Saudi female creator launches model scouting startup to bridge client and talent gap
DHAHRAN: On an ordinary night in November 2020, Lina Malaika and Farah Hammad had a life-changing conversation.
In the midst of a global pandemic, the pair decided to embark on a business partnership, hoping to uplift their community and blaze new trails in the world of business.
Both women have established themselves as unique. Malaika has been in the creative industry for over ten years as a filmmaker, designer and entrepreneur. Hammad is a designer of fashion with a repertoire that spans multiple continents, with a keen eye for color and texture.
Modeling is generally female dominated, but Clay also has five male models. She was one of them, Abdullah Ali grew up in Riyadh and after she joined the scene she joined Clay.
Independently. His versatile looks and confident aura allow him to pull off an urban and traditional look perfectly.
“Basically, me and Lina are talent agents. Clay is our undername. We are not an agency yet — that is the plan. We will be a suitable agency, but for now we are two talent agents,” Hamad told Arab News.
It all started when we met in September 2020 and shortly thereafter decided to start a business called Clay Models.
It was Malaika’s brainchild. She started her career about 10 years ago with Destination Her Jeddah her magazine, after which she was her creative director at TheLoftMe, a creative studio based in her hometown of the Kingdom’s coastal city. .
highlight
• In the midst of a global pandemic, Lina Malaika and Farah Hamad decided to embark on a business partnership, hoping to uplift their community and blaze new trails in the world of business.
• The name ‘Clay’ is the first name given to Malaika. She wanted a “short, playful, and versatile” name that was flexible like a block of clay that could be shaped.
• Right now, Clay literally lives mostly in the cloud.Both women have studios, so it’s possible to meet in a physical space, but most of our interactions are over the phone.
For each of these roles, she needed a model for a photo shoot, and found it very cumbersome and difficult to constantly curate a locally-based database of models.
It didn’t exist at the time, as many women needed family approval to be photographed, and posting pictures of themselves in the media was still taboo in many ways.
Malaika then returned home, determined to study film in New York and fashion in London. She found herself constantly facing the same task of finding a model for each of her roles and decided to take her problem into her own hands. She had her Rolodex of models, but she wanted to be more streamlined.
saudi model Malak Monzer
“I was always thinking, I need something… All I need is a partner, because I can’t do this on my own. Yeah, I’m a creative person, but not necessarily It’s not always about being a business woman,” Malaika said.
Hammad faces similar hurdles whenever he shoots for the fashion design business.
Having grown up in multiple countries and traveling the world between Jeddah, Europe and America, she has a sense of calm and stability. Her care and empathy for those around her is as if she collects her thoughts and weaves them into the world with her invisible threads. she is a performer
Joining forces seemed destined for the two women.
“We were on the same page and shared a more or less similar mentality. I was telling her that I had an idea to turn it into a modeling agency.
“And I said to her, ‘If you don’t do it with me, I’ve built so many ideas in my head that they’ll never come true, so it’s never going to happen. There’s a sort of shelf of unfinished ideas, completing each other in that sense, she started right away (and) it came to life, and by the next morning she had built a website No kidding,” Malaika said.
“I was honestly scared and a little skeptical because when I started my business it took me years to make the connections. said “I’ll get back to you” and I think yes. Then, as you know, I think this will be a great opportunity,” Hamad told Arab News.
Saudi Arabia was opening up, so they decided to seize the day.
“This was during COVID, remember? There was this uncertainty in life back then, and a lot of things like, ‘We’re going to die.’ That’s the business.” Aside from that, it’s been great for me. For Farah as well, it helped us as a coping tool because we were dealing with personal transitions in parallel. It was an escape,” Malaika said.
The name “Clay” is the first name given to Malaika. She wanted a “short, playful, and versatile” name that was flexible like a block of clay that could be shaped.
“We had a lawyer to help us with the contract. It was very important for us to make the models feel that they could trust us, because we are not there to dominate, but to maintain a relationship with them. , because we want to keep it,” Malaika told Arab News.
Modeling is generally female dominated, but Clay also has five male models.
One of them, Abdullah Ali, grew up in Riyadh and joined the scene independently before joining Clay. His versatile looks and confident aura allow him to pull off an urban and traditional look perfectly.
“As a self-established model, one of the obstacles I faced early in my career was the interface between talent and clients. I had a customer base, but working with Clay was an advantage in collectively raising industry standards in the region,” Ali told Arab News.
It was important to Clay to give clients options and not fit any model into any category. Their website has sections for Saudi Arabia, International Models and Male Models where they list all their specs.It does not represent anyone under the age of 21.
“Keep in mind, before Saudi’s new vision, most brands, all luxury brands, used foreign models to shoot their own products at the GCC. Shots in foreign locations that don’t represent us don’t appeal to us. And slowly, brands began to realize they needed to talk to their clients.
“Many of them started going to Dubai. It was not acceptable for the models to shoot in Saudi Arabia. I would like to emphasize that it was very important to start this with – it did not exist.
Models are notoriously divas, but I’ve only met one model who disrespects a client or misbehaves due to her lateness or on-set behavior.
They did not tolerate unprofessional behavior, apologized to the client, issued a refund, and the model was quickly fired after giving her a second chance, which she abused as well. i’m back. This is a testament to their commitment to valuing their relationship.
“They keep coming back to us because of the professionalism we provide,” Malaika said.
Clay’s founders still see their business as a start-up, but their stellar reputation in Jeddah and the digital MENA space is evident.
Currently, Clay literally lives mostly in the cloud. Both women have studios, so while it’s possible to meet in a physical space, most of our interactions are over the phone.
“We want to expand and we want to find more talent. If[we]can find more, we can find investors to grow… sky bounds Like,” Malaika said.
Professionalism is a must for anyone wanting to achieve the coveted position on clay, but so is an online presence. In a world saturated with digital and social media, any aspiring model can open an Instagram account and share photos.
“Having a portfolio is very important. See what the stylists, designers and photographers look like behind the camera. It may not be photogenic. They did some research and found a model Watch a YouTube video on how to pose. For some, it’s just a hobby and they don’t take it seriously,” Hamad said.
They do most of the work for quality control assurance, but have a few freelance agents to help out if needed. So far, they have the same instincts when deciding to let a model join the Clay family, and are still in disagreement over who will sign up.
They currently have 30 models in the book and are looking for more.
The women say they aren’t doing it for fame, but rather as a platform to fill gaps and improve the industry.
“Other agencies take a percentage off the model’s rate, but we don’t. We add our percentage to the model’s rate. , are paying us to do the dirty work, it makes their life easier because they don’t have to deal with anything because everything is done, all they do is books So… so everyone is happy, it’s a win-win situation for the model, for us, for the client.It’s like the perfect recipe,” Malaika said.
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