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Speaker 1: Campsite Media.

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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, it's Vanessa Grigoriatis. Thank you for sticking around

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Speaker 2: to hear Model Wars, the podcast from iHeart Podcasts and

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Speaker 2: Campside Media. This episode, we're speaking with Omer Alboretto. He's

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Speaker 2: that exuberant guy who went from model to agent and

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Speaker 2: then went from hustling with Paul Fisher at the Lynd

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Speaker 2: Agency to becoming one of the most influential figures in

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Speaker 2: the entire modeling industry.

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Speaker 3: I was very fortunate I've to opening Omar's Man. Within

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Speaker 3: like eight months, the Los Angeles Times approached me and

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Speaker 3: they wrote this incredible artile about Omar's Men, saying Omar

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Speaker 3: says goodbye to the Kendall image and introduces us to

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Speaker 3: a new realism in male models.

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Speaker 4: So yes, I'm the guy who started that.

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Speaker 3: The inclusivity, the diversity, which is very predominant today in

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Speaker 3: today's world. Everyone speaks of diversity and inclusivity. It was

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Speaker 3: always I've been doing this forever in my life.

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Speaker 2: Umar's vision for a new type of model didn't come easily.

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Speaker 3: I recall many times castings when the clients will say

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Speaker 3: no black models.

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Speaker 4: It was so often, and it was so many.

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Speaker 3: Especially like department stores, department stores, because you know, we

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Speaker 3: had catalog those days. But some campaigns as well, some

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Speaker 3: advertising jobs that will say no model, no black models,

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Speaker 3: or when they cast and they say, oh, we're looking

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Speaker 3: for a black model.

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Speaker 4: So it was never like a model, like a black model.

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Speaker 2: So some change was desperately needed.

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Speaker 3: Remember when I moved to Los Angeles, I called every

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Speaker 3: male model a chuck. Iybody looks like their name is

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Speaker 3: Chuck and they're like a quarterback. Everybody looks like a

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Speaker 3: quarterback with six pack and brown hair and green eyes.

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Speaker 3: And I didn't go well with that.

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Speaker 4: Because I don't play football.

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Speaker 1: I don't.

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Speaker 4: It's like they all look alike to me.

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Speaker 2: And Omer is the kind of guy who can almost

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Speaker 2: will change to happen.

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Speaker 3: When Klin said to me, no black people, no black models,

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Speaker 3: I still went ahead and send black guys.

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Speaker 4: Oh my god, I did that.

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Speaker 3: I will say, you know what, I'm gonna send in

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Speaker 3: this guy because I know they're gonna vibe. So the

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Speaker 3: guy might be Philippine, no Asian, Turkish, Russian, whatever, but

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Speaker 3: I knew he would vibe with the photographer and then

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Speaker 3: the photographer would go to bat for the guy.

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Speaker 4: I know this is why I want.

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Speaker 2: Omar also has one hell of a life story. It's

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Speaker 2: one of those life influences, art influences, commerce style of stories.

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Speaker 2: If you need someone to break the mold in the

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Speaker 2: modeling agency, who's better than a dark skinned Panamanian who

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Speaker 2: speaks Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Italian who left his home

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Speaker 2: country to live and to party in New York and

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Speaker 2: Los Angeles, Milan and a bunch of other places. And

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Speaker 2: as you might remember from earlier in the series, it

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Speaker 2: all started in exactly the place you would have thought

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Speaker 2: it would have started, Studio fifty four, where Omar was

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Speaker 2: discovered as a model. But before he could get to

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Speaker 2: Studio fifty four, Omar had to find his way to

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Speaker 2: New York.

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Speaker 3: I grew up in a neighborhood called Villa Casserees in

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Speaker 3: Panama City, Panama, very very fortunate.

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Speaker 4: My mother worked at the.

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Speaker 3: Canal Zone, so my mother was earning an American salary

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Speaker 3: in what was then a third World country. So I

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Speaker 3: can't say that I come from humble beginnings because I

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Speaker 3: don't went to private schools, drivers I always had a housekeeper.

