Meet Kazumi Ito, a sophomore at SILS and our campus celebrity for the week! I was honored to have been given the opportunity to have a chat with Kazumi about her modeling career. Currently signed to a Japanese entertainment company, she shares her aspirations, motivations and struggles as a model with us. This week, we learn about her beginnings in the industry.
Has modeling always been something you wanted to do?
As a child, I didn’t have any aspirations to become a model but I really enjoyed performing especially singing and dancing. It sounds silly now but I would hold a candlestick and pretend that it was a microphone and start singing and dancing in the living room. I also really enjoyed hip-hop and ballet lessons as a child. At that time, I wasn’t interested in modeling in particular but I definitely wanted to be in the entertainment industry where I could be on a stage in front of an audience. This desire to become a model became clearer to me when I came to Tokyo for the first time when I was 12. I was in Omotesando and I got scouted by an agent and this kept happening every time I visited Japan. There was even one year where I got scouted 5 times! This made me re-evaluate my options and I thought maybe modeling was something I was suitable for.
Lots of girls dream of becoming models but most of them dismiss their dreams. What made you think you could actually make this dream of yours a reality and what did you do to make it happen?
I do feel really lucky to be scouted by agents in Japan but I wasn’t able to start right away because I lived in the US. The fact that I was scouted, however, did make me realize that modeling was something I did have the talent for. But I also knew that most girls start modeling when they are 15 or 16 and moving to Japan at that age was not an option for me. So, in order to make use of my time to develop my skills as a model, I decided to take classes at Barbizon Modeling and Acting Center on the weekends. I lived in Berkeley, California but I would travel to San Francisco every weekend for these modeling and acting classes and I was also given a lot of opportunities in that school. For example, I did a bridal show with David’s Bridal and I also appeared at the International Performing Arts Conference in Los Angeles where I got to meet with agents across the country. In particular, I received a callback from Micki Schneider (of Elite Model Management New York), an agent who has connections with models like Coco Rocha, and I felt truly blessed to be able to meet such a person. This encounter with Micki Schneider was a turning point and it reaffirmed my decision to work towards becoming a model.
Seems like you’ve had some success in the US, why did you decide to continue modeling in Japan?
Before I was scouted by Micki Schneider, I had never considered modeling in the US. I met with him a few times to discuss the possibilities of me signing on with the company and although he told me he loved my unique look and “exotic” mix as well as my body proportions, he was also concerned about my height. I was 16 then and I was only about 160cm and he wanted to know if I would grow. I was disappointed at first when I heard that my height could be a problem and I even tried to make myself grow taller by drinking milk every day and doing stretches, something I would never have done! I am now 165 cm so I did grow but not to be 175 or 180 cm, which is about how tall you need to be to model internationally. Eventually, I just accepted who I was and that I could not do anything about my height. I think in the US and internationally, industry standards are a lot stricter than in Japan. So, although the experience got me thinking about modeling in the US as an option, Japan seemed to be a more natural choice if I did not want my height to hold me back from opportunities.
How did you start modeling in japan? Was it a simple matter of contacting the agents who scouted you?
Well, no. The process was a lot more complicated than I had thought. Also, I had no connections to anyone in the entertainment industry so I started from nothing. Most people think that being a model is all about getting your lucky break but it wasn’t like that for me. I think to be successful in anything you do, there has got to be hard work and determination from your end before you can see some success. 2 years before I moved to Japan, I was scouted by an agency and I was really interested in having them represent me once I moved to Japan. However, the interviews and talks didn’t go too well and I did not get signed to that company. I was really disappointed because for the 2 years I was in the US, I thought this agency would take me but they didn’t. Of course, I wasn’t going to just give up like that so I started from scratch, dedicating time each day to look for auditions. It was in the bookstore that I found out about SEDA magazine’s modeling competition (2013) and being able to end up as a finalist in the competition made it a really memorable experience because it gave me encouragement to continue what I was doing. I am now signed to an entertainment company and I really like that I am allowed to explore other options rather than just modelling exclusively. I recently appeared in a TV commercial and I really liked the experience!
Watch the CM here!
Next week, we learn more about an introspective Kazumi and her thoughts on modelling in Japan!