“There’s no one I can really compare my career to,” says Ian Jeffrey. “Or even anyone to ask ‘Hey, do you have any advice about this?’ Even my agents are like, ‘No, this is a new situation for us.’”
The rising 22-year-old model, who is signed with IMG, is talking about his desire to blend into the modeling world as seamlessly as any other breakout male model and leave his influencer past behind.
Most models in today’s era are, of course, interested in the reverse: building a following online to help grow their careers as models. Yet Jeffrey moved to New York five years ago to shift entirely from a YouTuber into a top male model.
Jeffrey, who is the brother of beauty influencer James Charles, grew up in Albany, N.Y., and relocated to Los Angeles while in the 10th grade specifically to do social media—mostly “get ready with me” videos and Q&As. Thousands of fans soon followed, but it soon started to lose its appeal to him.
“I quickly realized that I was growing a following and was popular, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” he says. “I was always interested in clothes and fashion, and I realized that L.A. is not the place to be for that.”
Jeffrey also struggled with understanding why exactly people were following him, and what he should do with his popularity. When he moved to New York and started going out for modeling jobs, he felt that casting agents didn’t know what to make of him, either.
“Because I was so known at the time when I moved here, it was ‘why do you have this following?’ It’s like, ‘Well, they just think I’m a cute 16-year-old kid. I’m not a chef. I’m not a basketball player. But I was trying to transition to something else,’” he recalls.
Even now, Jeffrey said the casting experience can be tricky. “I’m not getting booked per se because of my following, and I’m still going to castings like everyone else, but I’m at the casting and they’re like ‘Oh, you’re Ian.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but we’re trying out for the same job.’ I think [my following] definitely helps, but I think it also does the exact opposite at some points, too. I am a face in a sense, but I’m not a face in the modeling industry.”
Jeffrey’s foray into the world of fashion was seeing Virgil Abloh’s debut at Louis Vuitton. At the time, he was big into streetwear, and seeing that reflected in high fashion had him thinking to himself “holy shit, this is a thing.”
Moving to New York introduced him to “fancier clothes,” and now he cites Maison Margiela, Acne Studios and Glen Martens at Diesel as favorites. New York is also where he’s developed his love of thrifting. When not modeling, he spends his time at estate sales or flea markets and sells the vintage finds out of his apartment.
He also dreams of making his own clothes one day, “because there isn’t one brand that I’m obsessed with,” he says.
“I would love to eventually have a cut and sew line, but based around vintage materials where it’s military duffle bags that are cut and sewn into tote bags or hats or using vintage materials to rework into something more modern,” he says.
The last five years have included highlights like walking Abloh’s Louis Vuitton show in Miami, held days after his death, as well as Alessandro Michele’s Gucci Love Parade show. Still on the dream board is to walk a Balenciaga show, as well as a Margiela couture show.
“I’m very content with my modeling career for the last five years,” he says. “There’s obviously so much that I could still do and want to do.”
Though social media gives him “terrible anxiety,” Jeffrey is starting to embrace the medium again, this time in a way that feels in tune with his fashion career. “I don’t promote [myself] as someone, I want to be just like anyone else going on the casting,” he says.
He’s also working on embracing his unique situation in the modeling world.
“I’m at a point where I’m like, whatever happens, happens. I’ve been shooting a lot of editorials and a lot of covers recently, which is amazing,” he says. “But when I’m talking to agents, it’s like, why am I shooting covers if I’m not getting paid work at the same time? It’s kind of contradicting for most people’s careers, but at the same time, do I really question [it]? That’s what I’ve realized over the years. Just go with the flow.”
This article appears in Rivet’s summer issue. Click here for more.