Scotland's Model Teenager

You know, Connor kind of landed on Planet Fashion,

and it was like, you know, two orbits colliding.

He's so unique.

I've never seen anyone that looks like him.

He's beautiful and ugly and crazy-looking

and angelic-looking.

The ears are what got me, and then there's the mouth

and the eyes and the, sort of, heaviness in his brow.

But it all comes together.

He's not the bad boy he looks like.

-Yeah.

-He is the sweetest boy in a bad boy face.

When you see a picture of him, you just stare at it.

There's not been as much interest about a model ever.

I wouldn't like it to be...last five years

and then, all of a sudden, dumped.

18-year-old Connor Newall is from the Govan area of Glasgow.

He started modelling when he was 16,

and has had a meteoric rise into the

upper echelons of the fashion world.

Now everyone wants a piece of him.

But who is this model teenager,

and how did he go from Govan schoolboy

to fashion icon?

My mum is a home help worker.

My dad is a shipbuilder in the Govan shipyards.

My big sister Denise, she's just got a different job every two seconds.

My older brother Andrew, who's in the British Army,

he's been in the Army six years.

And my little sister Morgan, she's in first year of high school.

And I'm the second-youngest, and I'm a model.

I was casting a short film

for Knife Crime Scotland.

The director was very keen for me to street cast

and visit secondary schools to find some new faces.

I was on my way out of the door,

saying goodbye to the headteacher,

when the school bell rang.

My boy came down the stairs just as I was about to leave,

and I quickly asked the headteacher, "Can you stop that boy?"

And it was Connor.

Claire Catterson had cast him in a commercial

and sent some pictures to us.

Within pressing the button, send, of the e-mail,

my phone rings and he said, "Where is he?

"I want him in the office."

It absolutely was one of those moments when you open an e-mail

and, you know,

the hairs on your arms just stand up.

It was, like, a Saturday morning.

I was still, like, hungover.

It was an unknown caller, he called me, said,

"I'm Michael O'Brien. I'm from Model Team Glasgow.

"I'm a model scout." I was like...

"Why is this guy calling me?"

He just looked completely different, completely different to everybody.

I thought he was joking so I was going to hang up the phone.

He said, "Can I meet you?" I said, "OK, when?"

He said, "I'll call you a cab right now."

And, before I even met him,

I'd sent the images down to some friends in London.

Michael from Model Team called me up one day and said, "Listen,

"you're going to think I'm crazy,

"but I've just seen the pictures of this boy from Glasgow.

"He's really short. He's quite peculiar-looking.

"But I think there's something really special about him."

And he e-mails me these pictures.

And then the phone started ringing.

And, to be honest, it's never stopped.

Michael O'Brien signed Connor up immediately

and became his main agent,

commonly known in the fashion business as the mother agent.

I think it was about an hour later, Michael phoned.

He went, "Are you sitting down?" I went, "What's wrong?"

He went, "GQ has come in for Connor and Alexander McQueen."

I was still in the fifth year of high school.

Michael called me, my phone was ringing, so I had to, like,

duck down and go on the phone,

and Michael said, "OK, what are you doing right now?"

"Yeah, I'm in Maths, doing a test."

He's like, "OK, you have to tell your teacher

"you need to go to London the now."

I was like, "Miss..."

"What is it, Connor?"

"I need to go to London."

He was in London the next day shooting his first editorial.

So it blew up very quickly.

Connor quickly became known as the editorial king.

Editorials include magazine front covers

and several pages of differing looks.

Connor's first job

was July 14th, and he booked GQ,

which was amazing.

They hadn't met him,

they hadn't cast him.

They just, based on two pictures, booked him on this.

Michael came with me for the first time I went to Paris,

which was a day shoot for Vogue Homme.

He then booked Vogue Italia.

He has now shot Vogue Italia three or four times.

He's getting nine, ten covers.

I did the cover of 10 Men,

a cover of Varon,

cover of L'Officiel,

cover of Client, cover of Off Black.

He was going to Paris, Milan, all over the place,

shooting these editorials -

all, you know, his first month of modelling, basically.

I was walking in the Duomo Square in Milan

and they've got, like, stalls, and they had magazines at the top,

so it was like the best magazines of the month.

