Yves Saint Laurent’s S/S 17 marks Anthony Vaccarello’s maiden collection as the house’s creative director, following Hedi Slimane’s exit, who had cast a new cult of irreverently cool models. Their bad girl appearance went something like this: angular and bleach blonde, dressed in Slimane’s vintage-inspired, rock armor. Come tomorrow’s show, the proverbial slate gets wiped clean, in terms of house codes and the models who will dominate the French brand’s runway. Teasing images shot by Collier Schorr painted a patchy picture with barely any clothes in sight. What was perhaps more striking was the handful of angelic faces launching the new direction. From a casting standpoint more questions emerged. The makings of a new model type? To-be it girls? Enter Agnes Akerlund, one of the undeniably promising protégés picked by Piergiorgio Del Moro and Samuel Ellis Scheinman (a casting which also includes standout Mayowa). Pristine looking and finely featured describe the piercingly pretty Agnes, and also are adjectives that step away from the ilk cast by Slimane.
How did this potential Swedish phenom emerge seemingly plucked from obscurity? A familiar anecdote, says Agnes, “I got scouted by MIKAs while sitting in line for a concert in Gothenburg last year and from there it went.” The rest is not–in a heartbeat she was shooting with Mert and Marcus shooting for Double Magazine, “Actually I didn’t really understand that it was such a big deal since I hadn’t been in the modeling business for long. It wasn’t until the evening before, when we looked through the call sheet and I saw who the other models were.” What in the mercurial modeling industry could have easily been a blip on the radar moment was just the start. Vaccarello came calling, casted to be in the anticipated unveiling of his Saint Laurent by way of casting directors Piergiorgio and Samuel, “I met Piergiorgio and Samuel in Sweden and after that I went for a casting in Paris, and from there it took off!” Already sharpened by her first brush with opportunity Agnes immediately knew the significance of the booking, “When I heard that I was going to do the Saint Laurent shoot, I got very nervous and excited, of course, especially now that Anthony Vaccarello is the creative director of the brand. His girls are always confident, powerful and independent and I’m of course flattered to be in that group now.” Agnes can now add Saint Laurent campaign photographer Collier Schorr and stylist Alastair McKimm to her growing résumé. It was another advanced lesson, “They really made me understand what they wanted to get out of the shoot. I especially loved the filming part where I could move freely and just get into to the whole experience behind the camera. It’s almost like acting is something I aspire to do in the future.”
Favor in modeling can be reduced to some amounts of fortuity as time and place put Agnes Akerland on the Anthony Vaccarello’s map, but one look at her and it’s easy to see it’s more than chance. Whether it was mapped out in the fashion stars, time will tell. Until then, the rising Swedish model is all humility, “so far I have only met fantastic and nice people and I would love to be a part of the fashion or acting business in some way, in the future.”
ink:
