My parents lovingly bought me a year’s subscription to Vogue for Christmas 2013. I got the new issue through the other day to be greeted by a stunning Kate Moss on the cover. The caption next to it read “The Great British Model Takeover”. Lightning struck and I was inspired for this week’s menswear Monday. Today I present to you, hopefully the first of many, model profiles, starting with none other than the king of male modelling David Gandy.
Winning his first modelling contest in 2001, this Essex boy was destined for the camera lens. Believe it or not however, Gandy’s 2001 modelling competition was not his own doing but that of a cheeky flatmate at university. His flatmate entered him into the Richard and Judy competition whilst Gandy remained completely oblivious. Upon winning Gandy was given a contract with Select Model Management in London.
The macho model soon became noticed within a variety of companies including Zara, Gant USA, Hugo Boss and H&M until his breakout in 2007. Yes, we all remember the white speedo man who became the face of Dolce & Gabbana for the next five years. This would launch Gandy’s career on its way to him becoming one of the greats, up there working with supermodels like Gemma Ward and Naomi Campbell as well as male models including Noah Mills and Adam Senn.
David Gandy is commonly recognised for his appearance in the advert for “Light Blue”, the fragrance by D&G. Shot by photographer Mario Testino, the ad gained rapid popularity with 11 million online hits and saw a 50-foot billboard of Gandy displayed in Times Square. And can you blame these people for adoring him so? In a world where skinny dominates the industry, David Gandy’s muscular build caused menswear designers to move towards the more masculine standard. The man is quite simply a game changer.
Since his spectacular debut with D&G, Gandy has gone on to pursue the wider world of fashion, lifestyle and culture. He has gone into fashion and personal projects including writing a blog for British Vogue. But aside from fashion David has also written for GQ magazine, writing car reviews. As well as this he performs a variety of charity work and even takes up roles in mobile app development.
There is no doubt that the supermodel is multi-talented in the world outside of fashion. But we feel he’ll always be attached to his roots. Only in 2012 did he appear in the closing ceremony of the Olympics along side fashion buddies like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn and Lily Donaldson. You’ve got to question the success of a modelling career when you end up on the world’s stage looking fabulous for everyone to see. And last year we saw him alongside actress Helena Bonham Carter in the M&S Christmas ad playing a multitude of fairytale characters in very stylish clothing.
I think what captivates us with David Gandy is his ability to be effortlessly classy and suave with such a chiselled masculine physic both in body and face. But more so, I believe it is his aura of the ideal gentleman that we aspire to be. Fit, healthy and well dressed are not bad role-model traits as far as I’m concerned. As I said earlier, he’s the game changer in a sea of skinny models. David Gandy truly is one of a kind.