It was, like, Ben Stiller for GQ, Leonardo Dicaprio for Men's Health,

Rihanna for Vogue,

Justin Bieber for GQ and then me for L'Officiel.

So that was mind-blowing to see.

When you're buying the magazines,

people, like, are looking at you like,

"Is this you?" I was like, "Yeah. It's me."

These first two months

of high-end editorials and covers

propelled Connor onto the radar

of agents around the world.

Suddenly, the big guns started coming in

and those where the agencies we wanted to work with.

I see this kid with ears

and just a super-interesting face,

and it just really grabbed my attention.

So I clicked on his photo

and it was like, "Wow!"

I rang Michael -

as had several other agents in New York, I came to find out -

and had a really good connection with Michael.

I gave him my word that I would take care of him as one of my own.

We are the mother agent, so we manage him and, you know,

depending on how successful that model might be,

they may have one or two agents.

Connor has ten.

The level of interest in Connor was

unprecedented and soon he was being

courted by the international fashion

designers Dean and Dan Caten of the

global brand Dsquared.

I actually found him on Instagram.

I said, "There's a really cool picture of this really cool kid."

"Oh, wow, who's this?" And then I started going deeper,

and then I actually remembered seeing him in some editorials

in some British magazines that I liked.

He has his own Connor catalogue.

His own Connor catalogue for Dsquared.

The reason that we chose him to actually shoot

our classic collection is because the classic collection

is quite tailored and quite proper

and quite classic so, by using a face

like his, it's something so interesting.

It's a contrast.

He's not the bad boy he looks like.

-Yeah.

-He's the sweetest boy in a bad boy face.

He's very much a chameleon in front of the camera.

He has an understanding,

which is quite rare,

especially with someone as young as he is,

to be able to,

you know, take the clothes and act,

give them what they want.

He's peculiar and fascinating to look at.

And he photographs so well that, when you see a picture of him,

you just stare at it.

He's beautiful and ugly

and crazy-looking,

and angelic-looking.

You want to maintain a certain modesty about

what he's achieved because he hasn't really touched

what he's capable of doing, which is very exciting.

Connor is adapting to this massive change in lifestyle,

and so are his family in Govan,

but there's still a fear about the bubble bursting.

Doesn't really happen for anybody who comes fae this area.

I never thought anything like that would happen

because he's from Govan.

Doesn't need much talent to become a model, I wouldn't think.

If you've got looks,

you know how stand in front of a camera, then fair enough.

I don't look upon it as a...a career.

Maybe I should.

I wouldn't like it to last five years and, all of a sudden, dumped.

And then it'll be a case of, "Right, OK,

"I need to go and start packing shelves in Asda."

It's early 2017.

Connor is visiting his mother agent in Glasgow's West End

with his mum Betty and sister Morgan to get the lowdown on what's ahead

in the coming weeks.

We have tomorrow,

you're going to go to Madrid, OK?

Four o'clock plane.

You are shooting for GQ, their main summer story,

and it's just you.

You're an option on Monday to shoot Stone Island.

That will be in London. There's one more brand and that is in New York.

That's Andrew's wall and that's Connor's wall.

This was...Armani.

Ralph Lauren shoot, so it was.

This was Peacebird.

There was an advert in New York

for a Korean brand.

That is Tim Walker's shoot, which I love.

I think it's a brilliant shoot.

Connor, you'd better go up and get packed for Madrid.

-I will.

-Now.

-Hola.

-Hola, buenas.

First time in Madrid.

I've been to Barcelona, Alicante, never Madrid.

If it wasn't for my job, I wouldn't...

I probably wouldn't have been to half of these countries.

Shot for GQ a lot of times, and I'm always excited for it.

First time GQ Spain,

so I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of clothes

and what the story is about.

-Hi, how are you?

-Ana.

Nice to meet you. Hiya. Nice to meet you.

How are you?

Hi, nice to meet you. Connor.

This is Prada.

Clothes you would never see in, like, stores and that,

you get them here.

So this would be...

1,000 euro.

I'd probably get battered and they'd take it off me

if I was in Govan.

There's a good, like, 50 grand or something just in this room,

on these racks.

It's insane.

It's going to be a long day, though.

See, modelling's not a walk in the park, man.

Modelling's hard.

It's now 10.20

and we've been here since 11 this morning.

It's been a long, long day.

Tired, man.

