[DosViolines]

source: nytimes.com

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Who Is America's Next Top Model, Really? Greg Kessler From left, Snejana Onopka, Lisa Cant, Gemma Ward, Jessica Stam, Julia Stegner, Caroline Winberg, Daria Werbowy and Hana Soukupova. By GUY TREBAY Published: November 6, 2005 THE only authentic mystery behind who will come out on top each season on the UPN hit "America's Next Top Model" may be how Americans can be willingly gulled into thinking that the result of this deliciously kooky weekly confection is a cliffhanger. Each Wednesday a challenge is posed: Is Nik too shy or Kim too butch or Nicole too passive-aggressive or Lisa too quirky (and sloshed) to make it in the cutthroat world of high fashion modeling? Why, it is a puzzle to test the mettle of Malibu Barbie! Firstview Hilary Rhoda, a newcomer from Maryland, turned heads in Paris. The truth at the core of this least-real reality series, now in its fifth season and with nearly five million viewers from the coveted demographic of women age 18 to 34, is that the winner is never Nik or Kim or Nicole or Lisa. It is Tyra Banks, the show's host and producer, a Victoria's Secret beauty with a snap queen's attitude and the entrepreneurial chops of Donald Trump. "I see girls sitting on the No. 4 train to Brooklyn saying, 'Omigod, I have to get home because the Tyra show is on,' " said Wayne Sterling, the editor of Models.com, a slick Web site that obsessively rates model status. "The show has become their spectrum, a Midwest, middle-of-the-road simulation of what the business is like." What is not apparent to legions of modeling hopefuls, either on the show or out in TV land, is something that modeling business insiders like Nian Fish, creative director of the fashion production house KCD, tend to laugh about. In an industry that is indeed fairly cutthroat, the women who appear on "America's Next Top Model" would have a tough time wedging a flip-flop in the door of most agencies. There are a few good, simple reasons why the competitors on "America's Next Top Model" will not become America's next top model, insiders say. For starters they are generally too old to succeed in a field where much of the talent, like the current teenage Australian star Gemma Ward, is recruited out of middle school, explained Cathy Gould, the director of Elite models. And even though, by ordinary standards, the bodies of cast members on the reality show are unobjectionable, they are too plump to succeed in a business where eating disorders are no hindrance to success. In an ironic way, though, the most serious strike against the women may be, like their beauty itself, an unalterable accident of birth. They are American. "You just can't sell an American model right now because editors completely don't appreciate them," explained James Scully, a casting agent responsible for discovering many of the quirky, provocative sexpots who helped mold the image of Gucci during the stellar Tom Ford years. "Americans are just not in." By American, Mr. Scully meant someone with looks that match traditional American stereotypes. That means clear-skinned women with small, even features and strapping bodies; blondes like Christie Brinkley, Kim Alexis or Lauren Hutton, to name three whose faces dominated magazine covers in the 1970's and 80's; patrician-looking brunettes like Lisa Taylor and Dayle Haddon; or women like Beverly Johnson, whose uncomplicated good looks set a commercial standard for black models once considered hard to employ except as "exotic" types. Five years ago, answering the question of who, in fact, is America's top model would have been easy: she was a Brazilian. The platoon of pillow-lipped and long-limbed beauties led by Gisele Bündchen appeared so abruptly on the scene that it seemed as though Brazil was some unknown planet suddenly discovered by astronomers combing the cosmic beauty-sphere. The Brazilians quickly came to dominate the worlds of high-paying runway work, along with magazine advertising and editorial assignments that compose the trifecta of a successful career. A top model who wins in all three areas - special bonus awarded for landing a contract as the face of a cosmetics line - can sometimes earn many millions annually, of which roughly 15 percent is kicked back to her agency. Although fashion gives the illusion of being a global business, New York remains the hub for all the largest modeling and advertising agencies and also mass circulation magazines. And it is still the center of image creation, editorial clout and behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing. Inevitably, whoever is destined to become the Next Big Thing will have to make it here. When the Brazilians' moment in the sun faded, those women were supplanted by Belgians, a raft of wan types with odd all-vowel names, Memling foreheads and what Ms. Fish of KCD described as "strong walks." Elise Crombez, for instance, still a reliable presence on the catwalks after several years, often took to the runway with the clipped efficiency of a dental technician late to assist ona root canal.