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Speaker 3: I was a swimmer. I swam for the national team.

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Speaker 3: I became pro at twelve years old, I knew nothing

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Speaker 3: of fashion, entertainment, music, none of that.

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Speaker 4: I was from the pool to school, to school to

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Speaker 4: the pool.

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Speaker 3: My mother, as a gift, gave me a ticket to

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Speaker 3: go to Disney World in Orlando, and when I arrived

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Speaker 3: to Miami, I was kind of freaked out.

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Speaker 4: I had a big afro then, and.

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Speaker 3: I heard that in America, if you had an afro,

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Speaker 3: they'll arrescue. So my entire time on the plane, I

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Speaker 3: kept pushing it down. But when I got to South

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Speaker 3: Beach I didn't.

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Speaker 4: It was weird.

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Speaker 3: It was like we had a layover and it was

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Speaker 3: a lot of like old people playing dominos on the streets.

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Speaker 4: I'm like, what is this place? And I'm a Latin

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Speaker 4: guy who said to me, like, where are you going.

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Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I'm going to this New World tomorrow.

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Speaker 3: He's like, I'm going to the World. We used to

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Speaker 3: call in Latin America New.

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Speaker 4: York the World. So he said, I'm going to the

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Speaker 4: World tomorrow. I'm like, man, I want to go to

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Speaker 4: the World.

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Speaker 5: He goes, yeah, I'm going to take a bus tomorrow morning.

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Speaker 3: So I asked for my ticket. I called my brother

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Speaker 3: and in New York City. My brother was already living

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Speaker 3: in New York and I told him I was coming

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Speaker 3: to New York and he said, let me get your ticket.

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Speaker 5: And I said, now, I'm going to take a bus

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Speaker 5: with this guy. He's cool.

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Speaker 3: We're going to just travel, you know, up to New

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Speaker 3: York and I get to see some of the United

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Speaker 3: States and got off the plane or walked through Times Square.

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Speaker 3: Never saw anything like that. Whoa like the other day

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Speaker 3: from Times Square? Was Times Square, not not the thing

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Speaker 3: that's oh now.

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Speaker 4: I mean Times Square was like the It was like

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Speaker 4: the bottom of the ghetto. I mean it was exciting

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Speaker 4: because it was like you bumping into people.

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Speaker 3: You got drug dealers paying puzzle hookers.

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Speaker 4: It was crazy. I never saw anything like that. I'm

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Speaker 4: just staring at everyone.

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Speaker 3: And funny enough, I saw a line at a movie

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Speaker 3: theater my brother was while they standing online. I never

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Speaker 3: saw that in my life, to go to a movie theater.

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Speaker 3: He's like, oh, it's a doubleheader too, kind of like

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Speaker 3: iconic films Superfly and Saturday Night Theater.

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Speaker 5: I like, I want to.

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Speaker 4: Check them out.

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Speaker 3: So I haven't even been in America for two days

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Speaker 3: and I'm already watching Tony Manero and superply. So I

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Speaker 3: was doom from the jump and I watched these two

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Speaker 3: movies and.

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Speaker 4: Went back to my brother.

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Speaker 3: We lived in Brooklyn, right across the street from the

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Speaker 3: Brooklyn Museum from Prospect Park, and it was very, very

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Speaker 3: cheat that neighborhood then. I don't know what it looks

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Speaker 3: like now, but it was super super chic and my

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Speaker 3: brother did extremely well. My brother was president of Io

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Speaker 3: Insurance Services offices on Wall Street. He told me he's

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Speaker 3: going to put me in school so he could get

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Speaker 3: facilitate my papers to stay.

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Speaker 5: So do you want to stay? I'm like, yeah, I

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Speaker 5: want to stay.

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Speaker 2: And now is when fate intervenes for Omar, although he

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Speaker 2: also helped fade along with a pair of Italian designer jeans, we.

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Speaker 4: Went to the city. We got dressed nicely.

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Speaker 3: My brother gave me money to buy something nice and

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Speaker 3: about a pair of Ferucci jeans, and we went to

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Speaker 3: see the play. And when we left the theater, we

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Speaker 3: kind of looked to our right and it was Times Square.