Towards the end of the GQ shoot,

Connor gets a phone call from Michael back in Glasgow.

It's news about a worldwide advertising campaign.

This could be a massive opportunity for Connor.

Stone Island?

I booked the Stone Island campaign.

I remember I couldn't even afford to buy Stone Island.

Now I'm going to be on billboards in Times Square and Milan.

It was a big, big surprise that I got it.

# Aren't you something to admire

# Cos you're shining somethin' like a mirror

# And I can't help but notice

# You're reflecting this heart of mine. #

You know, it's a complete roll call of photographers

that he's been, you know, incredibly lucky to work with.

In 2016,

Connor worked with Barcelona-based

photographer Teddy Iborra Wicksteed

for the Spanish magazine Metal.

His look is absolutely...

..timeless.

My team and I were so, so, so confident

of doing something so different with him.

Like...taking out

of the green Scotland

and taken into the deep Turkish sun.

He knows he's different.

I've kind of started to see what people are so interested in me now,

but at first, like, I didn't.

I just see myself as, like, a normal guy.

People see things that

I've never seen in my face.

The cover picture was never supposed to be

a cover, but when the editors saw the images, we got

20 pages and two covers.

Connor has a few rare days off at home in Govan

before his next shoot in New York.

The lack of routine and structure in his life

is completely different from his dad's work at the Govan shipyards.

I think he could work harder at it.

I think, over the last few months, he's got a wee bit complacent.

He's got to take more care of his body, I've told him,

go join a gymnasium and do these type of things,

but sometimes he can be lying in his bed until 11 in the morning.

I go across to the park with the dog and I train for an hour myself

and I come home and get a shower, go to the football.

I said to him, "You get up and come with me.

"Come and just get out of the house, keep yourself active."

I just don't think he's doing that enough, you know?

I didn't realise he was going to be as big as he was.

And that's... Again, that's my biggest fear,

is that he's getting bigger and bigger and bigger,

and I'm waiting till it gets to a peak and then it goes...

How high can he go? What's it going to lead to?

Connor doesn't realise... No' being big-headed or stuff like that,

and he's no',

but I've been trying to say to him, Michael said he's a public figure.

So he's got to watch what he's doing,

watch what he's saying, you know,

and really take in, you know, what he is.

Connor's work means that he now inhabits

a different world from his friends

and family, a world of celebrities,

top fashion designers and photographers.

His Glaswegian down-to-earth nature and lack of awareness of who many of

the movers and shakers in the fashion world are

is part of his charm.

I was trying an outfit on and this old lady was just in the corner,

I was talking to her, and she was just like relaxing, cos she looked

so tired, and I said to her,

"By the way, nice to meet you, I'm Connor."

And she said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Vivienne Westwood."

So I was like...kind of shell-shocked,

I kind of froze for about 20 seconds, I was like...

"All right, bye."

I was at the Philipp Plein party in Milan,

Busta Rhymes was there as well,

and I know Busta Rhymes from when I was, like, a kid, like,

his music and stuff like that.

And I turned round, and just like... His eyes just locked on to me.

He pushed his bodyguard out of the way,

said, "Watch the room," and said...

Told me to come here and said,

"Put your head back and open your mouth."

I was like, "What?"

So I put my head back and opened my mouth

and he poured champagne down my throat.

Then I was like... He gave us a fist bump at the end of it,

so I was happy with that.

-Who is this guy?

-Busta Rhymes.

-Busta Rhymes.

Busta Rhymes, who's he?

See...Halloween, the one where they go into the house

and he's got the cameras and that set up...

-Your dad's not seen that.

-No, never mind.

He's an actor, rapper, rapper/actor.

I'd like to go to New York, Los Angeles.

And when he was in the restaurant, at the hotel,

and sat and had dinner with Ringo Starr,

-you know, I was like...

-Aye.

That'd be great, you know?

I was in LA for the first time,

so we went for dinner in the lobby of the hotel,

and so I looked over, and it was Ringo Starr's birthday dinner,

which was...mental, man,

cos, like, I'm sitting having dinner next to one of the Beatles.

In 2016,

celebrity Paris Hilton came to see

Connor in the Marcelo Burlon fashion show in Milan.

She got a photo of me, and she was, like, so prepared,

cos she was steaming, she, like, had the handbag

and she took her sunglasses out,

and took, like, a light and hold it under her face, she was like,

"OK, go, I'm ready."

