DON'T SLEEP ON ELITE'S STEALTH STREAK

The Girl With The Endless Possibilities: Ms Caroline Brasch Nielsen

Even as the New York modeling houses rip down the curtains in the most dramatic display of strum und drang it has coughed up in 10 years, TI noticed a stealth streak this season on the part of venerable Elite. Now would that be Elite Paris or Elite New York? In seasons past that question would not have even needed postulation as those two branches of the brand that is Elite simply would have nothing to do which each other. But very quietly , very elegantly Elite Paris , which is known to carefully hedge their bets by distributing girls far and wide across the New York landscape (to One, New York Model Management, Marilyn, DNA and Ford) seem to have instituted an exchange program that positioned Caroline Brasch Nielsen and Lia Serge at Elite NY even as they picked up Julia Nobis, Ali Carr and Lauren Brown in Europe.
Well somebody very shrewd executed a timely negotiation, one that started delivering lovely dividends as soon as Julia Nobis bolted out of the gates via her Calvin exclusive. London for Ms Nobis was strong but then Milan put their bids in and along rushed Prada, Missoni and Dolce to upgrade her to must-watch position. After that came the clincher in Paris, a market that amplified the power of those venerable ateliers when Dries van Noten, Rick Owens, Celine, Valentino, Vuitton and Miu Miu all converged to render Julia a valuable FW 10 editorial and campaign commodity.
By the time Lauren Brown stomped out for Balenciaga even as Lia Serge made her turn at Givenchy and Ali Carr added Miu-Miu to her Burberry and Marc Jacobs bookings, the neon lights were flashing again for Elite New York. Now add to that the almost inhuman display of catwalk stamina on the part of Ms Brasch Nielsen (Balenciaga, Givenchy, Dries van Noten, Viktor and Rolf, Chanel, Celine , Miu Miu, YSL , Vuitton and Valentino ) and the kettle truly starts to sing. Caroline Brasch Nielsen is probably the one girl from the current crop of Top Newcomers that is flashing the kind of most coveted editorial and campaign status that you only see say, once every three years. When she comes to New York her charts will be supervised from Elite New York and that is a very very rich body of options to manage.
What does it all mean? And what is going on in Gerard Marie's incredibly clever mind? From the outside hovering and contemplating I truly think that this rush of clean, fascinating and unbranded girls offers Elite New York a chance to exploit a moment of realignment in the business. Someone at that shop (Hey Doll!) has been doing a very clever round of scouting and an even more clever policy of reconciling conflicts in their favor. Imagine then 2 or 4 or all of these five girls converted to Top 50 status on top of the solid 4 Top 50 faces Elite now boasts. Imagine shrewd A-list management that veers them towards contract level validity. Envision an Elite made strict and sharp and tight, all its dead spots and weak links edited. Better yet, imagine the fresh hunger of all those European mother agents to tangle with Elite and TI suspects a fascinating story is in the brewing.
It is legend now , the power of that Elite global scouting network. To compete with it...to source those girls hidden in the nooks and crannies of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe and China...to evolve the eye to see ultra-model in an awkward teenager is not an easy feat. Elite Paris has long distinguished itself as one of the best run, deeply connected (and in Paris your connections are the everything) and most resilient agencies in the business. It seems Mr Marie might be lying quiet in this new strange landscape full of baby agents who totter through the business as if 5 years experience gives them eternal wisdom. But I tell you, though being in LA is teaching me that that model management as conducted out of New York and Paris is a very tiny and perverse niche concern, there is a lot to be learned from those minds who have ploughed that field for some 30 years now. Something's coming I tell you. Somebody has a bigger plan in play and the end game is sure to be emphatic. As they say, "Don't sleep on this".

Julia Nobis: Exclusive at Calvin Klein: Image via style.com

Lia Serge at Givenchy: Image via style.com

Lauren Brown at Givenchy: Image via style.com

Ali Carr at Miu Miu: Image via style.com