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Speaker 3: Looked to our left in the Central Park, we saw

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Speaker 3: a lot of limousines coming out of fifty fourth Streets.

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Speaker 4: We're like, what's going on? We never saw that many

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Speaker 4: limousines in our life. We're like, let's go buy and

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Speaker 4: see what's happening.

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Speaker 3: And as we got closer, we saw the big on

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Speaker 3: in fifty four and Ricardo looks at me. He said, Pete,

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Speaker 3: that's the place we saw in the news a few

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Speaker 3: days ago with famous people go. So we were walking

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Speaker 3: through the crowd and Steve Rubel, famous owner of Studio

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Speaker 3: fifty four. He used to stand on top of a

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Speaker 3: fire hydrant picking people, got the velvet rope and stop

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Speaker 3: staring at me. You're not getting in. He was so

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Speaker 3: rude to people. And he goes those two right there

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Speaker 3: and I'm like me, say, you're coming.

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Speaker 4: Are you staying? I'm like, we're coming, and he gave

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Speaker 4: us two tickets. We're like, oh my god.

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Speaker 5: I never saw people like that in my life.

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Speaker 4: The first thing were on the left. I'm staring at

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Speaker 4: that whole table.

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Speaker 3: I couldn't get my eyes off them because I'm staring

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Speaker 3: at Diana Breeland, I'm staring at Houston. I'm looking at Andy,

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Speaker 3: you know, Andy Warhol, you know this little guy with

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Speaker 3: crazy looking hair.

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Speaker 5: And I couldn't.

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Speaker 3: Get my eyes off Jean Michellekis because I'm like, they

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Speaker 3: let that guy.

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Speaker 4: In he looked like a bump.

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Speaker 3: He's like, guy got paint everywhere and a hoodie and.

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Speaker 4: And we're like, what the heck is this place in.

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Speaker 3: Houston with a cigarette holder talking to Diana Breelan.

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Speaker 4: And and we stayed. We had like eight dollars among ourselves.

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Speaker 4: We split it.

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Speaker 3: We bought one drink, two glasses. When we finished it

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Speaker 3: was water and ice and you know, try to fit in.

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Speaker 4: You know, I love women.

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Speaker 3: But that night we kept staring at this one black

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Speaker 3: guy because there weren't that many black guys in there

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Speaker 3: many black people in there at the town. Out of

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Speaker 3: like twelve hundred people, it was probably like fuck thirty

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Speaker 3: twenty thirty.

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Speaker 5: And I'm staring at this black guy in the middle

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Speaker 5: of the dance floor.

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Speaker 4: I never saw anything like that.

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Speaker 3: He was like six four six pack, no shirt on,

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Speaker 3: white fur coats, skin tight leather jacket, pointed counter of

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Speaker 3: cowboy with a big Ulzi Paratti belt, and he's twirling

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Speaker 3: these two women and it's like, I mean, one is Liza,

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Speaker 3: one is beyond Copley.

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Speaker 4: I don't know who these women are. And he's torn it.

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Speaker 5: Then he throws.

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Speaker 3: The coat, takes it off and throws it to the

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Speaker 3: side and the buck we look at guy Jeff Musquiz

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Speaker 3: picks it up and takes it to the table.

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Speaker 4: I was born that day.

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Speaker 3: That's the day I was born, the Omar before Sach,

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Speaker 3: sweet little shy kid. I walked in that place and

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Speaker 3: I saw a world that was like.

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Speaker 2: What more about Omar's story? After the break? So Omar

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Speaker 2: found his calling on the dance floor at Studio fifty four.

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Speaker 2: That's something his brother, who remembers the president of an

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Speaker 2: insurance company, can surely understand.

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Speaker 3: My brother, actually, my brother did one of the greatest

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Speaker 3: and worst things ever happened to me.

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Speaker 5: I remember coming home one day and he said, pack

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Speaker 5: your stuff.

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Speaker 4: I'm like, okay.