[DosViolines]

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That the reign of the Belgians was so brief had its roots less in changing tastes than the relaxation of international borders. Two years into the hegemony of Ms. Crombez, An Oost, Delfine Bafort and their cohorts, a horde of upstarts swarmed out of the backwaters and satellites of the former Soviet Union seemingly to take over the business. The gates fell as fast as walls and borders had and suddenly teenage giantesses with attenuated limbs and tiny doll heads thronged the runways: lunar blond Latvians, sultry Romanians, pouting Ukrainians and Estonians with flaxen hair and the pale translucence of preemies. If in a sense they all looked unnervingly alike, they were also everywhere. They still are. "There are so many of them out there because they're dying to get out and they really have the hunger," explained Ivan Bart, the president of IMG, the industry's top agency. "It's like they've scrubbed floors back home, watched kids, sold fruit for a living. They want to be models. They're willing to do what it takes, to stand on one foot for 10 hours." Still, none of these girls, the Hanas and Tiuus and Ingunas and Snejanas, could be deemed America's current top model, or thought of as approaching name-brand celebrity in the way that Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington or Helena Christensen once did in the 1990's heyday of the supermodel. The slippage can be pegged, in part, to the usual turns in the wheel of fashion and also to the relentless onset of a celebrity culture that keeps editors tyrannized by focus-group polls according to which the least interesting starlet trumps the most glamorous model when it comes to newsstand sales. "Vogue and Bazaar still believe that all anyone cares about is celebrity," said Mr. Scully, the casting agent. "Vogue is going to run a cover of Sienna Miller," he said of the magazine's December issue, referring to the young actress whose most compelling role seems to be her part as the wronged woman in a sloppy tabloid affair involving a bosomy nanny and Jude Law. "As far as most Americans are concerned, this woman is famous for dating a man who made three flops in a row," Ms. Scully said. "She's roadkill but these editors still insist that she can sell more magazines than a picture of Daria." Mr. Scully was referring to Daria Werbowy, a model who has been parked, with the brake on, in the No. 1 position on Models.com for months. If anyone qualifies as America's top model right now, it is clearly this 23-year-old tomboy with a rag doll body and a highly pronounced overbite - who comes, it should be noted, from Canada. With a multiyear contract for Lancôme beauty products, campaigns for YSL and Chanel and a runway record that saw her working no fewer than 80 shows one season (for as much as $10,000 per show), she is undoubtedly at the top of her game. So obviously does she lead the pack that, when Ms. Werbowy sat out the spring 2006 runway season in New York, Paris and Milan, her absence had a Garbo effect. It set people whispering about whether Ms. Werbowy had dumped the business, followed Kate Moss into rehab or just disappeared. "Where is Daria?" became a mantra in front rows at Prada, Gucci, Cavalli, Fendi and Chanel shows, where Ms. Werbowy's feline looks and swaying gait over the past few seasons have added a dash of personality to events that often seem populated by goose-walking corpse brides like the Russian Sasha Pivovarova or strobe-stunned Bambis like Hana Soukupova, a painfully thin teenager from the Czech Republic who is so clearly uneasy in public that it sometimes seems as if an unseen puppeteer is handling her strings. As it happened, Ms. Werbowy gave the runway season a pass in order to film a campaign for Lancôme, but her brief absence gave rise to speculation about who might be next in line atop the model sweepstakes. Where will the real woman come from to claim the prize that 4.7 million viewers of "America's Next Top Model" believe may go to one of the show's pretty but delusional prospects?

