Florian Schwab, 24, sold his journeyman’s piece for the jacket lying in the corner of the cramped, somewhat crowded cellar. It’s from the brand he first walked for as a model. It cost thousands of euros back then. A lot of money for a young man. Despite this, he is much more careful with the tools in his studio. The carving tools, with which he otherwise works on wooden reliefs, are neatly sorted in a roll case. His face can be seen on the reliefs. His face seen on the catwalks during last year’s Fashion Weeks. Florian is a model. And what is much more important to him: sculptors and artists. Modeling alone is not enough for the young man from Munich.
Munich and fashion? Actually, Munich is not a city known for its fashion scene. Had the German edition of the Vogue, the world’s best-known fashion magazine, is not based here, only connoisseurs of the highly polished industry would probably have the Bavarian state capital on their radar. You’d rather meet in Milan, Paris and London, maybe in Berlin. But you still see people from Munich on the catwalks again and again. And it’s the male models who seem to be particularly successful.
Florian is one of them. He is sitting on a stool in his studio in the Neuhausen-Nymphenburg district, his back slightly bent. The trained wood sculptor looks very different than the photos of him in the said magazine would suggest. He has pulled his cap low over his face, and his face, which usually looks so piercingly into the camera, disappears behind his right hand when he laughs.
A wooden relief that has been started is in Florian’s studio, on which he usually works with the carving tools. “The relief is actually something in between 2D and 3D,” he says, “and you can pack such a board in your backpack and take it with you.” This is easier than with completely three-dimensional sculptures, as he made them while he was still training as a sculptor.
The queernes in his pictures and especially the male nudity – that still offends
The relief shows Florian himself, naked, in various poses that overlap like in a collage. Sometimes in a neutral attitude, sometimes in a sexualized one. Florian himself can always be seen in his drawings. He has always enjoyed “determining the lines of a body on a piece of paper. To look: where is which muscle,” he says. And: “I also like to provoke with it.” The queernes in his pictures and especially the male nudity – that still offends.
While nudity, which is also or especially in fashion, is largely normalized as female, the penis is still viewed with a certain degree of fragility in society. As early as 2015, fashion designer Rick Owens showed tunics on the catwalk that exposed the crotch of male models. The reactions: “The most conservative or most vehement (…) were: ‘How disgusting!'” The designer said surfaceMagazine. “Why did your parents teach you that your penis is ugly?” he asks.
For Florian, too, the excitement is not entirely understandable when he shows his art on Instagram: “Theoretically, it’s just lines.” The provocation, as it is mostly in the fashion world, is not entirely free of calculation in Florian’s case. Because what also applies to fashion also works for the young artist: sex sells. “And Instagram is really great for that,” says Florian.
Florian Schwab was discovered via Instagram – he was then invited to a casting
He was discovered almost three years ago – also via Instagram. “I hung out with a few artists in Berlin. One of them then posted a picture of me in his story,” says Florian. He was then invited to a casting, followed by a first fashion show. And from there Florian was placed with an agency in Cologne. Since then he has known the world of photo shoots, shows and after-show parties.
A few months later he ran for the fashion house Balenciaga, which had come under massive criticism in recent weeks due to an advertising campaign – children were photographed together with teddy bears in BDSM outfits for the campaign. Back then, Balenciaga was still one of the biggest names in the industry. Florian tells it all so calmly that you could almost think he’s playing it down for the sake of coolness – after all, self-portrayal is part of the industry.
Nevertheless, Florian does not pride himself on his success. Before his jobs, he gets excited every time, he says. “Actually, the worst moment is when you’re standing there and all the models are waiting to get dressed and wait for them to go on the catwalk. It’s like the butcher,” he says.
For me, modeling was “first and foremost a job that I enjoyed doing, but with which I didn’t identify,” says Anton Kundrus.
(Photo: Topper Come)
Anton Kundrus still feels the same way. He is also a model, like Florian he was discovered on Instagram. And as for Florian, modeling was not enough for him as a purpose in life. “For me, that was primarily a job that I liked doing, but with which I didn’t identify,” says Anton, who even stopped modeling for a while. He is with the Modus Kollektiv, a Munich label and techno collective. “I’m definitely a lot prouder of our events than of modeling.” He particularly likes working with the different people, the DJs – Anton is responsible for artist care at events.
The fashion shows are not about the models, only about the clothes
It’s what he ultimately likes about modeling. “You get to know a lot of people,” he says. Anton is still friends with some of the models from his first fashion week in Milan. Florian knows that too. “At the end of every show, it’s actually like a small family,” he says.
The two know only too well that the modeling industry is anything but an ideal world. “You notice again and again that the customers don’t give a fuck about you. In the end you’re a mannequin,” says Florian. “It feels kind of wrong that people in the industry work with people and they really don’t care about you, they just care about the clothes.”
With Anton it went so far that he gave up modelling. After his measurements changed during the first lockdowns, he was booked for a photo shoot – but the agency sent outdated photos. “They cut my hair off for the job, 30 centimeters. And after the first few shots, the photographer said I could go home.” Why? Because his body no longer corresponded to the photographer’s ideas, Anton says. When the agency then demanded that he also have to bear his travel expenses himself, Anton gave up. Despite all the apparent progress in the industry: Agencies that accept various body shapes are still rare, says Anton, “but things are at least improving a little”.
Ferdinand Schladitz looks more like the “hooligan type”, as he puts it. Here is a picture from the early years as a model.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Ferdinand Schladitz is under contract with one of these agencies. “There they make sure that not only the 1.83 tall, slim, licked male models can be seen,” he says. Ferdinand himself is visually more of the “hooligan type”, as he says. At 1.77 meters tall, he’s also too small for classic runway modelling. The young man is more interested in photography anyway. In his communication design studies, he is no longer just in front of the camera, but behind it. The previous knowledge from his modeling jobs helps him, the technical as well as his understanding of poses and composition. He is also an artist with the collective Broke.Today. Self-taught, as he says – probably not including the time at Kunst-FOS and his studies. In his work, says Ferdinand, he is very “multidiverse”, and he uses a wide variety of impressions for his pictures – including those from modelling.
The latter, like Florian and Anton, is not that important to him. Modeling is still a job. One that is fun for the three of them, and one that is easy to earn money with. But one that doesn’t necessarily make you happier. Art and music are more fulfilling.
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