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Speaker 3: I never asked questions, but my brother was tough. Packed

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Speaker 3: my stuff. He drove to Queens Village. We dropped me

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Speaker 3: off in this gorgeous apartment and I dropped my luggage upstairs.

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Speaker 3: He went in his pocket. He took three hundred and

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Speaker 3: fifty dollars out. He said, this is for you.

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Speaker 4: What are we doing?

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Speaker 3: He said, this is your apartment. What you mean is

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Speaker 3: my apartment? He said, yeah, this is your apartment. It's

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Speaker 3: time for you to fence for yourself.

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Speaker 4: And I'm like, wow, I'm bawling.

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Speaker 3: Now I got three hundred and fifty bucks. I got

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Speaker 3: an apartment. Oh, let the fun begin? And it Yeah,

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Speaker 3: the fun began indeed. But a month later I went

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Speaker 3: home one night and put the key in and turned

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Speaker 3: the light on and there's no electricity. And turned this

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Speaker 3: and there's no gas. There's nothing. I'm going, what's going on?

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Speaker 3: So I go downstairs to the landlord and I say, hey,

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Speaker 3: you guys got electricity?

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Speaker 5: Show?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well I don't. Nothing is working. Go where have

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Speaker 3: you paid your bill? Like?

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Speaker 4: What's that?

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Speaker 1: Like?

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Speaker 4: Have you paid? Do you check your mail? I'm like,

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Speaker 4: where is.

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Speaker 3: My mel She goes that box is yours? And it

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Speaker 3: was like stack like this, you know electric bill? This?

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Speaker 4: Oh? What do I do?

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Speaker 5: Pay it?

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Speaker 4: Not any money?

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Speaker 3: I'm and parting my ass off. So I call my

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Speaker 3: brother the next day and I said, hey, there's no electricity.

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Speaker 4: He goes, and what do I do? You go pay

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Speaker 4: the bill? You go, I have no money? Should I

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Speaker 4: come over?

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Speaker 5: You go? No?

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Speaker 4: You ever heard of something called a job? What? What? What?

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Speaker 3: What?

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Speaker 4: What am I going to do? I mean a job,

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Speaker 4: like I really have to get it.

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Speaker 3: If I got a job at a part time job

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Speaker 3: at a belt factory in the city, putting holes in belts,

249
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Speaker 3: a series of things, like the dad.

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Speaker 4: I worked as.

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Speaker 3: A messenger, but all that money was just going to

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Speaker 3: go to Studio fifty four. That's all I did was

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Speaker 3: go to Studio fifty four. Get you rest up, Ricky.

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Speaker 3: My friend Dicato learned how to sew, so he used

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Speaker 3: to make me beautiful trousers every week.

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Speaker 4: Like jeans.

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Speaker 3: I remember he made me my jeans that I went

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Speaker 3: to Italy with. He made them for me whatever money

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Speaker 3: we have with my top and whatever.

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Speaker 5: Shoes he wore.

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Speaker 4: So we were always super dappered out. But all we

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Speaker 4: do is go to the studio. That's all we do.

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Speaker 3: And I kind of like develop a certain sense of

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Speaker 3: style myself. And dear friend of mine, Arthur, Arthur Williams

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Speaker 3: and his boyfriend Lawrence, they were so great, you know,

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Speaker 3: grateful to me, grateful to me.

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Speaker 4: They always took a liking to me.

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Speaker 3: They introduced me to a designer, Italian designer Callediola Viola, and.

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Speaker 4: The guy looked at me and said, hey, I want

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Speaker 4: to meet this guy.

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Speaker 3: And they introduced me to the guy and he's like, oh,

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Speaker 3: you have a great look.

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Speaker 4: You know what. I never had a guy tell me that,

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Speaker 4: like I have a.

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Speaker 3: Great look, and he and he invited me to do

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Speaker 3: his collection in Milano, and he sent me a ticket

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Speaker 3: and seven hundred and fifty dollars cashier's check to come

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Speaker 3: to Milano.

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Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, of course, but I'm not a model.

