By Kevin’s Path

I got my first gig in the New York fashion industry when I was seventeen. I stood outside the entrance of Hollister on 600 Broadway in the summer months wearing sunglasses and swim trunks to bring in foot traffic off the street. I smiled and greeted all the girls entering the store and also their wary boyfriends.

I was still only nineteen when I got the first big break that was going to launch my career as a fashion model. I auditioned and scored a really high profile holiday ad campaign for Equinox. You might remember me – if you got one of those postcards in the mail last December? It had a color photo of a buff naked guy standing with a big smile, chestnut hair, and carrying an old-fashioned steam radiator chained to my wrist, tastefully hiding my junk. It said, “Happy Holidays from Equinox! We hope you like nothing.” Then on the back, it had a coupon for a zero first month down payment on a membership.

That was a very successful campaign for them, and they really liked me. When it ended, I started asking my agent if he could, maybe, on the strength of it start sending me out to try for something more ambitious, like a Calvin Klein billboard or even a Nasty Pig. I would smile sweetly and knock out the next closest model with a baseball bat if it got me an underwear ad. However, men’s fashion is a very competitive business. In the try-outs for Calvin they said my bulge was too big; so, that door didn’t open for me.

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