Most important from the perspective of this publication is that Boss Models has had an unprecedented impact on the position male models occupy in the fashion industry, advertising, entertainment and popular culture.

Until Boss revolutionized the industry, even the most successful male models served merely as backdrops for their female counterparts. It wasn't until the highly creative direction of David Bosman and others involved in creating the Boss legacy that male models attained unprecedented levels of fame.

Among other significant firsts, Boss negotiated the first exclusive contract for a male model to represent a designer's entire collection in print, outdoor and TV advertising worldwide, representing the largest amount ever paid to a male model. And so recognizable were its models that in 1996 Boss published their annual agency roster as a coffee-table book titled Male Supermodels: The Men of Boss Models. And it was not an exaggerated claim — Boss launched most of the larger-than-life male models we know as household names today — people like Joel West, David Fumero, Marcus Schenkenberg, the Brewer Twins and Simon Rex in addition to many others.

In order to find out more about the agency we consider largely responsible for creating the men's industry as we now know it, ModelSwim sat down in early March for several meetings with David Bosman, President and Founder of Boss Models, John Babin, Director of their Men's Division, and Nigel Pembroke-Sloan, one of their key men's agents, in addition to in-depth interviews with a number of their models, including Ijeoma, Omahyra, Derek Marrocco, Ben Wiley, Alexandre V., Luis, Jefferson and Morgan. (to be published over the summer).

We first asked David Bosman, founder and President, how it was that he came to start Boss Models. "I was a model myself in England when I was younger," he told me. "Then I started doing a lot of photography, which is what I came to pursue stateside. I leased about 5,000 square feet of studio space on Greene Street and split it into three spaces. I thought a modeling agency in the smaller space would be great for business, but when I couldn't find an agency to move in, I just thought I'd do it myself on the side. So I opened up Boss Models in 1988 and it was like nothing I ever expected."

A whirlwind?

Yes it was actually, because I represented Jill Revson, the daughter of Revlon's founder. And a couple of others, Elizabeth Winston, the stepdaughter of James Baker, etc. Somehow I got mixed up in this whole debutante connection, then the newspapers got ahold of it, and everything started to move quite nicely.

One of my first bookings was with Ralph Lauren for a boy named Billy Lynch; then Billy was booked by Calvin Klein, then Bruce Weber, eventually becoming Bruce Weber's assistant. All told there were some really great things that happened. The second year was slower, we had a hard year, but then it really started to go. One of the things that made a big difference was a new group of magazines like Details that brought a new focus on men — the timing was perfect and Boss reached a kind of peak at its height.