SILENT AND STEALTH

Silent's Othelia had TI twirling in astonishment all over the Meat Packing District. BE-YOND!

The modeling industry, I must tell you is a business built for the burn-out. Just like fashion, that mother culture of willed obsolescence ...a girl...an agent...a whole agency can suddenly just dwindle and crash from over-exposure or over-extension . This can happen in the twinkle of a pissed off contract model's eye. Which is why my lunch meet yesterday with the forces behind Silent , that very stealth Paris modeling agency now set to launch in NY was so strangely invigorating. In three short years Silent has become something a whispered myth. The Silent guys would love to know that for all these years they have been the stuff of whispers and myth. Visiting agents during Paris Fashion Week making pilgrimage to the offices spoke in awed tones of a hushed dove gray room and a small, small board of precisely and uniquely beautiful girls. Think Anna S, that beautiful Russian girl Silent steered through Vogue Paris and Calvin Collection campaigns with unerring precision. A lot of New York modeling mavens were very mad at Silent's insistence on retaining global control of Anna S's career. "Who the hell do they think they are?" they thundered.
Well the competition is going to be even more thunderous when they see the offerings currently being polished up by Silent NY. Its not hype. I truly feel this. The girls Eric DuBois had in his immaculate little black portfolio of models were stunning. There was a taste, an aesthetic. It was specific and refined...uncommon and editorially perfect. I have not seen an aesthetic this fine tuned and girls this compelling since the glory days of Rowland's Supreme. So if TI goes on and on in the coming months about that Silent aesthetic please know it is because I'm very excited to see a strong point of view being convened at a New York modeling agency. That begs the question, is there room economically speaking, on the NY market-place for this Silent ? Will its rise signal the demise of any agency that might be faltering right now? Will Silent be the shiny new destination ? The new novelty? Is Silent the icy cool boutique that you have to frequent in order to find "direction"? It certainly will disturb an already precarious balance of power on the Manhattan scene.
Another aspect of that pronounced reaction to the proposition of Silent was perfectly enunciated by agency partners Vincent and Eric. In the interview we taped for MDC they explained that the idea of Silent was a reaction to the current modeling world of drama and hype and strum and drang , of switching and gossip, variables that I've been known to wallow in. But that idea of management..."silence"...the discipline of that ...to know what you know and have the discipline to keep your mouth shut. To be quietly, discretely and privately totally invested in your work and the quality of your work and to hermetically seal it from outside voices. Jesus... that is so chic. It could be the next ideal of management. That is if one can resist the temptation to stir up trouble.