JOSH FLINN

Mentoring Australia’s Next Top Models

During his years working in the fashion industry as a model mentor, booker and brand manager, Josh Flinn has witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly, which has helped him prepare for what cycle seven of Australia’s Next Top Model has to throw at him, namely, 100 amateur models, ready and raring to go. The nation’s biggest and best search for aspiring models, Australia’s Next Top Model has unearthed some real superstars in previous seasons, and Flinn is positive this cycle of the show is going to be no different.

Ahead of the first episode airing on Fox 8 this coming Monday, August 8, at 7.30pm, Flinn caught up with X-Press to chat about life in the fashion fast lane.

“It’s a cast of thousands!” Flinn laughs when asked how it feels to mentor a pack of aspiring models. “It was pretty daunting. I ended up with 30 who made it through the judges’ bootcamp. So they gave me a refined number which I was very glad about. Still, 30 teenage girls, oh my god! I felt I was at summer camp and I was the only instructor there. It was fine, I got over it. I think they were probably more daunted doing this than I was.”

Responsible for unearthing the likes of Alice Burdeu, Tahnee Atkinson and most recently Amanda Ware, who have all gone on to big things post-show, the judges of Australia’s Next Top Model know how to spot potential.

“They have to have something that you can’t quite put your finger on but you know you want to see more of,” Flinn begins when asked what qualities he looks for in models. “It’s an elegant desirability if that makes sense, not in a sexual sense but in a ‘I can see you with this kind of hair and this kind of dress and walking this way for this campaign’ sense. In fashion we scan the streets all day looking at people so you’re pretty adept at who can be a model and who can’t. I look in the mirror and think ‘ew, not you buddy’ but it’s good to be involved none the less.”

Though he has big praise for most of the contestants from previous seasons, Flinn has dealt with his fair share of high maintance models, and has plenty of hilarious stories to tell.

“There’s a few ratbags I have to say but we weed them out pretty quickly. I make it quite clear. One girl said to me ‘I’m not wearing my shoes on the grass’ and I said ‘you’ll do whatever I tell you to do, it’s a competition’. Within about three and a half seconds, I don’t think her feet even touched the floor, she ran up, got her shoes and came down. She learnt pretty quick.

“[I’ve had a girl] turn up to a casting drunk with no brushed hair and a hole in her singlet. I understand the Surry Hills fashion girls – they don’t care about brushing their hair and I love that but I like that at a launch, not at a casting. Or, if you’re pissed, brush your teeth. Obviously that’s a worst case scenario! I don’t want to smell exactly what you had to drink last night!”

He may have to get stern with the contestants every now and again but for the most part, Flinn gets along well with Australia’s Next Top Model hopefuls.

“It’s all shits and giggles when the cameras are off. I get along really well with the girls, I’m still close to Amanda and Kelsey. I don’t want to put these girls down, they’re teenagers. Their sense of self is fragile as it is. They don’t need someone old and queer telling them they’re not good enough. That’s not why Sarah and the team hired me. I’m not there to antagonize them. I say to these girls ‘whatever you do, don’t waste this opportunity’ because it’s an amazing opportunity. I wish someone had told me how to be a publicist, a show producer and a model instructor, I did that on my own.”