{"id":51294,"date":"2016-05-26T03:59:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T07:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/?p=51294"},"modified":"2016-09-30T06:29:33","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T10:29:33","slug":"alex-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/modeloftheweek\/51294","title":{"rendered":"Alex Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex was shot exclusively for MODELS.com by Horacio Hamlet<\/a>, with styling by Javon Drake<\/a>, and grooming by Eloise Cheung<\/a> at Kate Ryan Inc. using Dermalogica. Interview by Jonathan Shia<\/a>. Special thanks to James.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

interview<\/h2>\n

Name:<\/strong>
\nAlex Valley<\/p>\n

Agency:<\/strong>
\nSoul Artist Management (New York)<\/a><\/p>\n

Age:<\/strong>
\n20<\/p>\n

Height:<\/strong>
\n6’2″<\/p>\n

Instagram:<\/strong>
\n@alexvalley<\/a><\/p>\n

Place of Origin:<\/strong>
\nHazen, North Dakota<\/p>\n

Ethnic Origin:<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m like 85% German and then a mix of a few other little things like 1\/32 Native American, but I\u2019d say pretty much German.<\/p>\n

Birthsign:<\/strong>
\nLeo<\/p>\n

How discovered:<\/strong>
\nModels.com! I made a profile on Models.com and had my roommates take some terrible pictures of me that I submitted to some agencies in Miami, and Front responded like two hours later and were like, \u201cWe want you, let\u2019s Skype and talk about this.\u201d They scheduled a two\u00ad week trip for me, all paid for, and I was like, \u201cHey, at worst it\u2019s going to be a two- week vacation and if it doesn\u2019t work, I just had the best vacation of my life.\u201d I went down and the next day I got up and met Bruce Weber and shot with him all day and then he was like, \u201cI\u2019m shooting the Barneys New York campaign tomorrow and you are perfect for this,\u201d so I went the next day and ended up shooting with Christie Brinkley and Brooke Shields.<\/p>\n

Favorite things:<\/strong>
\nI love being active, so anything sports\u00ad related, I\u2019m there. I like watching UFC fighting. It\u2019s also fun to be in North Dakota and go camp and hunt with the buddies. Anything active outdoors is something that I love to do.<\/p>\n

What are you listening to at the moment?<\/strong>
\nIt all depends on where I\u2019m at. If I\u2019m in the gym, depending on the mood I\u2019m in, I\u2019ll listen to hard, hard rock, like lots of guitar and drumming, or I\u2019ll listen to Drake and Meek Mill and hip hop. I\u2019ll listen to Nirvana if I\u2019m at home just hanging out or some Third Eye Blind. It all depends on the mood that I\u2019m going for.<\/p>\n

Favorite movie, tv show:<\/strong>
\nI really like any movie with Leo DiCaprio in it, except I wasn\u2019t a huge fan of his last movie. I would say TV series \u00adwise, Breaking Bad with Bryan Cranston was my all\u00ad time favorite TV series ever. Also House of Cards is the best. for recent movies, I really liked The Big Short. I watched it and then the next half an hour I was speechless. The fact that they say it\u2019s going to happen again is crazy.<\/p>\n

Favorite designer, fragrance or beauty product:<\/strong>
\nI like Acqua di Gi\u00f2 and I use that all the time. I think I got it because it\u2019s what my dad wears.<\/p>\n

What would you be doing if you weren’t modeling?<\/strong>
\nA few weeks before I got discovered, I had started a fiber optics business, so I\u2019d be running that. After I came back from Miami, I started to work on my business and I was working 85\u00adhour weeks and I kind of forgot about modeling. I was making really good money and I loved it for the first eight months, but then it just hit me one day and I was like, \u201cI cannot do this for the rest of my life. I can\u2019t work myself to death for the money.\u201d Money\u2019s great, but at a certain point I\u2019d have all this money, but I didn\u2019t have any chance to spend it. I was stuck in North Dakota and I realized I needed to get away. Now I\u2019m here in New York and actually just sold the business to my partner so I have nothing tying me down, so I can get up tomorrow and go to LA or anywhere if I need to.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most surprising thing about the modeling industry?<\/strong>
\nHow many people there are that want to be big-time models really badly. There\u2019s just so many people who are trying so hard to get it. When I first started, I didn\u2019t even think it was a realistic thing. I just went for it thanks to Models.com and it worked out for me, but now that I have had this little bit of success, there\u2019s a lot of people that message me on Facebook and Instagram like, \u201cHow did you do it? How can I do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

What’s something uncool that you love anyway?<\/strong>
\nI love going on dates and making them super romantic, and I feel like that\u2019s a thing that\u2019s falling to the wayside with our generation. I feel like everyone meets in clubs or on Tinder. I meet a girl and I scare her away instantly because I\u2019m like, \u201cLet\u2019s go on a date,\u201d and she\u2019s like, \u201cWhoa whoa whoa, we\u2019re not to that stage yet,\u201d and I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, I just want to get to know you because talking to you at a club or seeing you on a dating site is not real. I\u2019m not really talking to you, and I\u2019m swiping or talking to you at a club purely because of your looks.\u201d So I\u2019d rather go on a date and get to know someone.<\/p>\n

Favorite modeling experience so far?<\/strong>
\nI would have to say without a doubt the Barneys shoot, shooting with someone like Bruce Weber and those ladies. That was my very first job ever and that\u2019s why I stuck with it, because Bruce is amazing and all the people there were amazing. I got to hang out, ride a dune buggy on the beach, and talked to Christie Brinkley for like three\u00adand\u00ad-a\u00ad-half hours about her life and her career. It really felt like a family for five days.<\/p>\n

What’s the best thing about your hometown\/country?<\/strong>
\nThe best thing about my hometown is how tight\u00ad knit everyone is. If I was in a different town, I probably wouldn\u2019t have as much success and support. Every single person in my town knew the minute I started modeling. Whether that\u2019s good or bad, I don\u2019t know<\/p>\n

Which brand would you really love to model for?<\/strong>
\nAny campaign that my friends and family would see when they go to a local mall. Really any brand that they\u2019re going to see in a billboard or a department store would be cool to work with so I have that exposure and my friends and family can all see.<\/p>\n

Place you would love to visit:<\/strong>
\nThe reason I went for modeling is because I want to be able to travel the world, so I really want to take these next few years and just travel everywhere. I studied abroad in China but other than that I\u2019ve never really been anywhere. It was a culture shock leaving North Dakota, so now getting out of there I just want to explore everywhere.<\/p>\n

Currently you’re obsessed with\/about:<\/strong>
\nGreek yogurt is my new thing. I\u2019ll put Kind peanut\u00ad butter\u00ad flavored granola and grapes in there. It\u2019s amazing and I eat too much of it.<\/p>\n

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s really clich\u00e9d, but if you want to be successful, just be yourself. There\u2019s a lot of fake people and there\u2019s a lot of people who aren\u2019t genuine. You can tell when people are genuine, so just being yourself, people are going to love you for your honesty or hate you for it and there\u2019s nothing you can do about that except be yourself and be a nice person and be kind to everyone.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Valley, 20, from North Dakota, was discovered right here on models.com. He’s the latest newcomer to nab Model of the Week, shot exclusively by Horacio Hamlet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[3756,3837,3839,3838,3840,1446,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51294"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52950,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51294\/revisions\/52950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/newfaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}