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: Ann Creevey, Picture by : Nathan Dexter. |
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Phnom Penh
might seem like the last place you would expect
to find a modeling school.
Cambodia, although developing fast, is still one
of the world's poorer countries, with only a fledgling
advertising industry, few fashion shows and even
fewer designers.
A respected model might only earn US$20 for a day's
work.
But Sapor Rendall is a success story in this unlikely
industry.
Centrally located in plush offices in the Hong Kong
Center on Sisowath Boulevard, Phnom Penh, Sapors
Modeling is going from strength to strength. The
formula is simple teaching ordinary people how
to feel like models.
Sapor trains models in the arts of manners and beauty.
She has about 40 on her books. But she also trains
housewives and waitresses.
She came a long way to be able to start the business
in early 1997.
"When I was a little girl, my mother gave me
away to another family. I had two brothers and two
sisters and she just couldn't afford to feed me,"
the 29-year-old says.
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Sapor Rendall has come
a long way to reach the top.
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She struggled
to stay alive through the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime
(1975 to 1979). Her natural father starved to death and
she lost a brother.
In 1990, after the boat carrying her to a new life in
a new country almost sank, she finally made it to an Australian
refugee camp where she would spend four years.
In Australia her life changed in two ways. She met her
husband, lawyer Matthew Rendall, while in the camp, and
she discovered modeling.
"I went to a modeling class sort of by accident,
because I didn't like the way I looked. I didn't like
my posture. My teacher taught me how to walk and I found
I really liked it. It felt nice, gentle, beautiful."
So when she and husband returned to Cambodia in 1994,
she was ambitious to continue working in the field that
had given her so much satisfaction and a new self-image.
"I found work with a Khmer-American woman who was
running a modeling agency here."
But years of war had taken their toll on the kingdom.
Even Cambodia's models, beautiful as they were, had never
learned the manners people expect of the perfectly groomed
and aristocratic.
Escorting the models around events, Sapor watched in dismay
as beautiful women lost their poise in a flurry of fingers
and inappropriate silverware when the after-show meal
appeared. Worse, some hung back and refused to socialize
after appearances, embarrassed by their lack of knowledge
of social graces.
Sapor thought about solutions to this for a long time.
When her former employer left Cambodia, Ms Rendall set
up her own agency, with her own twist.
"I made sure my models understood everything dinner
table etiquette, make-up, everything because when they
go out they represent me and my agency. Then I opened
up the courses to teach other Cambodian women these basic
things that we don't know about here because of all the
years of war."
There were obstacles to overcome. One was the way traditional
Khmers view models and because of that Sapor's business. |
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A painted model is an object
of study as a young Khmer girl learns the arts
of beauty.
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"Traditionally,
people equate models with prostitutes. I was accused
of that a lot - dressing women up and making them
more likely to become sex workers. It's a strange
way of seeing it, but in Cambodia, people are very
conservative," she said.
"I just struggled on, and I think now, at least
in the city, people see that it just isn't like
that. Girls just want to look modern and beautiful."
Despite this, word of Sapor's modeling courses spread,
and people began to ask Sapor if she could teach
them. As Cambodia expanded, so did the middle class,
and more and more people needed to learn how to
fit in at business dinners and lunches with potential
foreign customers.
The agency's hairstyling and makeup courses are
also very popular with Khmer women of all ages and
walks of life.
"These skills give them confidence. A lot of
people here never got to learn these things. It's
true that Cambodian women until very recently were
more familiar with guns than makeup techniques,"
Sapor |
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says.
"When they first come in, I'd have to say a lot of
them walk like ducks. As far as makeup, I see women with
lipstick around the outsides of their lips and white powder
packed onto their faces. They don't know. They have never
been taught.
"Then I teach them how to do it properly. The change
is amazing not just how they look, but also in how they
feel about themselves. They gain confidence, and I think
that's a really valuable thing."
Sapor uses tried and tested techniques. Women walk up
and down the office's large main room, books or magazines
balanced on their heads, a-la-Pygmalion, as Sapor offers
encouragement and tips on how to improve their walk and
posture.
Courses are flexible, ranging in length from a weeklong
crash course to six months, with average courses of between
one month and three. It costs about US$100 per month for
makeup, hairstyling and related courses.
There are also more traditional courses, such as fruit
carving.
She takes about 20 people per class and classes are usually
full.
She employs up to seven staff.
Recently she branched out even further, providing a range
of new courses in areas such as office skills, communication
skills and "professional behavior".
These cost about US$200 a month.
"Modeling includes everything about someone, not
just how they look. Most of my customers come here to
please themselves or their husbands, or to make themselves
more employable. They will never be models, but they still
want to learn how to feel like models," Ms Rendall
says. |
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Suite
B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
Boulevard,
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 23 213 133 Fax: (855) 23 213 033
E-mail:
editor@leisurecambodia.com |
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