And then she just turned round and smacked the lips on me.

Aye.

You know, he's working with all these amazing people,

and for Connor's career,

something like Instagram

just may extend it further,

it may give him four, five years more.

We have to get the balance right between, you know,

Connor enjoying his teenage years and being a normal kid,

which he should absolutely be allowed to do,

but also thinking about his career

as a model and, yeah,

of course that involves creating

a brand, you know, Brand Connor,

which does mean we have to think about things like his social media.

It's all about finding a good balance,

and I think we're all winging it.

He met with Dan and Dean from Dsquared, had lunch with them,

they flew him to Milan, he did a small job for them,

they took him out to a restaurant.

I said, "Where's the picture?"

"Oh, I didn't get one." Like...

"Are you mad?"

He came to Milan, we did the fitting,

then we have a restaurant on the roof of our building.

It was just genuinely so much fun, such nice guys to work with,

they're really funny.

I was, like, drinking martinis and all that,

and they're just really nice guys.

They took me up to their private restaurant,

the secret elevator, like,

the back elevator so no-one can see them come in cos otherwise people

would notice them, so, like, we sat in like a booth.

It's a roof top and there's, like, two pools on each side,

like, you could see the whole of Milan.

I think we had a lot in common, too.

-Weirdly enough.

-In a strange way.

Yeah, in a strange way, I think we have a lot in common, as characters.

I mean, we came from very little and kind of made our career,

not thinking everything's difficult.

-Dreaming it.

-Dreaming it, and so I've think he, in the same sense,

you know, we feel that thing about becoming something that you always

wanted to be or, you know, you dream of,

and then it kind of comes true.

I think that's happening for Connor. I think it happened for us.

All of Connor's work so far has taken him away from home,

travelling alone often to work with people he's never met before.

Being away fae your family and that, like, months at a time,

four months at a time,

and I hardly even get to talk to them,

that's hard and that, cos you miss them and, like,

the more I travelled, I was getting kind of sick of it.

I was getting quite annoyed cos I didn't like...

I still don't like being away, but not as much.

I mean, you're in a hotel, you don't speak the language.

OK, you're there, you've checked into a hotel.

It sounds very glamorous -

room service, and this and that, and the other -

but you're still there alone.

You know, I've sometimes looked at his chart and thought,

"OK, he shoots in Paris on Monday -

"is there a flight at seven o'clock to Milan?"

Because he's shooting there the next day.

"And is there a flight at least at nine o'clock that night

"to Germany, to Munich?

"And then he has to be in New York on the Friday."

And you also have to take into account...he's young.

When you're jumping on planes, you know, six, seven times,

not even a month, sometimes, you know, in the space of two weeks,

it does have an effect.

Managing Connor and his hectic schedule

has become a collaboration between his agents and family.

We formed Team Connor,

so it would be me, Michael, obviously,

from Model Team, and Betty at home,

who would talk to each other constantly

to make sure that Connor was doing everything he should be doing,

everything was running smoothly,

that he was happy and being taken care of.

It was a lot of teamwork between the three of us.

I'll always, like, phone Connor, and say, "Are you up?"

"Oh, I'm in the shower." I say, "Right, fine," and I'm settled,

and I know that he's on his way.

You got to, kind of, keep pushing Connor.

It's no' a glamorous job. I think a lot of people think,

"Oh, you're just travelling about the world," but it's no' really.

I mean, I think he sometimes may have felt I was more of a jailer...

..than his mother agent, cos I would phone and say,

"Go to your bed.

"And, you know, I need someone at reception to let me know

"that you're in your room, and you stay there."

At times, Connor might think we're all moaning at him,

but we're no' - we're just trying to keep him on the right road.

It's the day before Connor travels to New York

to shoot for the G-Star campaign,

and his brother Andrew is home on leave from the Army.

The only famous person to come out of Govan

that I know is Alex Ferguson.

Just needs to keep it up and don't take anything for granted.

The last thing I want him to do is get there

and then...he mucks it up.

I've just got a job, straight from high school.

I feel like I've not done any part of my life,

I've not grafted like my da,

my brother or anything, I've no' worked hard in my life.

I just feel I've been given this job so...

I feel like, I feel a bit, em...

