Yes, I have held an apple before.
Plenty of coffees.
Phones, makeup, lipstick, lots of nail polish.
For the past decade hand modeling has been my full time job.
It really is funny work.
I'm Adele Uddo and I am a parts model.
Parts modeling is short for body parts modeling so I mainly do hands but I've done lips, legs,
feet, eyes, chest, even ear lobes.
I am generally known as a high-end hand -- Dior and Christian Louboutin.
Most parts models have a side gig.
There's just a handful of us, so to speak, that do it full time.
It's sort of a you know underground-ish subculture of modeling.
It's something that I sort of fell into.
I certainly didn't plan for a career in parts.
I had been told a few times, mainly by my grandmother, that I had nice hands
so I went on a casting once and ended up booking this big job, and thought,
you know, maybe my grandmother is onto something.
What they typically look for is like, the shape of the hand: Long fingers, thin wrists, great skin tone is crucial.
If you look good cropped, you've got a career.
I love parts modeling in that I can be, like, viewed by millions of people and still remain private
and anonymous.
For many years I felt almost ashamed to be a parts model and I think it was ultimately because
I was raised by this hippie feminist mother and her friends.
I felt like I was somehow betraying them by becoming this objectified body parts model.
There was this girly part of me that just wanted to express myself and wear lipstick
and somehow I felt guilty when I did that.
I really love what I do, and I'm grateful for what I've been able to do.
Sometimes I judge myself for not being deep enough, you know, I've wanted to contribute
more to society than nice nail beds.
I'm not too precious with my parts.
I have learned to take pride in my work and to take it more seriously than I used to.
But I also want to have a life and use my hands.
I garden, I hike, I swim, I dance.
I would say that when your body becomes sort of an object it's harder in some ways to inhabit it.
Because my body parts are literally under a microscope, a macro lens -- and everything
shows -- I think I scrutinize myself more than actually I have felt scrutinized by the industry.
I admit to obsessively moisturising.
Probably...
Five-ish to 15 times-ish
a day.
So every year I'm going through at least a gallon of lotion.
I created a lotion actually, Essentiel by Adele.
Sort of out of necessity because I had to keep my skin in shape for these macro close-up
photographs where it's literally down to the cuticle.
So I ultimately wanted, like, a premium face lotion I could afford to put all over my body.
I don't believe you need
a bazillion bottles in your bathroom, I believe it can be a lot more simple and more effective.
It's not that difficult. It ultimately comes down to ingredients.
I don't really consider myself a great cook but I can cook a good lotion.
I don't think you can really miss that there's sort of an inherent absurdity to what I do.
I'm always surprised at how natural the hands look when I'm hand doubling for someone because
it's such an unnatural process.
I'm, you know, underneath someone's arm pit like trying to gracefully put my hand on the side of their face.
Parts modelling is what I do, it's not really who I am.
It's part of who I am, and I've learned to appreciate it.
But yeah, I don't take it all so seriously.
Now I realize we can be many things, many parts
we can have even conflicting parts of ourselves; I can be superficial and deep, you know, it's not an either or.
Thanks for watching.
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