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Speaker 4: I'm like, isn't that kinda like weird? Ricardo was like, dude,

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Speaker 4: you gotta go.

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Speaker 3: I have no idea what the hell I'm going in for.

283
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Speaker 3: I arrived, I got picked up at the airport.

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Speaker 4: They put me up pension.

285
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Speaker 3: I lived on the patia and the next morning the

286
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Speaker 3: driver came to pick me up to take me to

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Speaker 3: the showroom for my fitting.

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Speaker 4: I got to.

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Speaker 3: See the designer and when they were doing the fittings,

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Speaker 3: they were the seamstresses. There were like three of them

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Speaker 3: and they were freaking out taking my measurements and they

292
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Speaker 3: were speaking Italian and they were like my question on

293
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Speaker 3: the possibly no, no, of course, I been request what

294
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Speaker 3: what are they tripping out about?

295
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Speaker 5: So they're like, call Cloud and the woman said, Kim

296
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Speaker 5: a Cloud.

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Speaker 4: You look.

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Speaker 3: Request call a designer. He needs to come and see this.

299
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Speaker 3: So he came down and he said.

300
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Speaker 4: Hey, thank you for coming. I'm so happy you're here.

301
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Speaker 4: I'm like, dude, like, what's going on? Like why they

302
00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:18,520
Speaker 4: tripping on me?

303
00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:23,320
Speaker 3: He goes, well, I got great news to tell you. You

304
00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:26,120
Speaker 3: are ay walking, dummy, and I'm like, what does that mean?

305
00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:27,480
Speaker 4: I had the.

306
00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:33,880
Speaker 6: Egg exact measurements of the dummies, the mannequins, to the tee,

307
00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,600
Speaker 6: every neck from here to here, from here to here,

308
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Speaker 6: from here to.

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Speaker 3: There, in seam, hips, waist chest, it was everything was

310
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Speaker 3: exactly the length.

311
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Speaker 4: And I said, is that a good thing? He goes,

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00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:49,960
Speaker 4: you're walking, You're a mannequin.

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Speaker 3: Said I'm gonna do something for you, and he called

314
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Speaker 3: lemarsh Di Ricardo Guy elenadic Asti was the top model

315
00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:00,960
Speaker 3: agency in Milana at the time, and he told her

316
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Speaker 3: I had this guy for you. Got to meet this guy.

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Speaker 3: So he sent me over with his driver. I went

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Speaker 3: to the agency. They took polaroids of me, and they

319
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:10,800
Speaker 3: call him and say, hey, can we send him out

320
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Speaker 3: right now because it's fashion week? Well, yeah, send him out.

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00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:17,920
Speaker 3: I went on six castings and booked all six shows,

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Speaker 3: and those four years I was averaging like thirty three

323
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Speaker 3: shows per season between Milano and Paris. They placed me

324
00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:30,120
Speaker 3: in Paris for Paris Planning and worked for the best

325
00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:33,440
Speaker 3: of the best. You know, work for Kenzo and you

326
00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:39,600
Speaker 3: sail On and Piter Cardan, Jesus you go. Tim Mugler

327
00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,640
Speaker 3: became friends with those guys. But every weekend that I

328
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Speaker 3: was off, I would go to New York to go

329
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Speaker 3: to the studio. One thing with me, I was always

330
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Speaker 3: very realistic with myself. I knew how to separate myself

331
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Speaker 3: from Omar and looked at myself and I said, look,

332
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Speaker 3: I'm never going to become super male model. I look

333
00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:04,080
Speaker 3: at the guys that I'm going up against. Those guys

334
00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:08,800
Speaker 3: are bloody beautiful. They were all white. Charles Williams married

335
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:13,160
Speaker 3: event people's marrying womble. These guys were beautiful to look at.

336
00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,720
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm not nothing to look at. I'm just interested.

337
00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:19,160
Speaker 3: I got a cool swag, and I have this crazy

338
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Speaker 3: voice and this accent.

339
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Speaker 4: So yeah, I get, but does.

