Trish Goff Photographed by Inez van Lamwesweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for Purple Magazine
To say there's a glut of models on the market is to revive a cliche that has degraded into a redundancy but I'm starting to realize the issue is far more complicated than the idea of supermodels eating up all the bookings. And forget the comeback boom of 90's faces like Kirsten Owen, Frankie Rayder, Colette, Sunniva , Guinevere van Seemus and most recently Emma Balfour. Now a new generation of photographers are revving up those digital cameras for Zeroes stars like Ana Claudia, Natasa Vojnovic, Jessica Miller, Erin Wasson, Malgosia Bela and Diana Dondoe. The chief culprit? Carine Roitfeld at Vogue Paris who has been showing a marked preference for those kinds of girls. And it seems that those girls -not exactly mint new and not exactly weighted with all that extra-super-model baggage- are of added editorial appeal as they represent a kind of nostalgia for a given moment in fashion.
Speaking of "digital" I'm really starting to think Pascal Dangin and his company might be another culprit in the conspiracy that has lowered the trade barriers in the model market. Thanks to his brilliance, no model faces the ravages of aging or the ignomy of a less than flawless body line anymore. The computer is rendering every single girl it scans "fashionable and editorial" . This glut is driving us nuts at MDC (thus the launch of a comprehensive database system to track a fashion system gone mad) and I know it is driving many a New Faces director mad. "Its like no model is going away anymore", one lamented to me during Paris Fashion Week.
As such it is fascinating to watch the advertising market ripping off into 4 directions at once. There are those brands (especially cosmetics and fragrances) still coughing up the dollars for the Hollywood celebrities . There's a small body of clients still faithful to those branded supermodels like Kate and company. Then there are the labels buying into that "Cool Girl" resurgence represented by the likes of Miss Balfour . Thankfully there are those bold companies like Balenciaga and Prada who understand that the ranks need to be renewed. Celebs, 80's model's, 90's models, 00's models all cycling at the same time...only the fittest can survive all that no?
I'd like to see Janine Giddings!
She could rock the short hair/fringe.
off topic but...
I hear Roman Young has left elite? whats the story there? last i heard he was practically running the place
He left Elite so where has
He left Elite so where has Roman gone?
hai
your stractur is very sexcy
Bring On Ana Claudia, Natasa Vojnovic, Malgosia Bela..
Bring On Ana Claudia, Natasa Vojnovic, Malgosia Bela.. The return of the woman! I don't want to see anymore 16 year olds or another round of Coco, Jessica and Lily. Although they are very good models, I've had enough for the moment. I would like to see more Lakshmi, Sessilee, Liu Wen and diversity- We are approaching 2009 and quite possibly electing a black president. The fashion industry needs to keep up with the times.
tired of the hierarchy
The comment I am about to make is only meant as constructive criticism because I admire these people very much however I feel like I am getting bored of the constant recycling of top photographers shooting for reputable magazines such as Purple mag. I think is time that people in the industry give a chance to new talent (photographers, stylists, hair, makeup, etc.) to breath fresh air into the market. It all seems to me that now a days if your name isn't 'big' you can't shoot for reputable magazines, is a kind of hierarchy that has always existed in the industry but I feel like now a days is more prominent than ever. With the collapsing economy some of the first things many people will cut back on will be on purchasing magazines therefore the mags must work extra hard to entice consumers with creative and fresh work and talent including photographers, stylists, hair stylists, makeup artists, etc.
but to be honest the new
but to be honest the new girls blonde blanche and bland are not exciting at all. I think that the advertisers and the designers are often at odds nowadays. Plus I do think that some of the girls came and went very fast ( like Trish).
not to mention the shrinking
not to mention the shrinking budgets of many an advertiser.. this means that fewer dollars spread over more models means that the girls' market is going to look like the mens'. meaning you could be doing the coolest editorials in the world but you might have to work that second job as a waiter to pay the bills. i don't envy the young ones starting out in the biz, i tell you.
yoda's mommy
hehe... yeah and all the
hehe... yeah and all the agents at the big agencies will work at cafes to help pay the agencies rent ...
@
Was JUST thinking about this the other day. Any girl that achieves even minor success is now part of an endless rotation of hiatus and revival. At first it was only those cool girls like Hannelore and Stella Tennant that seemed to evade their expiration date. Now it's pretty much everyone. Do we really want to see the Ana Claudia revival? I'm not sure. It's more the case of a severe nostalgia on the part of certain designers and casting directors for the high-flying, big budget days of the late 90s and early 00s. I'm not complaining, I came of fashion age in those days so the more Frankies and Sunnivas I see around the better. But it makes it that much harder now for the new girls breaking into the biz. God bless.