Here are some of the genres of modeling available on the market today.
Promotional: Here you stand and hand out printed materials or trinkets that the promoter is hawking. You generally wear a uniform, i.e., hot pants and a tee shirt, bikini, polo shirt or something else that the promoter provides that distinguishes you from the crowd but attracts that crowd to you.
Spokesperson: This requires intelligence and training on the part of the model. The model must have detailed knowledge of the product she is speaking about as she will be asked questions about the product and MUST give intelligent answers, positive to the product to the questionnaire.
Print: This covers a wide range of modeling genres. If you’re going to be on a brochure, in a magazine, in a photographer’s portfolio or in any kind of advertisement you are a print model but will fall into many different kinds of modeling genres.
Commercial/Lifestyle: A commercial/lifestyle model is a model that is photographed doing every day things like talking on a cell phone, drinking coffee with friends in a coffee bar, sending the kids off to school, posing as a business person or whatever else people do on a daily basis. Most models in this genre are also actors and actresses. Parts Models play a big role here. Those of every size and shape get work here and is highly competitive.
Parts Modeling: This is a specialized area of modeling with the most popular being the “hand” model. On the other hand (pun intended) any body part is available to the parts model. Parts models are used by catalogues in ads for underwear, shoes, nasal strips, make-up and more. Parts Models play a big part in the Commercial/Lifestyle genre as well.
Fashion: It's all about the clothes. Fashion is broken down into four categories: 1. Runway: The elite runway models are 5’8” and have dress sizes 0-2. While the fashion industry is undergoing a reassessment of this policy to include certain body mass indexes it does not apply to local markets that use models of various sizes and shapes. This model must walk a certain way down a long, usually raised platform, turn, and walk back to her staring point in high heels modeling the designer’s clothes. 2. Mannequin: These models are also 5’8”/0-2 and hired on a long term basis by fashion designers to drape fabrics upon during the design process. These models must be comfortable with having the more sensitive areas of their bodies touched by the designers during the fittings and must stand for hours on end. 3. Catalogue: Open any catalogue and you’ll see models wearing all types of clothing in four basic poses. The more fast forward clothing catalogues have expanded into more glamorous, even erotic poses geared to a particular lifestyle and hire models with their "look". 4. Editorial: This style may include partial nudity. Editorial fashion tells a story to sell clothing and lifestyle. Read John Fishers Articles on Commercial and Editorial Modeling for an extensively detailed description.
Glamour: It's all about you. The bottom line in glamour photography is that the model is the center piece of the image. Since glamour has so many sub categories I covered them in a previous note "Glamour Definitions"
Here are the headers of the different categories. 1. Casual 2. Beauty 3. Lingerie 4. Pin-up 5. Noir 6. Fitness 7. Swimsuit 8. Glamorous fashion 9. Glamour Nude Artistic Sheer Implied Topless Glamor/Playboy style Erotic Fetish Soft core porn Hard core porn
There are more than enough categories to choose from. Find your niche and do the best you can.