That male model/mass transit connection I'd observed over the last four seasons was no fluke, he confirmed. "Yeah, it's ridiculous how many guys you see on the subway. You can run into each other every five minutes. But not the girl muddles, 'cause they usually have drivers."
It's a matter of simple finances, he explained. Because the cost of a car service -- like airfare to Europe and the price of accommodations -- is advanced by the modeling agency and ultimately offset by future modeling work stateside, such a splurge cuts into a model's take-home pay. Especially when a male model at Lykov's level pulls down a tenth of what a female of comparable caliber can expect. His average fee of $1,000 a show in Europe sounds like pretty decent dollars -- even when it includes fitting sessions and usually a call time four hours prior to the actual show for hair and makeup. But for a variety of reasons, it doesn't add up to anything close to a glamorous lifestyle.
According to Lykov, the lodging arranged by a modeling agency means dormitory-style digs, with four to six guys in tiny apartments. Multiply this by the several hundred barely twentysomething men who descend on Paris and Milan twice a year on the same flights, and the runway season ends up being part fraternity, part spring break and all Abercrombie & Fitch catalog.
"Before my first show in Milan, we were staying in this apartment that belonged to a male model," Lykov recalls. "I was staying with these Canadians; they were like animals. They destroyed all the furniture, they were throwing chairs and beer bottles out of the window from the fourth floor onto cars -- one guy [relieved himself] in the oven." He said he took his suitcase and checked into a hotel that night. "Since then I try not to stay with other models like that. Maybe two in a hotel room, but that's it."
Lykov said he tries not to travel with a large group of guys either, but a late change to the Milan calendar this season found some 40 models booked on the same EasyJet flight out of Malpensa airport bound for Paris Fashion Week.
"When we got to the airport we found out the flight was delayed until like 3 in the morning," he remembers. "The gates and the airport were all closed down. There were no guards, so there were all these male models smoking cigarettes, having -- what's the word with the office chairs? Office chair races. Some guys broke into a lounge to steal some pillows. It was really hilarious."
