Interview with David Gandy
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About David Gandy
English model known as the face of Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue fragrance. He also designs clothing, including his own label, David Gandy Wellwear.
These answers are taken from David Gandy: Inside the Life of a Male Supermodel on First Things THRST With Mike Thurston's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
When did you start modeling?
It's been a while in the industry. Coming up to 25 years now. I started when I was 21. Nearly. I was late 21, nearly 22.
That's quite late, even for a guy. Especially these days they seem to be getting younger and younger, but I think with guys it's slightly different. Girls are a lot younger, something I don't really agree with. Some of the girls can start very, very early, at 14, 15. And they are scouting guys and bringing them in at 16, 17. Quite young. Too young, I think, personally.
What drew you to a career as a model?
No, not at all. I was put into a competition on TV by a housemate at university. Never. I was intrigued by the fashion industry is all I could say, but I didn't know anything more about it than anyone else, really. It definitely wasn't an aspirational thing to say you want to be a model.
And actually lots of the guys who were doing very well at the time, the older guys, would never say they were in modeling. They would say they're in advertising or marketing. It was kind of like the Zoolander days as well, so you kind of didn't really want to do that. No one really admitted to it. I always did. Not to the point I went around saying I'm a male model, but I said I'm in fashion or I'm a model. And now it's a very aspirational thing to do.
What do you enjoy most about modeling?
We've lost a lot of brilliant creative. I grew up in the fashion industry with Mario Testinos and Bruce Webers and Avedons and Steven Meisels, and that's why you had the coffee table books. They were changing fashion. When someone stands out, they've thought about the creative. We try and do that with all the brands, which is why I go on sometimes as a creative director as well, because I want to still create. I still love being part of that process.
It's very, very widespread, going from 10, 20 different things. That's my aim, though, and that's what I enjoy. I always say when I haven't got anything to do is the scariest time. This very rarely happens, but my mental well-being doesn't take well to not doing much at all. So I've always got a few things on.
How did your career as a model unfold?
When I explain to the younger generation now, I say: look, I started in 2000, and in 2006 I got the Dolce. That's five years of graft, of being denied, being laughed at when you're walking in, can't fit suits on, just being told you're not right for this, you're not right for that. Casting after casting after casting, going to New York, going to Milan, just trying to make something happen.
When I did my first ever Dolce & Gabbana campaign, the apparel campaign, not the Light Blue, I got paid 900 euros. I had to have an extra night in a hotel that they refused to pay for, and that cost me 300. So by the time I actually got paid and paid my agency, I probably had 100 quid in my pocket. But it leads to something. It's all part of the bigger plan, and it puts you in the focus of the fashion industry.
About four years in, Ralph Lauren booked me for a job. They wanted me out in the States. I loved Ralph Lauren. I was like, this is it, this is the one I wanted. And as I was literally going out the door, they went, 'Canceled you.' I sat down and went, 'I can't do this anymore.'
What advice do you have for new models?
People want to have the benefits of everything they're seeing on social and in life, but they don't want to have the commitment to get there. When I talk to young guys about modeling, I say, well, imagine five years like this. And they go, 'Oh God, so I'm not really earning in five years?' Not much, straight away. That's not an appealing concept to them.
It depends on what your idea of success is. Within the modeling industry, the amount of people that actually make a good living and have the longevity of a 20-year career is absolutely tiny. People perceive that you're making tens of thousands a day and it's all going well, and that's simply not the case. It's not for the faint-hearted, and it's not for you if you want to know where your money is coming from.
Being patient is one of the most important qualities of anyone. That patience to wait and the perseverance to get somewhere, and the reward for getting there, is something you can't underestimate.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as a model?
I did something different within the game. I looked at where the male models were and saw this glass ceiling, and why were we not breaking through that to be on level terms with the female supermodels. So I branded. Everyone is talking about that now, it's used far too much, but I kind of did it myself.
Saying no to a lot of things. Saying no is, I always say, the most important thing. When we did Dolce, all these brands that didn't want you before wanted you to do stuff, and there was quite a pleasure in saying no, because my loyalty was then to Dolce. I've always been happy to disappear for a while and then come back doing something big. The people I respect are the people I don't really know anything about, the Daniel Day-Lewises, the Daniel Craigs. Their personal lives I know nothing about, and I really like that.
Describe your style.