340
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,920
Speaker 3: Not translate well to print. And I really wasn't really

341
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:28,960
Speaker 3: doing any print jobs. I was doing more runway. I

342
00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:31,520
Speaker 3: was fine making a good living, but I was also

343
00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:34,240
Speaker 3: blowing my money. I'm never saying that dime in my life.

344
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,720
Speaker 3: I was just partying and on one of my trips

345
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:41,240
Speaker 3: back to New York. Dear friend of mine, he said, Hey,

346
00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:44,600
Speaker 3: there's an agency in New York called Lamage Models and

347
00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:48,879
Speaker 3: they're thinking of opening a runway the department.

348
00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:52,720
Speaker 4: Will you be interested? I said, I'll take a shot.

349
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,840
Speaker 3: He said, well, I have an apartment in the back

350
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Speaker 3: of the agency, on the penthouse.

351
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Speaker 4: So I'm living the big life.

352
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:03,199
Speaker 3: I'm living on sixty fourth in Madison on a penhouse.

353
00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,520
Speaker 3: The offices in the front and the back there's open

354
00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:09,080
Speaker 3: a door and there's a whole apartment there, and that's

355
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:09,800
Speaker 3: where I lived.

356
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,720
Speaker 2: So Omar is going from model to agent, and now

357
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:16,400
Speaker 2: he gets to see a whole new side of the industry.

358
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,240
Speaker 2: He's the one telling people where to go, how they

359
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:22,440
Speaker 2: should dress, what they should say, how to present themselves.

360
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,680
Speaker 2: But being on the business side also means confronting much

361
00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,320
Speaker 2: of the industry's ugliness. This is the point from the

362
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,879
Speaker 2: beginning of the episode where clients feel entirely comfortable telling

363
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,080
Speaker 2: a black model agent that they don't want any black

364
00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:42,600
Speaker 2: models for their shoe, and Paul Fisher backs Omar up

365
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:42,960
Speaker 2: on this.

366
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 7: With the time Supermodels kind of ran the day because

367
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:51,560
Speaker 7: the Kontinesst Publishing company would only put supermodels on the

368
00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:55,400
Speaker 7: covers of their magazines versus celebrities. Out of every twelve covers,

369
00:18:56,119 --> 00:19:00,520
Speaker 7: eleven of those covers were supermodels, and out of the eleven,

370
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,600
Speaker 7: ten and a half of them, year after year were

371
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:08,159
Speaker 7: white women. We used to have to beg the Continents

372
00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:10,760
Speaker 7: Publishing company to give Naomi a break or carry Young

373
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,720
Speaker 7: a break. I used to fight with the editors of

374
00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:18,520
Speaker 7: every major magazine about their their way of looking at

375
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,960
Speaker 7: our modeling industry, that it did not reflect what was

376
00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 7: happening in our communities around this country. I used to

377
00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:28,320
Speaker 7: fight with them. I mean, there's there's four editorial spreads

378
00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:30,840
Speaker 7: in Vogue every single month for and each each each

379
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:33,359
Speaker 7: editorials between six and eight pages, which is twenty four pages.

380
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:35,600
Speaker 7: Twenty four pages times twelve months is two hundred and

381
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:37,360
Speaker 7: forty four pages. Out of the two hundred and forty

382
00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:40,080
Speaker 7: four pages, two hundred and thirty of them were white women, period,

383
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:41,040
Speaker 7: full stop.

384
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:42,639
Speaker 4: It never hit me.

385
00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:45,879
Speaker 3: You know, I'm still learning how to be a black

386
00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:47,320
Speaker 3: person in this country.

387
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,800
Speaker 4: I'm honey. I when I came to America, I didn't

388
00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:52,439
Speaker 4: know who Martin Luther King was.

389
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:58,000
Speaker 3: I didn't know who Malcolm Axel gross up Park and

390
00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:02,280
Speaker 3: all these black heroes, incredible humans that I know nothing

391
00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:04,320
Speaker 3: about those people. I grew up in Latin America. We

392
00:20:04,359 --> 00:20:09,160
Speaker 3: study at AlSi, Mofranco and up at all. We don't

393
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:13,480
Speaker 3: study Shakespeare. We studied me Listen. I mean, I didn't

394
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 3: know anything about black culture. So I think I was

395
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,680
Speaker 3: very fortunate to grow up in an environment that color

396
00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:22,680
Speaker 3: was not an issue, in a neighborhood that color.

