Gucci, GCU and everything in between: Kirsty Shearer’s five years in the world of fashion
A student has opened up on her modelling career and experience working with some of the world’s most recognisable brands.
Third year International Fashion Branding student Kirsty Shearer has been involved in more than 200 photoshoots since making her big breakthrough with the Daily Record’s inaugural #Scoutmescotland competition in 2018.
She’s since been signed by agencies in Glasgow, London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Stockholm, Korea and Japan – quite the journey for someone who was scared to post pictures online as a teenager.
Kirsty said: “I was so shy when I was young and only started to get any sort of confidence towards the end of high school. I was 17 years old when I entered the #Scoutmescotland competition; my mum saw it in the newspaper and encouraged me to enter. All I had to do was send in a photo and I sent it on Twitter because I was too shy to post it on my Instagram. I then just went into the agency, and was told that I’d won out of 2000 entries – it was all a bit mad for something so simple!
“I was given a contract with Colours in Glasgow and Select in London. Usually it would take a while to get a London-based agency and you’d have to build up a portfolio and meet people. I was very lucky to get it all at the start.
“There was a lot of photoshoots and quite a good bit of publicity around it. My mum’s got a collection of everything I’ve been in. She’s definitely my biggest fan and I’m so grateful she encouraged me to enter the competition!”
Despite having a keen eye for fashion and design from a young age, Kirsty confessed she was better suited to life in front of the camera.
She said: “I’ve always been quite artsy. When I was younger, I actually had a spell where I was trying to make clothes, I used to cut up stuff and pretend it fitted me…but it really didn’t!
“I also went to college to study art and design for six months after leaving school, but it wasn’t really for me at that point. I’d obviously recently won the competition and decided to drop out and focus on my modelling.”
Kirsty flung herself into every opportunity that came her way and built up an impressive portfolio of work throughout 2018 and 2019.
She explained: “There wasn’t that much travelling immediately after winning the competition, it was mainly just London. I did have one job early on with Pull and Bear in La Coruna, Spain. It was so nice!
“2019 was when I started going away for more shoots. I stayed in Seoul for three months, came home and then went to Tokyo for two months, before returning to Seoul again for another two months.
“I was travelling myself, so it was definitely very different for me. In Korea and Japan, the companies would always have a translator there for me, but that was obviously only when we were at work.
“It was a very busy time though because I did about 60 shoots in Seoul. The jobs were very relaxed there, which suited me because I’m actually not that chatty, I much prefer to just chill. When you’re working in London it’s the complete opposite, it’s all about networking.”
Experiencing new cultures and meeting new people has led to plenty of memorable moments for Kirsty, something she will always be grateful for.
“Gucci was a really early one in Croydon and it was a massive operation with lots of models involved and then the likes of Barbour was more recent, but both were amazing to be a part of.
“One of my favourite shoots was on a small island next to Okinawa in Japan. I got to walk about a beach in wedding dresses, which was pretty cool.
She added: “Usually what happens is companies look at lots of different agencies and say ‘we want someone that looks like this’ and then our agency will put us forward.
”Like everything, though, there are definitely pros and cons to it all. Some points of the year are particularly quiet. I actually cut my hair at one point last year and got a pixie cut, which gave me a boost in work. Sometimes you have to be tactical with your style.”
Following her Asian adventure in 2019, Kirsty decided she wanted to gain academic knowledge alongside her practical experience.
She explained: “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in fashion and was aware that no-one really models for that long.
“Becoming a stylist was definitely something I considered for a while but I have a real interest in sustainable fashion, which means I don’t actually buy a lot of stuff – shopping tires me out!
“I’d realised from college that I also didn’t want to do design because it’s really stressful. I wanted something creative but also something that looked at the business side of the fashion world.”
Kirsty decided that the BA (Hons) International Fashion Branding programme was the perfect fit and enrolled for first year in September 2020.
She said: “The pandemic happened and I decided that it was a good point to start something different. I went for it and certainly have no regrets.
“The whole experience of coming to University has taught me so many new things that I would never of found out about as a model. I find branding as a whole particularly interesting, especially the social media side. Modelling is just the one photo that gets sent out, but this goes into the finer details and another side of the industry.”
With more than a year of her programme remaining, Kirsty’s keeping focused on her coursework for now but insisted her future remains within the industry she’s now accustomed to.
She explained: “I’m not entirely sure what I want to do yet but I know it’ll definitely lie within sustainable fashion. I volunteer with Fashion Revolution and would love to get involved in their policy team.
“I definitely wouldn’t rule out doing more modelling in future. My boyfriend’s Swedish and really wants to go to America – but I’m not sure if that’s my thing. I think London is my most likely destination; however, I absolutely love Copenhagen and there’s a real focus on sustainability there.
“As I mentioned earlier, I’m very laid back, so we’ll just see where things go from here.”
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter