic – with strongly influencing the menswear and male modelling scene, as embodied by muses Nick Kamen and brother Barry. It worked, with major brands from Yves Saint Laurent to Yohji Yamamoto clamoring to book him, as well as top photographers Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel and Jean-Baptiste Mondino. “I understood that if I wanted to stand out, I had to be different,” he says. When I arrived – it sounds very pretentious to say this – it was like a bomb going off in the industry because I was totally unique, with my different face and special haircut,” he says.įor role models, Bedrossiantz, who is of Armenian descent, looked instead to female model friends such as Inès de La Fressange, who was highly expressive on the runway. Their walk was so normal, with the whole hand-in-the-pocket thing, very classic. ![]() “When I started out in modelling, all the guys were these strapping Marlboro Man, all-American types: very muscular with perfect faces. Known for his distinctive, hip-swaying walk, Bedrossiantz – the longtime muse of Jean Paul Gaultier – is credited with paving the way for the androgynous look that eventually caught fire in the ’90s. Until the ’80s, the male modelling scene was pretty lacklustre, according to Tanel Bedrossiantz, whose catwalk career kicked off in 1985. (Stripping down to one’s undies works the same wonders for male and female models’ careers, it seems.) The Calvin Klein empire did its bit to bring male modelling into the mainstream, pairing then-aspiring rapper Mark ‘Marky Mark’ Wahlberg with a teenage Kate Moss in 1992, while Levi’s’ iconic 1985 Launderette TV commercial almost made Nick Kamen – whose debut single Madonna co-wrote – a household name. Madonna was an important influence on bringing male models to public attention, he notes, referring to Tony Ward – who starred in a number of her videos, including Erotica (1992), and her controversial SEX book (1992) while dating the singer in the early ’90s – and Cameron Alborzian, who starred in the Express Yourself video (1989) but reportedly turned down the Queen of Pop’s advances. “They tried to build the team of male supermodels but, while there were major male models who defined the beauty of the moment in the ’80s and ’90s, they didn’t achieve the crossover effect of their female counterparts,” adds Badia.
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