HARARE - While there seems to be some concern over the hiring of models by nightclubs to showcase and mingle with revellers, I still think such synergies have proven worthwhile for future business engagements for the girls.
I am saying this because models are a professional and ambitious young people who also work within a well-structured code of business ethics.
As a showbiz promoter, I am happy to have coordinated a number of showcases that involved beauty models. And models can be male or female.
In all our shows, I do not deal directly with the beauty models but engage agencies who have working contracts with them.
These agencies train the models and have their own set of showcases.
Usually, the modelling agency has a coordinator who accompanies the models and sees them through their rehearsals.
The models showcases are just the simple strut and they are not sexual in nature. The models strut in various costumes as happens when we have the Miss Zimbabwe or Miss Carnival contests.
We have tight security during the showcases and since these girls are young and innocent, we do not want them to be abused, verbally or otherwise.
Our ultimate or intended goal is to open up the beauty world to the market that can engage them further.
Usually, we partner with companies who would be promoting their brands and it is our hope that after such encounters agencies make follow-ups so the girls get more jobs.
Ours is just a platform for exposure, not exploitation as some might think. In an ideal world the models would be engaged in several capacities so that they earn money for their livelihood.
They can be hired as ushers at various high profile gatherings and meetings by government, which are plenty.
The models can be hired by sports institutions to work as cheer girls. When our national sports teams are playing important games, we can hire these models to entertain audiences before kick-off.
We see this on television happening in several overseas countries and it can happen here as well.
I would not mind to attend a wedding were I am ushered around by these beautiful models because they will add the colour and glamour to the whole event.
Models can also be hired to welcome important dignitaries at the airport when they arrive in Zimbabwe together with usual traditional dancers.
There is a lot that models can do, but they need professional
modelling agencies that can source them these engagements.
It is not only in nightclubs that they can be engaged.
Big companies such as Coca-Cola, Net-One, OK and Econet can also contract these models to appear on their adverts while advertising their respective brands.
Who would not for instance, want to look at a car competition advert which includes a beautiful model posing beside the car, or even on the wheel?
Who would not want to be associated with soap or body lotion
advertised by a beautiful model?
There seems to be a lot models can do so if modelling agencies are organised and are ready to hunt for jobs on behalf of these girls.
Clothing companies like Edgars, Truworths and several others that manufacture clothes can use models who will model in their clothing gear. These can then appear on television or newspaper adverts.
In Zimbabwe today, what we also lack are designers who can use models to parade fashion shows in their new designs.
If we had enough and reputable designers I think we would be
witnessing fashion shows week-in, week-out, but it seems we only have a few and the rest are possibly financially handicapped.
Yes, we have the Miss Zimbabwe, Miss Carnival, Miss Tourism beauty pageants annually but is that engagement enough for our models?
While I agree totally that the nightclubs are not for the models, they have, however, proved to be a platform through which other synergies can emanate from.
*Chinoperekwei is a showbiz promoter and Nama winner