BY DESIGN : Q & A : NINA BLANCHARD

N ina Blanchard is throwing in the facial tissue. On Wednesday, the woman who discovered Cheryl Tiegs and Rene Russo signed over her Los Angeles modeling agency to New York powerhouse Ford Models. Two days before her retirement party--when she should have been cleaning out her desk, picking through paper clips and the accumulated mementos of the past three decades--she was wound tighter than an Ace bandage. In between issuing orders to her staff and fielding dozens of phone calls, she indulged in a nostalgic tour of modeling through the ages.

Question: How long has it been?

Answer: Thirty-four years, and I’m worn to a nub.

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Q: Is that why you’re leaving?

A: No, I’m tired of telling people “no.” It wore me down, rejecting people, to keep saying “no.” There may not be anything wrong with them other than they’re not model material, but in the final analysis, I’ve turned them down.

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Q: And in your capacity as a consultant to Ford Models, you won’t have to do that anymore?

A: I won’t be here at all. They don’t need me. They’re a huge name. And that’s what it takes to be successful now. The business has become so international, so global, you have to have offices in New York, Paris, Milan, one in Miami and one here. Ford stayed out of Los Angeles ‘cause I was here.

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Q: Was this by agreement?

A: Yes. There was always an allegiance and friendship there.

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Q: When did you and Eileen (Ford) become friends? Did you know her in New York before you came to California?

A: No, in New York I was a struggling actress. Then my husband and I came to Los Angeles. He was sick and I had to go to work.

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Q: Maybe you’d better start at the beginning.

A: I started at a tiny modeling agency that was part of a school, as a receptionist. That lasted not very long. Then I worked for another school. Then a friend of mine, a model, said, “You should be an agent.” Her husband, Hugh French, a publicist, handled big stars like Elizabeth Taylor. He was a love. He loaned me a tiny office and I was off and flying blind.

The big thing in town then was commercials. So I specialized in print and commercials. I was the first to do that.

After about six or eight months, Hugh said I had to move out. He needed that office. I had no money or credit. Someone said go to the Jewish Free Loan. I said, I’m not Jewish. They said go anyway. So I went. They loaned me $180. It covered first and last month’s rent on an office next to the old Bistro in Beverly Hills. It was a dinky little office.

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Q: How old were you then?

A: Forget it, I’m not telling you how old I was. Let’s just say I wasn’t 11.

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Q: Right, older than 11.

A: Not 11. The first big name I got was Dolores Hawkins. For that day, nobody was bigger. She moved out here from New York and called me. She wanted to come by the office. I told her, “No, to be honest, the office is a rat hole.” She said, “Listen, I’m with Eileen Ford in New York. It’s not the size of the chandelier, but how good an agent you are.” I signed her and was smart enough to have (head sheet) cards made up on her. Other models came to me because they thought if she was with me, I must be somebody.

Then I signed Peggy Moffitt. (Designer) Rudi Gernreich told Peggy to come see me. She was No. 13. I had 13 girls, 11 were total neophytes, two were professionals--Dolores and Peggy. Then I went to New York.

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Q: Why did you have to go to New York?

A: Because you had to have relationships with agencies in New York and Paris, or have offices in those cities. That way when the models from New York came to L.A., I could book them on shoots here. Anyway, I went to New York with pictures of my 13 girls. When I called Vogue they said, “Oh, California--isn’t that where they dye their shoes to match their clothes?”

Two people were nice to me. Eileen Ford was nice to me. The other person was (actress) Ali MacGraw. She was a stylist or whatever for Melvin Sokolsky, the photographer. She was precious to me, couldn’t have been nicer. Ali and I have stayed friends since then.

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Q: What were models like Dolores making then?

A: About $30 an hour. Dolores might have gotten $50. In those days, the early ‘60s, famous models like Suzy Parker were not jet-setting or dating rock stars. They were known within the industry, but not like they are today.

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Q: When did that change?

A: In the ‘70s. I think the look of magazines changed. They no longer had wonderful, great fashion pictures by Hiro and Penn. I noticed it first in Harper’s Bazaar, sometime in the mid-’60s with the jumping girls. There was all this movement to the fashion shots. And they were using new models. Some of the girls were, ah, let’s say, more colorful. They got involved with rock stars, and they started living a different lifestyle.

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Q: Was this good for the business but bad for the girl?

A: The fast life may have hurt individual girls, but it didn’t hurt the industry. That’s when rates skyrocketed, when the models became superstars.

I remember the day I felt the change. There was a model, and I think her rate at the time was $1,500 a day. A department store called and wanted to book her on a shoot. I asked for $5,000 a day. They paid it. Now, today, they can make $15,000 to $30,000 a day. And these are just the star models, not the superstars.