397
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:23,400
Speaker 4: Was not an issue.

398
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:28,440
Speaker 3: We had financial racism when I was growing up. Either

399
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:32,359
Speaker 3: you were poor or you were middle or you did well.

400
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:33,400
Speaker 4: We did well.

401
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:35,879
Speaker 3: So my neighbor next door to my home in Panama

402
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:38,760
Speaker 3: where I grew up was Japanese, across the street Filipino,

403
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:42,359
Speaker 3: next to the Chileno, next to that German. So I

404
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,280
Speaker 3: had I grew up in a environment with all kinds

405
00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:46,760
Speaker 3: of race.

406
00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:47,320
Speaker 4: Yeah.

407
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:52,720
Speaker 3: I never really fell into that trap or that behavior,

408
00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:55,199
Speaker 3: and I now not me.

409
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:59,240
Speaker 2: Omar also says that the main leverage he and Paul

410
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,760
Speaker 2: had and fighting for their models came from their connections

411
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:05,440
Speaker 2: to photographers, which were deep.

412
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:08,640
Speaker 3: One of the things we had our advantage over many

413
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:12,760
Speaker 3: agencies is that we really had a lockdown on photographers.

414
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,600
Speaker 3: PAULI had his posse of photographers that were very loyal

415
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:20,080
Speaker 3: to him. Many models that we created that no one

416
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 3: wanted to touch and welcome.

417
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,400
Speaker 4: We did it because we had the photo power.

418
00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:29,159
Speaker 3: When you have the photo photographers behind you who believe

419
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:33,840
Speaker 3: in your vision, and these are photographers of power, the

420
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,240
Speaker 3: thing that makes it a lot easier. So you knew

421
00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:39,240
Speaker 3: what you were going to get and you knew what

422
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:41,360
Speaker 3: it will do to your model's career.

423
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 2: But with professional photographers being replaced by influencers taking selfies,

424
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 2: the path that Omar helped forge for new faces breaking

425
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,520
Speaker 2: into the industry feels like it has disappeared.

426
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,679
Speaker 5: I don't know how do you make a model today?

427
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 4: It breaks my heart.

428
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:02,600
Speaker 3: Into today's market, today's world of modeling with social media

429
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 3: and influencers, digital creators, content creators.

430
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,440
Speaker 4: What are you? What are you talking about? Your digital creators?

431
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:13,680
Speaker 5: I'm looking at your pages, just pictures.

432
00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 4: Of you, like, what do you? What are you creating?

433
00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:18,159
Speaker 3: Is?

434
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:18,840
Speaker 5: Oh?

435
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 3: I see you could now create your own persona online.

436
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 3: I just see so much of nothing these days, and

437
00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:33,080
Speaker 3: there's no signature like water. Water is a great drink.

438
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,320
Speaker 3: Is there a better way to make water? Do you

439
00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:38,040
Speaker 3: want to mess with that formula?

440
00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 4: No?

441
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,760
Speaker 3: We had a formula and it worked, and social media

442
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 3: came and disrupted that formula, so our formula no longer works.

443
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 2: But Omar isn't exactly one to complain.

444
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,920
Speaker 3: I mean, the nineties was a roller coaster for us.

445
00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,719
Speaker 3: You know, it's there a roller coaster. We never were

446
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:02,640
Speaker 3: any played for more than like ten days. I remember

447
00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:04,200
Speaker 3: closing the agency and.

448
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 4: We were like, let's get out of here.

449
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 3: We closed the agency and went to Hawaii four days,

450
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,720
Speaker 3: like all of us, the whole entire agency, and we

451
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 3: all took mushrooms.

452
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 4: We arrived and were.

