How Alton Mason, The Hottest Male Model In The World, Navigated This Industry-Shaking Year

The job of a model is to essentially be the protagonist and vessel of a fantasy: to be the person with the body and the smile and the fabulously good-looking company, looking as cool and happy as you would be, if you only had their clothes. Typically, constructing that fantasy requires the work of a small city: makeup artists, stylists, creative directors, dudes who are just there to hold up one of those circular light reflectors, location scouts, hair zhuzhers, and photographers. And for the past couple of years, if you were trying to sell clothes to men, the face of that fantasy was Alton Mason. Pre-pandemic, Mason was on top of the modeling world. Models.com’s 2019 annual awards were more or less a celebration of him: He won the industry’s vote for Social Media Star, he was the industry’s and reader’s choice for the Best Street Style award, and he was unanimously chosen as the male Model of the Year too. In 2019, he became the first Black male model to walk for Chanel—both an honor and an indictment. Read more at GQ.