The New York Times did a profile on 35-year-old Brad Kroenig, a male model who is part of
Karl’s Boys. Karl’s Boys is a group of male models who follow Karl around the world. They claim that their relationship with Karl is strictly platonic and they don’t have to have sex with him.
As the most senior and prominent member of a group of male models often referred to as Karl’s Boys Brad not only works for Chanel and Fendi, the fashion houses where Lagerfeld is the head designer,
but also accompanies him on yearly vacations to St. Tropez and work trips and to parties worldwide. He has been photographed with Lagerfeld so often that gossip blogs have mistakenly identified him as the designer’s boyfriend.
The New York Times reporter tagged along as Brad went to Dubai with Karl.
During the trip, the reporter asked Karl why his entourage is filled with male models. Lagerfeld refers to Brad and the other models that travel with him as his family, albeit a self-selected, genetically ideal one. “
I hate ugly people,” Lagerfeld told me. “
Very depressing.”
Lagerfeld’s entourage has grown to include the British model Jake Davies, 34, and Baptiste Giabiconi, a 25-year-old from the south of France with a striking resemblance to a younger Lagerfeld. Together, they’ve become a part of the designer’s provocative image, trailing him as he exits cars and boats and planes.
Karl's Boys
Brad likes to say that male modeling is to the women’s business as the W.N.B.A. is to the N.B.A. While Gisele Bündchen’s yearly income is estimated at around $47 million, men of Brad’s standing earn $200,000 to $500,000. A male model, however, can gain an advantage, and ensure career longevity, by forging relationships with influential designers and photographers.
Lagerfeld has been at Chanel’s helm since 1983 and still designs 17 collections a year for Chanel, Fendi and his namesake line, an unprecedented feat of creative stamina. He is also a photographer who shoots campaigns for his labels as well as for other brands, like Audi. Brad has become the beneficiary of Lagerfeld’s productivity, appearing on his runways and in his ads. That Brad continues to work well into his 30s is due in no small part to having Lagerfeld as his champion. “If I never met Karl, there’s no way I’d still be modeling,” he said.
Brad borrowed money from his parents and began studying fashion magazines. “That’s when I learned about Karl,” he said. “I thought, Wow, this guy is, like, walking around in sunglasses and all these ridiculous outfits. This guy is living big.”
Soon, Brad caught the attention of Bruce Weber, who cast him in one of his notoriously racy Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns. “I was on the bag, which is kind of a big deal,” Brad said, meaning the store’s shopping bag. He was also in its catalog. “I was fully nude, like a butt shot.”
In 2001, Brad moved to New York and showed up at the Ford agency, where the founder, Eileen Ford, saw him from across the room and said, “Oh, my gosh, he looks like Errol Flynn,” according to Sam Doerfler, who became Brad’s agent. He walked out with a three-year contract. Doerfler said he thought that Brad had the kind of clean-cut athleticism that would appeal to more commercial clients (brands like Target or Macy’s), but Brad wanted to do high fashion; he wanted to work with Lagerfeld. “My thing was, how do you take a commercial-looking guy and make him look edgy,” Doerfler told me. To give Brad a more distinct look that might attract European designers, Doerfler had Brad spend a year growing his hair long and transforming his muscular physique into a more lanky one.
Lagerfeld photographed Brad constantly, almost as if he were studying an exotic new species: Brad walking, sleeping, eating, shaving, swimming and working out; Brad nude or seminude in showers and bathtubs, on beds and on balconies. He dressed him up like his own Ken doll, shooting him as the Greek god Zeus, James Dean and Jay Gatsby. Lagerfeld compiled the photos in “Metamorphoses of an American,” a four-volume book devoted entirely to Brad. In the introduction, he wrote, “It’s all about the clarity of the transmitted individuality of a face and a body unencumbered by too much experience.”
Brad soon became known as Lagerfeld’s “muse.” Amanda Harlech, a socialite who has been a muse of Lagerfeld’s for almost 20 years, said, “At a very simple level, it’s something that the eye is pleased to look at.” Brad has always been comfortable in the role. “The photographer has to be into the subject he’s shooting,” he said. “It’s like if you’re a basketball coach, you have to be into LeBron James and think he’s great, or you wouldn’t put him in the game.” He added: “The models that are uncomfortable just don’t make it. Why not get naked in the shower and have million-dollar jewelry on me?”
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