On Building a Modeling Agency That Lasts
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By PAGE Editor
A conversation with David Ratmoko, Director of Metro Models GmbH
There is a particular kind of business that grows quietly, away from the noise, and only reveals its scale once you start asking who actually shapes an industry. Metro Models is one of them. Founded in 2010 in Zurich by David Ratmoko, the agency has grown into one of the leading modeling agencies in Europe, working with luxury houses, international brands, and the casting directors who decide which faces define a season.
Ratmoko is not the kind of agency director who courts attention. He speaks the way Switzerland tends to operate, with precision, restraint, and a quiet conviction that quality will outlast trends. We caught up with him in Zurich to talk about what it takes to build something durable in an industry obsessed with the new, why he believes fashion is not art, and what the modeling world still gets wrong about the people inside it.
Reverie Page: Before Metro Models, what made you believe Zurich needed its own agency?
David Ratmoko: In 2010, Zurich had plenty of agencies, but none aspiring to be among Europe's top.
RP: The fashion industry has a real sustainability problem. What does responsible agency work look like for you on a day-to-day basis?
DR: Our job is to sustain careers, not supply chains. We focus on what we can actually influence: people, not factories.
RP: You built the largest agency in Switzerland, in a country that only got its first Fashion Week in 2026. What does it take to last in a market that's been overlooked for so long?
DR: Switzerland was never about fashion but about luxury. Two of the largest luxury groups in the world are based here. Quality ultimately survives, and the modeling industry is no exception.
RP: How do you balance protecting young models with the pressure to push them into the spotlight?
DR: The pressure isn't from us. It's from the models. They want to start tomorrow. We tell them to finish school first to have something to fall back on.
RP: Tamy Glauser has said Switzerland doesn't recognise fashion as art. Do you see that changing? And what would it take for Swiss fashion to be supported the way Swiss watchmaking is?
DR: Fashion isn't art, because art has no use-value. Watchmaking is a craft, with centuries behind it. What people forget is that Switzerland led textile manufacturing in the 19th century, so the task is to re-connect to that lost tradition.
RP: If you could change one thing about how the modeling industry treats the people inside it, what would it be?
DR: More respect. The assumption that beauty excludes intelligence is lazy, and research says otherwise.
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