“It all started one evening in Milan,” recalls Karlis Adler, co-founder of Latvia’s first boutique male-only modelling agency, Bro Models. “It was during my final fashion week as a model, the day before the Prada show, and I was talking to my Diana, who at the time was one of the bookers at my agency, about what happens next. All we’d ever known was modelling, but from two different sides. Suddenly we thought: what if we could do things better? What if we set up a small agency that could really nurture the boys on their books, invest in their careers and generally treat them better than the bigger agencies? Five minutes later, we scouted two guys, organised a test shoot for the next day and that’s how it all began. The next day the boys never showed, but we took it as a sign that this could actually work.”
That was a year ago; since then the former model and his girlfriend Diana Nikitina have transformed Bro Models from an off the cuff idea into a real life agency, which boasts 12 boys bursting with what Diana describes as “top potential”.
“We had big ideas when we first started,” confesses Diana. “We went on scouting trips to Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona and the south of France. We found a boy in Amsterdam and got him a Gucci exclusive. He went to Rome to meet Alessandro Michele, they confirmed him, but then he decided to switch to a local agency in Amsterdam instead.”
Undeterred, the pair refocused their vision back on home turf. “We thought that there were no boys left in Latvia, that everyone had already been scouted,” says Karlis. “There are less than two million people in the whole country, the same as a big city in Europe, so we thought we wouldn’t be able to find any boys here.” How wrong they were.
Since founding the company, the pair have spent long weekends travelling across the countryside to small Latvian towns, in searching of the freshest new faces. They’re constantly on the lookout; they might even be running an errand in Riga’s old town, when Diana will spot a new face in seconds. “Sometimes you travel to these small towns and you spend weeks looking and there is no one,” she says. “Then suddenly here in Riga you pop downstairs for groceries and you find someone in seconds.” And what exactly is it they’re looking for? “Tall, fresh faces, unique looking,” Karlis explains. “Someone that makes us say ‘wow that could really work’.” While most of their board are young, aged 16 or 17, they’re already building a lot of momentum. With several Gucci campaigns now in their back pocket, the duo have just enjoyed a successful second season for spring/summer 18, which saw their beloved boys walk for Burberry and Prada, open for Louis Vuitton, J.W.Anderson and Dries Van Noten, while one boy, Niks, has just been shot by Jamie Hawkesworth for the spring/summer 18 Loewe lookbook. That’s pretty impressive considering they started out from a board of just five boys back in their Baltic base of Riga, Latvia.
“We don’t want to get too big,” says Karlis, of their decision to keep the agency small, “I wouldn’t mind a few more on the board, but no more than 20 in total. We want to be able to give our attention to each boy, so that no-one gets forgotten about.” It’s this nurturing attitude which runs at the core of the agency. “Male models need to be treated better in the industry,” says Karlis, speaking from experience. “During fashion week, most of the boys have no idea where they are.”
“They’ll be given basic information, but no more than that. No one’s actually supporting them,” interjects Diana. “I went on my own to Paris the first time,” Karlis recalls, “I walked to my agency from the bus station without a clue what a casting was, what an option was, or how you should act during a casting. I just had my own idea of being polite and nice.”
“We want to treat our guys just like brothers; they’re our bros,” explains Diana, of how they came to settle on the name. In order to do this, the pair are going to all sorts of lengths to ensure they stay true to their vision. Travelling with the boys to shows and to photoshoots is just the start, they even role-play castings and encounters beforehand so that the boys get a better understanding of how to act and what to expect. “It may sound really silly and look stupid from the one side,” admits Karlis, “but we want to provide these boys with an example of good, professional behaviour that they can continue to emulate throughout their lives.” “The boys have to be prepared that one day their career will end,” adds Diana. “So when you’re in those places you need to make friends and connections, and think about your future, not just parties, you have to save money.” Karlis laughs: “Don’t just waste it on one night in Paris.”
Looking to the future, the pair have a few scouting trips lined up to Estonia and Lithuania, their eagle eyes poised to catch the next big thing. “We want to be very selective,” Karlis concludes. “I think that works for us.”
Credits
Sam Khoury