It's unfair, some of the time,

cos I did rubbish in school.

So...you know, I've just got one of the best jobs in the world.

Somebody's actually recognised him and thought it was me.

At, like, pubs and all that, they're like,

"Oh, you're the...the model, aren't you?"

"No, I'm the other one." They're like, "All right."

Don't want to know me!

But I feel like the Army has done a bit for me.

It's a special job, it's something to be proud of,

but then I'm going to leave it just to do a normal scaffolding job.

I don't want to him to come out and just have a normal life.

He's got a job doing something brilliant.

Whenever I go to New York, I take his ID with me cos he's 21.

-Do you?!

-Yeah, I took your passport a couple of times.

-Have you?!

-I didnae know that!

-I told...

Well, I needed to get... I wasn't going there and not partying so...

I took his passport because he's 21.

-I didn't even know that!

-Aye.

I've took it a few times, just to go into pubs.

I've got a decent few mates to hang about with there.

Just wish somebody was coming with us cos it's better having company.

I'd love to go to New York.

It'd be brilliant. I think I was going to go one time,

but I couldn't get time off.

Do you know when I'm coming back from New York?

-ON PHONE:

-Fly back...on Sunday, the 30th, which is a week on Sunday.

Down to London, and you're supposed to be shooting

a cover of a Korean magazine on the Monday or Tuesday,

hopefully the Monday.

And then you can come home Monday night,

unless something else crops up in London.

And I know Sarah's got a pile of castings for you in New York.

So all is looking good.

Don't take lots of clothes with you to New York, the weather's a bit...

I think it's like 60, 70 degrees,

check on your iPhone for next week.

So it should be warmish.

But take a raincoat, OK?

-Aye, aye.

-And an umbrella.

-Take your Celtic umbrella.

-Aye, so I will.

-Perfect.

That umbrella does not exist.

-And get your maw's RainMate, you'll be fine.

-Right!

THEY LAUGH

So have a safe flight and I'll speak to you later.

-Right.

-Take care.

-Cheers, Michael.

-Bye, son.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye.

New York.

Ever since the first day I came here, I've always stayed with Sarah.

She's like my second mum because, like,

I don't really stay with any of my agents anywhere else.

I do have two sons, so he's smack in the middle

with their...with the ages.

Connor usually fits quite well

on to one of my couches in the living room.

He rolls up and it's like he never left.

He's part of our family.

The address is 465, West Broadway.

We're in Brooklyn, now, which is

where the apartment is that I stay.

Connor's running late -

his hair has to be taken back to its natural colour

in the salon in Soho, Manhattan,

then he has to head back to Brooklyn for a fitting.

# In the mirror! #

I never met Connor.

I'd seen his pictures.

We kind of just...thought he'd be so great.

I'm glad you guys picked me. Thank you very much.

-You're very welcome.

-Thank you.

Well, you look like you've been carved.

You know, out of almost a piece of wood!

With sparkle added.

That's a tattoo for my mum. A Christmas present.

It says "Always on my mind, forever in my heart," and "Mum".

He's a grateful young man, he's very respectful,

he's a good boy.

He's on the wave now, he needs to ride the wave,

and he needs to, like, boom, boom, boom,

get it out and, like, push it, push it, push it.

Connor's always said that he wants to get into acting,

so that's his long-term goal.

I would think that the directors in the UK...

..in Hollywood, would just fall in love with him,

as everyone else in our industry has.

I'm pushing that, and I know Michael's pushing that as well.

Connor is always going to be Connor.

No, I don't think he'll let anything get to his head.

It would have happened already.

He's become a phenomenon. An absolute phenomenon.

He's probably one of the most successful boys

Scotland has ever produced.

He's just a nice kid. He's been well brought up.

# I've been reading books of old... #

Down here, whenever I'm down here,

it reminds me of the River Clyde, a wee bit.

Apart from seeing, like, the jet ski boats and that going past.

A great experience coming here, man.

I would have never come here if it wasn't for my job.

It's a dream to come here, so...

And to be working here, doing photoshoots, everything,

it's...mind-blowing, man.

No matter what, I'd never be arrogant or stuck-up,

plus if I was even to try and become big-headed,

my mum would kick my arse.

Aye. No, but I'd never, never want to, never will be, because...

I'll always be fae Glasgow, and Govan.