I didn't fit into anything, because the average sample size was a 30-inch waist and a 36, maybe a 38, in chest. I was always bigger than that anyway. Back in the androgynous days I would try things and I wouldn't be able to get trousers past my knee, and they would go, 'Nope.' Everyone said, 'You've got to get smaller.' And I didn't. I just got bigger. You get to a certain point where the clothes are then fitted to you or made for you.
I always felt better a certain size. I always trained for me. I didn't train for the industry. But I'd be a tailor's nightmare sometimes. They'd measure me two months later and say, 'You've suddenly gone wide.' I'm like, 'Oh yeah, I've been training for two months.'
Tell me about a shoot or a show that was hard to pull off. What was it and why was it challenging?
I had a thing called golfer's elbow. Ironically, I hate golf. I can't play golf. It started to give me some grief before training for the underwear, but you can't stop. So I was literally training through it, taking painkillers to be able to train through it. I couldn't stop. There was no way. I couldn't just go, 'Sorry, guys, let's AI my body.' So I just carried on through, and of course I really hurt it.
The only thing I have done is salt depletion, and I've just done it for the underwear campaign we've just shot. I don't do it to extreme. I literally do one day of drinking water, getting all the salt out, and then one day of dehydration, shooting. And the couple of days before a shoot, I'm onto carbs, because it pumps you up a bit.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
I'm quite a solitary person, to be honest. I love my friends and everything else, but I do love my solitary moments. My wife is exactly the opposite. She needs crowds and people and friends and chatting. If we go to big parties together, she gets a buzz from that, and it drains me. People would think that I'm just being rude, but my social battery is empty. I need to leave.
I've had 20 years in the industry of being by myself, literally flying, traveling, eating everything alone. You get accustomed to that, and actually being with people is quite an oddity. I'd quite happily go into a restaurant and eat by myself. And I'm naturally shy.
What are some of your professional goals for the future?
The general idea is for David Gandy Wellwear to become its own entity. This is why we still use other models on the website. Yes, I will be in the campaigns, and sometimes we bring other models in to be in the campaigns with me. I'm not necessarily designing clothes for me.
And I want to eventually get to that point where we give that opportunity to young guys. Marvin is one I'm very proud of. He came in quite young, quite shy, innocent, and never took a bad picture. By the third time he had a couple of years under his belt and more confidence. Then I was watching the Dolce & Gabbana show and he was down the runway in a small pair of pants. So I literally texted him and went, 'Welcome to the Dolce & Gabbana pants club.' I was so proud that we may have been part of getting him there. Other brands did it for me, and that's what I would like my brand to do for other guys.
David Gandy's Full Biography
David James Gandy was born in Billericay, Essex, England, to Brenda Janet (Rabey) and Christopher A. Gandy, who ran a property and freight company. He is of English, and some Scottish, descent. After winning a television modeling competition at the age of 21, David Gandy was signed to Select Model Management in London. Selected as the lead male by Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana, David starred in numerous D & G campaigns and runway shows between 2006 and 2012. He became best-known as the face of their fragrance, "Light Blue". The duo featured Gandy in two special projects: their 2008 Calendar and "David Gandy by Dolce & Gabbana," a 280-page photographic book dedicated to their six years of collaboration.
Once David achieved international name recognition, he diversified into other activities such as regularly writing a blog for British Vogue and car reviews for British GQ. Twice Gandy has represented British style and the men's fashion industry as a speaker at the Oxford Union. In 2012, he was appointed to serve on the British Fashion Council's Committee for London Collections: Men.
The Spanish edition of a leading fashion magazine awarded David "Most Beautiful International Male" in 2008. British Fashion Council has nominated him for "Model of the Year" twice: 2010 and 2012. During the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, he was the only male to model British fashion alongside Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and other female models. In 2012 and again in 2013, Gandy was included in the Evening Standard's "1,000 Most Influential People in London." British GQ has repeatedly named him one of the "50 Best Dressed Men in Britain."
David's other pursuits include racing in the Mille Miglia, creating two mobile apps (the David Gandy Men's Style Guide and the David Gandy Fitness Guide) and charity work with Battersea Dogs & Cats Home as their first celebrity Ambassador. Gandy also launched his own non-profit foundation, the "Blue Steel Appeal" to raise money for Red Nose Day/Comic Relief.