Trevor was shot exclusively for MODELS.com by Greg Vaughan (BALLOON), with styling by Javon Drake, and grooming by Peter Matteliano at Kate Ryan Inc. Interview by Jonathan Shia.

interview

Name:
Trevor Signorino

Agency:
Re:Quest Model Management NY (New York)

Age:
22

Height:
6’2″

Instagram:
@trevorsiggs

Place of Origin:
Tom’s River, New Jersey

Ethnic Origin:
Italian and English

Birthsign:
Cancer

How discovered:
My buddy comes to New York City once a week and does deliveries for his father’s company and I’d never really been to the city so I went with him one day just over a year ago. We were walking around and some guy came up to me and asked, “What agency are you with?” I was like, “Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and then he gave me his card and told me to check out his agency. I did and then because they were so interested I checked out a few more, and then a week later I decided to sign with Request.

What was your first response when he asked you that?
It’s kind of funny, I wasn’t actually that surprised because within that year I feel like four or five other people had said the same thing to me. I used to work on a beach—I still do sometimes — and I was an ice cream man, but it’s old school like I walk with a box of ice cream, and people there were like, “Oh, you should look into modeling.” So I wasn’t that surprised that he came up to me, but it was definitely a big shock first getting into the modeling world.

What were you doing before you started modeling?
I was bartending and an ice cream man and studying education. I have two semesters left. I’m probably going to take a little longer now, but I also coach freshman football so I can teach and coach when modeling is over. My friend and I also just bought the ice cream truck and a hot dog cart on the beach. We worked it for four or five years and now because of my funds I was able to do that finally, so we pretty much run it. We usually work too somedays, but if we can’t we have a few other guys who can hop in and do it too.

Favorite things:
My love is sports. It would probably be football and basketball mainly. I love all kinds of sports and I want to be a physical education teacher. I played football and basketball my whole entire life and now that I know I’m not playing it, I want to at least coach it and be a part of it. I also love weightlifting and fitness and learning different types of workouts. I’m also pretty big into snowboarding and dirt biking. Obviously that’s seasonal so I try and do it when I can, or else it’s pretty much spending time at the beach. I’ve lived there my whole life so it’s all I know.

What are you listening to at the moment?
Honestly I could listen to almost anything. I’m a Christian, so I try to always keep it as clean as possible. I do like big artists and I like to listen to them, but again I always try to keep it clean for the most part so there’s boundaries there, but I’ll listen to hip hop, pop, even country. I’m not picky at all when it comes to that.

Favorite movie, tv show:
I probably have two favorite TV shows, and they’re a little corny but I love them. One’s called Friday Night Lights. That’s probably my favorite, but I just finished One Tree Hill and honestly I was a pretty big fan of that too. It’s mainly the same thing, it’s just basketball. Those two shows I just loved. They’re corny, I know. My favorite movie, I can’t put a finger on that to be honest, but if I have to say one of them, It’s a Wonderful Life. That’s definitely in my top five.

Favorite designer, fragrance or beauty product:
My favorite that I can wear all the time would be Nike, but if money wasn’t an object, it would probably be Versace. I’ve worked a lot with them in the past year and I just really fell in love with their clothes to be honest. They’re not too overstyled or too much craziness, but at the same time, if you’re rocking something by them, you’re going to stand out.

What would you be doing if you weren’t modeling?
Hopefully finish school as fast as possible this year and be substitute teaching on the side and coaching football. I’d be hopefully looking to land a job coaching basketball.

What’s something uncool that you love anyway?
I don’t do it much because I don’t really have people to do it with, but I do love board games. Monopoly’s good but you never finish it so I’d probably have to go with Life as my favorite. Life’s a solid one. Sorry’s a really good one too. Those are my two favorites, I just don’t get to play them much.

First modeling job?
It was for VMAN with Bruce Weber in Montauk. All my agents were asking me, “You know who Bruce Weber is, right?” I was like, “No, not a clue,” and they started bringing up Abercrombie and all his work and I kind of had an idea, but I still didn’t recognize how big of a deal it was until I finally Googled him and did a little bit of research. Then I was like, “Alright, I guess this is pretty serious,” so I had to get my butt down to Montauk. I hadn’t wanted to drive there at first. It was like four­ and­ a­ half hours for two days not paying, and I was like, “Oh gosh, is this what modeling is all about?” But obviously I didn’t understand how it went. I was super nervous at first, because he has a pretty big crew and they’re very professional. I was not expecting that, but I’m really grateful that I got to work with him so many times because he’s such a great photographer. He’s very easygoing and relaxed. There’s not that much pressure and I think he really helped mold me into becoming a better model because of that. I didn’t have a bad experience with him so it really helped.

Favorite modeling experience so far?
There’s been a few good ones. I got to do a fragrance for Versace and that experience was way over the top in a good way. I feel like I grew so much in modeling just in those three days that we shot. It was just an amazing experience. One hundred and twenty plus people all coming together for a picture or a ten­second video and just trying to make it as perfect as possible was something else.

Bruce Weber made a 3D scan of you for a candle for the new issue of Visionaire. What was that experience like?
I was definitely a little nervous. That was really only my second shoot and I was still trying to get comfortable in front of the camera and now instead of one camera, there were fifty-plus cameras so it was a little nerve­ wracking. You’re in this huge spherical thing with a bunch of cameras all over, but you have to stay very still and in this little square boundary so you have to work around that. I got to make a lot of specific poses that I knew from doing sports so it ended up being really cool and I’m glad I got to be a part of it. When I first started modeling, one of the first goals was to be in different kinds of magazines or billboards, but I don’t think many guys can say they’ve been molded into a candle, so I’m going to have to say that’s definitely a top memory for me in modeling.

What’s the best thing about your hometown/country?
It would probably be the beach. I live ten minutes from the beach—I’m not on the beach exactly, but it is a beach town and just knowing that you can go there at any time of the day or night all year round and just enjoy that peacefulness has probably been the best thing growing up in my hometown.

Which brand would you really love to model for?
I was just thinking about this the other day. When I started modeling, I really didn’t know anything about anything. It was bad, but if there was one thing I did know, it was I wanted to somehow make it really big with GQ because I always knew about that growing up, and I want to be, still, the Calvin Klein guy, like that guy you look at like, “Oh there he is again, there’s the Calvin Klein guy.” That would be a dream job for me.

Place you would love to visit:
Probably Hawaii. I’ve just seen so many pictures and heard so many stories. It just looks surreal, so that would definitely be a dream to vacation there.

Currently you’re obsessed with/about:
I’m probably going to have to say almond butter. I don’t know why it took me forever to try almond butter. I loved peanut butter and then of course people were like, “Oh, you should try almond butter, it’s healthier.” I’ve probably had that and an apple together like for the past 37 days straight.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
It would probably be from my grandfather. It’s cliche, but he is literally one of the greatest men I ever met and he’s just done life the right way and he’s still going strong at 85 years old. He was my football coach too almost my whole life growing up and one of the main things he always said was, “Don’t count the time, make the time count.” I don’t know why, but it’s just been glued to the back of my head ever since he said it to me when I was like 12 years old.