The Double Life of a Model

The contention ignited largely as a result of Jakob's arguable penchant for oversharing—perhaps best epitomized by a blog that he and then-girlfriend and former Star editor at large Julia Allison wrote together, which documented in great detail the inner workings of their relationship. Interestingly enough, Allison is responsible for granting a then-19-year-old Lyle his first access into the lion's den that is Bryant Park during Fashion Week. Having just moved to New York, Lodwick's brother set him up with a job filming Allison and editing the footage into short Web clips. Understandably, it isn't an experience Lodwick remembers fondly: "I was sleeping like three hours a night and getting up at 8 the next morning to go do it all over again. And I was shooting with Star magazine and Julia Allison, so life in general seemed really petty."

“I was sleeping like three hours a night and getting up at 8 the next morning to go do it all over again. And I was shooting with Star magazine and Julia Allison, so life in general seemed really petty.”

Still, Lodwick says, nothing in the world of male modeling compares to what female models experience. "The female modeling industry is definitely more intense," Lodwick says. "They get paid like 10 times more than the men do. Therefore, it's way more of a business, so you have all of these girls that are just trying to make all of this money." And such high monetary stakes breed a particular nastiness that isn't realized in the men's world, where, despite the occasional meeting of combative personalities, models for the most part "get along," says Lodwick. "I did a show—Les Hommes in Milan—and there were two girls in the show. We were all fucking around backstage laughing and doing what we normally do and the girls were there with their jaws dropped, saying 'I can't believe you guys act this way!' They snap at each other," says Lodwick. Or, even worse: "I've heard horror stories of girls putting needles in a girl's shoes so when she's on the runway she'll fall over."

Catfights aside, there is also the issue of pressure to lose (or gain) weight. "I've seen stuff with people online commenting like, 'Oh my God he's so skinny, he needs to eat a hamburger or whatever.' And, I'm like, 'OK, look at my pictures where I'm not wearing clothes or where I have my shirt off.' Obviously I have a lot of muscle mass."

Modeling "can be really shitty at times," Lodwick says; it's not all a stereotypical endless stream of sex, Champagne, and clothes. "[People think] everything is handed to us on a silver platter. There's quite a bit that is given to us—party access, drinks, and everything. And even clothes to some extent. But there is a lot of work involved.”

It's a whirlwind that Lodwick has taken to documenting online. Despite seeing the potentially harsh realities of leading a decidedly public life in the digital age firsthand, Lodwick hasn't shied away from putting himself out there, virtually speaking. In addition to manning a blog called Vogue Adventure, which offers behind-the-scenes looks at his life as a model, updates on his band Vulture Realty, as well as a sprinkling of random photos and videos, Lodwick also maintains an eponymous site with largely the same type of content (minus the hyper fashion focus). Although, the fact that Lodwick has chosen to assume an alternate persona for his work in the fashion world suggests he's not ambivalent when it comes to self-presentation and self-preservation in the face of potential fame.