[DosViolines]

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"It's always a cycle and the cycle always changes around," Mr. Bart of IMG said optimistically. "Look at Hillary Rhoda," he added, referring to the 19-year-old with the poise and classic patrician looks of a Fitzgerald heroine. For the spring 2006 season, which ended last month, Mr. Bart took Ms. Rhoda, a leggy brunette and a former field hockey player from Chevy Chase, Md., on the rounds of international casting calls. It was Ms. Rhoda's first season in the business." I told people 'I've got this great new girl' and I schlepped her to all the top designers," Mr. Bart said. "And everywhere I went, everybody humored me and looked at me like I had lost my mind." In New York and then in Milan, the reception for Ms. Rhoda's All American beauty was underwhelming. Yet then in Paris, in a Horatio Alger twist that would do Ms. Banks proud, Ms. Rhoda was taken to see Nicolas Ghesquiere, the Balenciaga designer and an influential figure. Mr. Ghesquiere immediately chose Ms. Rhoda to walk in his show. And after that, the former Roman Catholic schoolgirl who had been yawned out of appointments with most major designers found herself booked for every blue chip show in town: Dior, Chanel, Chloé, Rochas, YSL and Valentino, where she had the distinction of being the first model on the ramp. When Ms. Rhoda was cast by Marc Jacobs for the Louis Vuitton presentation, it was as if she had received the modeling equivalent of a papal nod. "I call the way Marc makes models the Pygmalian effect," Ms. Fish of KCD said. Whether a banner season for one young mannequin augurs a major taste shift in the modeling business and perhaps even a return to what some forecast as a resurgence of classic American sportswear it seems early to predict. "Does it mean we're going to see a comeback for American models?" Mr. Bart asked. "Who knows? But I can tell you that nobody but nobody wanted Hillary until Paris, and then Nicolas cast her. And then suddenly this whole American in Paris thing kicked in and she was totally, totally the top girl of the week."

[lemeray]

America's Next Top Model is just one big joke, we all know none of them get any real designer jobs, it's fun to watch but the girls have no chance of becoming the next supermodel.

[Faith Akiyama]

Great article! It speaks the truth I love watching ANTM and support quite a few of the girls who have been on the show...but I realize that to think of them ever reaching the status of Daria/Gemma/etc. is merely wishful thinking.

[KhaoticKharma]

Sadly, I would buy a Sienna Miller cover over a Daria cover, but that's just cause I think Daria is fugly.

However, I would much rather see Hilary Rhoda or Gemma Ward on the cover than any celeb.

[fugfashion]

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Originally Posted by lemeray America's Next Top Model is just one big joke, we all know none of them get any real designer jobs.

i was thinking the same thing and if they get one they are very lucky

[alouisa]

Thanks for posting Great article.

[model_mom]

Wow ..why couldn't I have said all that? Great article that pretty well sums up the whole mess and tells it like it is.

[Mailen]

Woah what a great article. So true. America's Next Top Model is a just entertainment, nothing more. It's a hoax and I feel bad for the girls involved who honestly believe they might get somewhere

[CharlottefromCA]

Great article!! Thanks for posting..

So true about Vogue choosing someone like Sienna over someone like Daria... its a celeb crazy world.. I hope its just a trend..

[model_mom]

Didn't want to lose this...good read

[masquerade]

i like it. its really not at all about antm.

the way they describe some of those girls though, kinda insulting

[iluvjeisa]

I like this article, thanks for posting

I do think he's unnecessarily harsh to most models - with the exception of Hilary who certainly has an underbite which is comparable to Daria's overbite.

There are some models today who could certainly be cast as supermodels - if the climate was right for them. Right now it isn't, but fortunately with articles like this, it soon could be.

[KhaoticKharma]

Hilary is beautiful, but does anyone else think she is just as boring as the rest of the 'boring American models' the article speaks of?