How I Made It: David Gandy

I was in a good mental space because I was training. I was going to the gym and playing a lot of sport when everyone else wanted to be skinny and wasn’t eating. I taught myself about the gym and nutrition, so I always felt like I was quite healthy, even though I was sleep deprived and always on one flight after another. I miss that now though, more than anything. I love airports and whenever I see a plane in the sky, I wish I was on it.

My ‘pinch of salt’ attitude to the fashion industry is probably a bit of an act. There’s that famous line in The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda Priestley says: “You're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back.” Men do that. They say: “I don’t care what I wear, my wife chooses it for me.” But if you’ve chosen what you’ve worn that day and how you’re wearing it, then you like fashion. My friends back in Essex are gilet mad at the moment. When I’m down the pub with them and they’re all in their gilets, it’s funny to see how the look has filtered its way down from high fashion and catwalks to Moncler and then M&S or Reiss.

For the D&G Light Blue campaign, I remember going straight from a catwalk show to Naples to meet the photographer Mario Testino. The next day we were on a speedboat to Capri for the shoot. It was frightening really, but I suppose I was also thinking, “Now this is what I expected from modelling!” At the time, we knew we were creating something very different, so it was exciting too.

I was very loyal to Dolce & Gabbana. When it came to other brands wanting to shoot me – such as Valentino who hadn’t wanted to shoot me before – my attitude was, no, now I’m D&G and I’m loyal to them. Massimo Dutti supported me early on too, so I’ve always been loyal to them. If you’re loyal to brands they’ll show that loyalty back – because everything you do is about building longevity. As Cindy Crawford always said, “I don’t want a one-night stand, I want a marriage with a brand.” I always thought that was a very clever way of putting it. She really pioneered that and she did things like Playboy, which no one else would have done. Of course, as soon as she did it, everyone else wanted to. She went on to do interiors stuff, then presenting and TV work, so she really thought outside the box and was very clever. 

And never underestimate the amount of money you’ll need to start a business. In most cases, you’ll need to quadruple the amount you think you’ll need to raise. Also, a lot of people think owning 51% of their company means they’re in full control. They’re not – you need 71% for that. Make sure you or you and someone you trust very much have 71% between you – then you’ll have full control. I’ve seen it in other businesses where founders pretty much have to sell the company.

Everyone thinks marketing is cheap now because of social media. It’s not. It’s expensive and you’re not getting as much from it as before. This is why so many brands are looking at going old school and taking out billboards. Everyone assumes that everyone’s on social media, but my ten friends back in Essex? Half of them are not on Instagram, so social marketing isn’t going to filter down to them. It’s a certain age group – a family man in his 40s – we want to reach, so how do we get to him? Billboards at stations, as he’s still going to be commuting or driving. But that’s brutally expensive – and you can’t analyse its impact like you can with social media.