Superstars can make--well, let’s put it this way: Recently I can remember a model being flown from Milan to Rome to work one fashion show and she was paid $60,000-- for one fashion show. Then there are major cosmetics contracts. They’re huge.

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Q: Are the models worth the money?

A: No question about it. For example, the girl (Jenny Brunt) who is doing the I’m-too-sexy thing for Revlon, Revlon sales have shot up. She’s worth every penny to them.

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Q: Has the big money colored the way people do business?

A: Yes. The first 10 years were a lot of fun. Then I gained a little success and it got tougher. The second 10 years I made more money, but the humor went out of the business. Everything was money, money, money. Other agencies moved into town and the competition got fierce. Agencies would solicit girls from other agencies. It became slightly ugly, and I didn’t like that.

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Q: What about the look of the models--haven’t there been a lot of changes there?

A: The ethnic ones, you mean? It’s still a hard battle. I want to see the end of calls where a client says, “Send me cards on women, no ethnics.” Unfortunately, they still do.

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Q: That’s horrifying.

A: In the ‘60s, they would never book black girls for ads that ran in the South. One girl was very angry. I told her, “I can’t force anybody to use you. If you feel a store is not using enough ethnic models, picket the damn store.” That is the only thing that will make them shape up.

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Q: What about the age of the models--aren’t they getting younger? Or am I just getting older?

A: Models are not any younger. Erin Gray started at 14, Christina Ferrare at 14, Lindsay Wagner at 12. The difference is, they used to start in Seventeen or Teen magazines. Now, the 14-year-olds start out on the cover of Vogue, looking 40.

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Q: Did you ever scout for models, approach girls at airports or places like that?

A: No, I discovered a lot of big names--Rene Russo, Cheryl Tiegs--but I never approached them. They either walked in off the street or were sent by a friend.

I won’t lie. I did approach a young woman once, in 1966. I was at a wedding. There was a beautiful bridesmaid, and I told her she should be a model. I booked her on a commercial for a car company. There was a malfunction of the camera, it came loose, and went through the windshield and decapitated her. I never approached another girl. It left such a horrible feeling. I kept thinking if I hadn’t approached her, she might still be alive.

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Q: Are model searches a way to find new talent?

A: I don’t approve of them. There may be a legitimate search, but too many of them will tell a 32-year-old, 5-foot, 2-inch woman she can be a model. They are rife with scams. Beginning models don’t need a portfolio. All they need is snapshots to go in and see the big legitimate agencies. If they are the right height, the right age, have the right look, they don’t need model schooling.

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Q: Are there runway moms, like stage mothers?

A: Always. Only once was I honest with a mother about why I wasn’t going to sign her daughter. I told her, “Her nose is too large.” The mother hit me. So now I say, “You’re just really not right for us.”

When a mother pressures me and says, “What’s wrong with my daughter?” it really makes me angry, and I have to say, “Don’t say that in front of her. There is nothing wrong with your daughter. She’s not right for us.”

There are so many more girls wanting to be models today, it’d be easier if they’d come in and not take (rejection) personally.

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Q: Do you ever give them advice about what they can do that might make them model material?

A: Lose weight is as far as I’ll go. I will never tell anyone to fix anything. They have to be at least 5-foot-9 or we won’t even see them.

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Q: Are young models still sent to Europe to work for the European magazines?

A: The training ground is still Milan and Paris. And there are pitfalls in foreign countries. Playboys in Ferraris lie in wait at the airports for these young things. I won’t let a girl under 18 go over without a chaperon. It can be very dangerous. What does a kid fresh out of Covina, what does she know about Ferraris? How does she know how to deal with men who say, “Let’s take my plane to Lake Como”?

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Q: Uh, sounds pretty good, actually.

A: I agree. I prefer European men. But I’m not 16 years old.

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Q: OK, so much for young things. What happens on the other side, when a model gets too old?

A: The business chews them up. The ending period is worse. They always say they’re prepared for the end, and they’re not. When someone reaches the point where it’s not happening for them any longer, I always hope they’ll blame it on me, tell me I’m a terrible agent and leave. So I won’t have to say, honey, it’s not working. It’s time to consider something else.

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Q: Did you have to take your own advice?

A: You know, I have a lot of young people here in my office. I listen to the language in here and think, “What are they talking about? What are they saying?” I get along with them, if I choose to, but the fact is, there is a different look, a different world. The time has come to move on to other things. There’s nothing wrong with change.

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Q: So what are you going to do?

A: I’ve written a book about the modeling business. It’s fiction of course, or I’d get sued. It’ll be out in October. Dutton is publishing it. The title is “The Look,” and my co-author is Peter Barsocchini. We have a contract to do a sequel that’ll take you through the female superstars.

I’m also going into business with Pete Jeronova to be a personal manager. We already have Crystal Bernard, who’s on “Wings.” We’re only going to handle a few people, working actors. No new people.