453
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:21,439
Speaker 3: This beach the night we arrived, all on mushrooms. And

454
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,760
Speaker 3: the next morning we got up and there was a

455
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:26,160
Speaker 3: sign that saying do not go into the ocean because

456
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 3: it was like a shark infested water. And here we

457
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,600
Speaker 3: were hanging out in this ocean all night on mushrooms.

458
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,879
Speaker 2: It was a fun ride. But when Omar finally became

459
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:41,879
Speaker 2: a father, he decided he should probably give up the

460
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 2: swimming with sharks on mushrooms part of his life.

461
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 4: My son was born and that changed a lot for me.

462
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,200
Speaker 3: That's really was the time when I'm like I need

463
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:54,720
Speaker 3: to I didn't want to do this, by the way,

464
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:56,919
Speaker 3: I just didn't want to be in the industry at

465
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,239
Speaker 3: that time. I don't say I was freaking out, but

466
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:01,640
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm about.

467
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:04,920
Speaker 4: To become a father. I cannot have this lifestyle being

468
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 4: a father.

469
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 3: I remember being in Russia with some friends of mine

470
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,959
Speaker 3: and one became a very famous director now, Chris Broncado.

471
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:17,920
Speaker 3: He wrote Narcos. Chris, look at me. He's like, Ohmi,

472
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 3: when was the last time you stayed home on Friday night?

473
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 3: I don't think I have ever stayed home on Friday night.

474
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 3: He's like, dude, we should do a story called The Fridays,

475
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:33,160
Speaker 3: The Many Fridays of Omar. I can't do this no more.

476
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 3: Like I just want to like focus and stay in

477
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 3: one place. So I think I'm gonna just say Miami.

478
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 2: This is when Omar opened his own agency, and he

479
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:46,359
Speaker 2: still runs it to this day. It's different from what

480
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 2: he used to do. But that's kind of the point.

481
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 3: People from my generation, they're caught up in the nineties.

482
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:57,160
Speaker 4: They're pissed. I don't blame you. Yeah you're pissed, but dude,

483
00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 4: keep it moving. Man. We're not there no more. I

484
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:03,440
Speaker 4: don't lived there no more. I hate Fisco, I hate

485
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 4: old school funk. It bores me already been there and

486
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,360
Speaker 4: listened to afrobeats. You gotta just keep it moving in life.

487
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 3: That's the one thing I always tell young people, like,

488
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 3: stay present, stay in the now, and by the time

489
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:21,840
Speaker 3: you finished saying the word now, that's part of the past.

490
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 8: Model Wars was a production of iHeart Podcasts and Campside Media.

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Speaker 8: Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 8: get your podcasts. Model Wars was executive produced and hosted

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Speaker 8: by Vanessa Gregoriotis. Our senior writer was Michael Kenyon Meyer.

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00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:47,719
Speaker 8: Julia K. S Levine was our producer and reporter. Our

495
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:50,879
Speaker 8: senior producer was Lily Houston Smith, and our assistant editor

496
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,719
Speaker 8: was Emma Simonov. We had story and production help from

497
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 8: Shoshi Schmolowitz, Ali Haney, and Blake Rook. Our production manager

498
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 8: was Ash Warren and our studio recordist was Ewan Li Tremuant.

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00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 8: Sound designed by Mark McCadam. This episode was mixed and

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00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 8: engineered by Amber Devereaux. iHeart Podcasts executive producers were Jennifer

501
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 8: Bassett and Katrina Norvell. The show was also executive produced

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00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:20,639
Speaker 8: by Rachel Winter and Campside Media's Josh Dean, Adam Hoff,

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00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 8: and Matt Schaer. If you'd like to access behind the

504
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 8: scenes content from Model Wars and Campside Media, please go

505
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 8: to join campside dot com. That's j O I N

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00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 8: C A M P s I d E dot com.

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00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 8: If you enjoyed Model Wars, please rate and review the

508
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 8: show wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks so much for listening.

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00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening to our entire series on

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00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 2: Model Wars. We've really enjoyed it and we hope you

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00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:56,240
Speaker 2: have two

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Speaker 5: You