The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency
Advertisements:
$500,000
"The past explains how I got here, but the future is up to me - and I love to live life at full throttle." Janice Dickinson never seems to slow down. Starting out in modeling, she made a name for herself early on and then just kept right on going. She is probably best known for her early modeling work, and for the modeling agency she opened later in life. She has described herself as the first supermodel, and others have used that term, as well. In the 1970s and 1980s, Dickinson was one of the most successful people in the world of modeling.
In 2003 she was a judge of four seasons of America's Next Top Model, and in 2005 she opened her own modeling agency. Because of the fame she had already acquired at the time, her agency spawned its own reality TV series, which was entitled The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency (2006-2008). But how did someone who started out as a model become such an influential presence in so many areas of entertainment life? Read on for all the answers about how Janice Dickinson got her start and where she is today.
Getting a Start in the Modeling World
Dickinson's early life didn't really seem like one that would have steered her toward a modeling career. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Hollywood, Florida. Her older sister became a real estate agent, and her younger sister also get into modeling. She had a poor relationship with her father, and was often told she wouldn't amount too much. But Dickinson knew better, and she saw her worth even if it appeared that people in her family didn't. "I was hot and I knew it and it went to my head," she said, about her modeling career taking off after she was discovered.
Dickinson moved to New York City from Florida in the early part of the 1970s, after she had won a national modeling competition. Blue-eyed blonds were very popular during the 1970s, though, and Dickinson had dark eyes and dark hair. It led to Dickinson being turned down more than once, by various modeling agencies. She was even told that she would never find work as a model, but fashion photographer Jacques Silberstein took interest in her after his girlfriend pointed Dickinson out to him and said she liked the look. Because she had an "ethnic" look that was very different from the rest, she started to get work.
Most of the work she did in the beginning was in Paris, where her looks were considered exotic and a lot of photographers wanted to use her for their photo shoots. She got involved in modeling campaigns for a number of different companies, and in 1978 she came back to New York. There, she worked steadily for the next several years. At the time, she was earning $2,000 per day for her modeling. That was nearly four times the standard, going rate for modeling work in the city at that time. Eventually she signed with Ford Models, and then moved to Elite Model Management.
By the time the 1980s came around, Dickinson was considered to be a supermodel based on the face and name recognition she had achieved. Some of the covers and magazines she was found in included Photo, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Marie Claire, and Harper's Bazaar. She also worked with well-known names in the fashion industry, including Valentino Garavani, Halston, Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, and Gianni Versace. On the cover of Vogue 37 times and on the cover of Elle seven times in a row, she has worked on ad campaigns with Alberto V05, Hush Puppies, Relvon, Max Facor, Obao, and others.
Helping Other Models Achieve Their Dreams
As Dickinson aged, she sought out more ways to stay relevant in the fashion industry. In 2008 she launched a jewelry line on the Home Shopping Network (HSN) and she became a fashion photographer. In 2009, she also recorded a song. But it was her supermodel claims and the opening of her own modeling agency that really helped Dickinson stay relevant even as her years of modeling started to wane. It was clear to her that, if she wanted to keep working, some or all of that work was going to have to be done on the other side of the camera. But Dickinson simply took it as another challenge, and got to work right away.
While she continued to make the claim of being the first supermodel, the word had actually been used about other models before Dickinson's time. Regardless of that, Dickinson had been a supermodel during her career and she wanted to pass what she had learned on to others. She worked as a guest judge on America's Next Top Model, but was eventually replaced by Twiggy. She then joined the cast of The Surreal Life (2005) during its fifth season. In 2006, she starred in her own reality show based on the modeling agency she had opened.
"I've been fooling the public for years and I'm really good at it," she has said. She knows how lighting, clothing, and the right pose can make a drastic difference in how a person looks on camera and off. She used that ability to fool the public -- and the camera -- as the basis for everything she could offer to upcoming models or those who wanted to be models. Additionally, she focused on helping these upcoming models learn from her years of experience in the industry. Times had changed, but the basics of modeling always stayed the same.
Dickinson has been married four times and has two children. In 2016 she was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. Her memoir, No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel (2002) introduced her to a new generation of people looking to get into modeling. She also authored a follow-up memoir, Everything About Me is Fake...And I'm Perfect (2004), where she discussed plastic surgery and her personal battles with eating disorders. Her third memoir, Check Please! Dating, Mating, and Extricating (2006) focused on her relationships and the rules she has for dating.
->
