The Life Of A Hand Model—It Ain’t All Manicures And Big Paydays
Posted by: Nina Carbone
Filed in:
style
3:20PM, Tuesday August 11th 2009
How freakin’ hard can hand modeling be? Despite the $1,200-a-day pay rates, it’s not so easy, according to full-time parts model Ashly Covington. (That’s her hand, starring in a NuvaRing ad.) Sure, she can earn thousands for an hour or two of “work,” but a career based solely on the appearance of one’s hands is no picnic! She never cooks, cleans, or does anything that could threaten her perfect manicure. And forget about the errant paper-cut—it’s career suicide!
Says Covington: “Most people can walk away from work when they’re done with a job, but parts models can’t, because [our parts] have to be flawless. I moisturize 20 to 30 times a day, and wear gloves 90 percent of the time ... When it’s your livelihood, you’ve got to think hands first.”
Breaking into the industry—it is modeling, after all—is hyper-competitive: “Some people have a very romanticized view of what [parts] modeling is,” says Danielle Korwin, president of the New York City-based Parts Models modeling agency. “Their boyfriend or grandmother or mother has said, ‘you have great hands, you should be a model,’ but we want only the exceptional. Your hands have to be veinless, poreless and flawless.”
So, you’re saying my fat-knuckled, bitten-fingernailed hands haven’t got a chance? [CNN]
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Shasta
wrote on August 11 2009 @ 03:32 pm: [report]
This is interesting in light of all the photoshopping going around. Aren’t the standards now lower? If Giselle’s baby bump can be airbrushed out, can’t a little paper cut?
And I’m assuming that it’s more cost effective to use a real hand than generate one through CGI. Seems like it would be more perfect.
cali_candy
wrote on August 11 2009 @ 04:26 pm: [report]
wait is this real? And not some Zoolander joke?
maroon
wrote on August 11 2009 @ 04:29 pm: [report]
@cali- yes this is real. i remember seeing her or another on a 20/20-type news documentary. they followed her around her life for a day and she really did wear gloves, carry an army of moisturizers, and wouldn’t touch anything that would mar her hands
writergirl
wrote on August 11 2009 @ 04:35 pm: [report]
Parts models also have their parts insured. I am sure Ashley’s hands are insured for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I read somewhere some leg model had her legs insured for one million…
Smartinez1990
wrote on August 11 2009 @ 04:50 pm: [report]
Wow, I could never live like that, although I wouldn’t mind that kinda paycheck.
CaleeKay
wrote on August 11 2009 @ 07:39 pm: [report]
why not do something like become a doctor, or a dentist, or a computer engineer and feel good about your career while doing every day tasks. That seems so absurd to live like that, to much stress to walk around wearing gloves all day, and not doing any kind of work that could effect your career. This
moogyboobles
wrote on August 12 2009 @ 01:38 am: [report]
Reminds me of this sketch http://www.funnyordie.co.uk/videos/3eed706633/why-i-never-became-a-hand-model-holly-walsh
sounds actually quite expensive to be a hand model, to have to pay for a cleaner etc.
spanishbutterfly
wrote on August 12 2009 @ 10:45 am: [report]
boo hoooo… tell her to stick her hand in her ass that why it can stay “moist” lmaoooo. with so much goin on do i really care about a hand model ??
i agree with Shasta ... there’s photoshop or use a fake hand
bogart4017
wrote on August 12 2009 @ 12:56 pm: [report]
OOoooh woe be unto he who must walk around in gloves all day **cues violins**