Object of design

>>Despite being incredibly good-looking,
male model wears what he’s told

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Ali Tajdin

Age: 20

Occupation: Model

Bio: The son of a Kenyan father and Pakistani mother, this Dollard dreamboat says he’s always been into fashion, spending his teen years absorbed in glossy magazines like GQ while dreaming of someday walking along that ever alluring runway himself. Feeling strongly that his ethnicity—along with his being “very, very good-looking”—has given him a “unique look” the fashion industry craves, Ali got his first big break about a year ago working on a l’Oréal hair show and says, to date, most of his modelling work has been either runway or commercial photo gigs.

Ali’s definition of what it is to be a model: “For me, a male model is basically an object, there is no question he is allowed to ask. When someone tells him to wear white, he wears white, and that’s it. You are simply an object to portray designs.”

Is it hard on a guy’s ego to do whatever some goofy designer or advertising bozo tells him to do, no matter how ridiculous, and do it with a smile? “In some ways yes, but because I find myself so good-looking, I’ve got my ego out there all the time, you know?”

Something Ali wants the world to understand: “You know that thing about models being airheads, it’s not true. Like, I meet a lot of models and yeah, some of them are very dumb, they don’t understand anything about, like, society and life itself. But me, I’m in the middle, because I would like to become an architect. I wouldn’t expect too many models want to become architects. Right now I’m in social sciences at Dawson, but I actually decided a few weeks ago that I want to get into architecture.”

When he’s backstage at fashion events, does he get many opportunities to check out heavy-looking model chicks while they’re naked? “Sometimes, yeah.”

Does this perk interest him at all? “Well, you know, the models backstage, sure, they might have a pretty face, but their bodies are pretty flat. I find people on the street more appealing.”

Do male models tend to puke after eating as well? “Male models tend to be built, so I’d say no.”

Have any potential employers asked him to lie down on their casting couch or whip out his goods for closer inspection before offering him a gig yet? “Um, no, I don’t think I’ve ever been approached like that.”

How to hire him: Via ali_tajdin@hotmail.com.

Last book read: Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett

Musical preferences: Offer Nissim, Grace Kelly, Shakira.

Words of Wisdom: “A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net