Episode One: A Man Called Malan

February 06, 2008

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Darlings! Chin-Chin and welcome to my new show. It has been an amazing journey since I came to New York, and my time after Runway 3. Time that I am so excited to share with all of you.

Before I moved to NYC, my boyish modeling photos started to circulate in New York and people started showing interest, so I packed up my things and went to NYC.I remember my first day in New York. Being in line at the Calvin Klein Building, standing next to Alec Wek and her beautiful orange angora sweater (sorry -- photographic memory), waiting for that casting ... I was so excited -- my first NYC casting and it was for Versus. I had wanted so badly to come to NYC to model. I thought it was vital that I be as thin as possible. For some reason I thought it made me look better in pictures. So for some time I ate cabbage and tuna fish and danced and excercized for four hours a day. I lost 25kg (55 pounds).

I was so thin I looked nothing like my pictures in my portfolio. I walked into the casting and my hair was too long and I was too thin. I made myself lose all this weight thinking it would help me but I did not get cast. It was then I realized I did not have to be so thin to model. I think I had the wrong idea in my own mind of what I had to look like to be successful as a male model. I discovered all the great restaurants in NYC -- OMG there is only so many cabbage preparations one can eat. I then started to perform again. I started performing after that, and after numerous performing jobs, I finally found myself in fashion once again. I miss my photography. That was great fun.
Wow, those photos of my first fashion show; that picture of my Muse Bronwen and my dear friend Christine and Mai Lee in those deconstructed garments that showed far too much skin. I look back and realize, "Wow -- what was I thinking?" Darlings! The Zeigfeld Follies closed in 1929!

I remember my time at Barneys, meeting Simon Doonan, Julie Gilhart, and Bonnie Preston. I was so young and so impressed with the amazing environment that was full of great fashion. I really wanted to impress everyone with my knowledge of fashion, but it took me years to accept the fact that I was destined for something else. It gave me an opportunity to meet some amazing people though.

I had a twenty five inch waist then ... ouch! This is why in my casting of models each season I try to find girls that are healthy. I remember one season a model eating lettuce with a lemon at my show, and someone asked her what she was eating. She said dinner. I was sad to hear this.

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