KOL Diaries Vol. 1 | @李Max强: A Model Life

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【KOL DIARIES】

Fashion Blogger & Model | @李Max强

Place of Residence：Not Fixed

Full-time Job：Model

Active Platforms：Weibo, Instagram, Douyin

Annual Income：50～60w RMB

11:00-12:00

Upon arrival in Milan, the time difference had upended my body clock, and it was close to noon before I got up for “breakfast.” In passing, I checked my email for an interview confirmation from my management company.

The sunset on the plane

12:00-14:00

Got organised, showered and picked out an outfit that the brand might like for today’s interview.

14:00-15:00

Set out for the interview.

Arrived and waited for the interview to start. Today I’m meeting Bottega Veneta. Brands will ask questions to judge whether or not you understand their style and philosophy. After that, they’ll look at your walking style and measurements.

Had dinner then worked out at the gym. My bedtime routine includes a few precautionary measures to make sure I’m in good condition for the next day. 

A little more work today than yesterday. Got up early in the morning to try on Armani’s clothes in preparation for the big show in a few days.

Interview times are typically crammed together, or even overlapped, and as soon as Armani’s fitting was over I had to go to interviews with Bally and GCDS.

Between adjusting to the time difference and a whole day of running around, I was really exhausted. As soon as all the work was finished, I went home to sleep.

 Sleepy

07:00-09:00

As before, got up early, showered, ate and chose my clothes, then headed out for interviews.

Interview with Frankie Morello.

Immediately on to the next interview! (In fact, the interview was scheduled to start at 11 o’clock, but fortunately I managed to catch up.)

Metro Station

Another interview. But happily, the interview location was opposite the previous interview.

Today’s work was finally over, and I hadn’t eaten all day. I went to Chinatown, bought some snacks and had dinner. Then I rushed back to the hotel to work out and sleep, in order to be at my best for tomorrow’s big show.

Left: Near Chinatown / Right: In Chinese restaurant

07:00-11:00

Today was the Emporio Armani 2020 spring and summer show. It started relatively early, and after everyone gathered at 07:00, makeup and rehearsal got noisily underway.

The catwalk officially kicked off.

Went home and rested after the show.

EMPORIO ARMANI SS2020

Because of the six-hour time difference between Italy and China, 李Max强 had just finished eating breakfast when our editor interviewed him. He told our editor that he had no work today and was preparing to go out with friends for a stroll and to relax.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

As a model, I want to talk about what goes on when I’m away from the spotlight. In fact, there’s typically a lot of pressure because this industry is pretty brutal. You have to fight for every opportunity, and hard work alone won’t guarantee that chances will come your way. But you still have to work hard – after all, the minute you stop, the industry might cut you out.

In addition, you have very little time for yourself. Year in, year out, most of your time is spent travelling all over the world, leaving very little time for family and friends. If you work hard, life is quite irregular and late nights are the norm. Needless to say, models who are around 190cm tall basically have to maintain their weight at around 65-70KG (of course, if the brand needs it, you can gain 5-10KG). So you usually have to both diet and exercise.