MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT

Top model agent Carole White

CarOle White, 66, founder of Premier Model Management, is widely considered to have created the concept of the supermodel in the Nineties. She has represented Naomi Campbell, linda evangelista, Christy turlington and Cindy Crawford. MY LIGHTBULB moment happened the way I suspect many people’s do — by being made redundant.

It was 1981 and I was working in London at a model agency called Bobtons, which went bust.

I still remember clearly finding out I’d lost my job because it was just before Christmas.

But, while it was a terrible shock, in that moment I also knew I wanted to start my own agency.

I was good at persuading clients to hire girls and at persuading girls to do what the clients wanted.

At Bobtons, the owner left me to do the day-to-day running of the business, and you can’t do that — you have to know what’s going on.

So I went to my brother with my idea and he lent me £10,000. Ten days later we launched Premier out of his front room.

I think it’s fair to say that however big Premier has got since then, I’ve always remained front and centre of the business.

In fact, Naomi Campbell used to call me ‘Mum’ so you can see how involved I was with the models on a day-to-day basis. Although Naomi and I parted company in 2008, I don’t regret any of the 17 years we spent together — I learnt a lot from her.

The big thing I did get wrong was not signing Kate Moss. She came in to see me and I turned her down because I just thought she was too short. She’s the one who got away.

I have two bits of advice that I often give people who ask how I’ve survived so long in such a tough world.

Number one is, always think ‘what if . . . ?’ It’s not paranoid, it’s clever.

Second is to sleep on a problem. Some of my best solutions have come to me in my dreams.

CarOle White’S memoir, have i Said too Much? My life in and Out Of the Model agency, is out now