Making Model Moms
by Annabella Åsvik Sep 04 2008
Agencies are betting big on developing the next major American models. As insurance, they’re putting time and money into...parents.
Neil Hamil, director of North America at Elite Model Management, thinks he has found the next American supermodel. “She’s 16 years old, 5’11”, blond with blue eyes, and has a fresh, healthy, athletic look,” Hamil says.
Almost as important, she comes with “middle-class parents who are as sweet as apple pie,” he says. “The kind of parents I love.”
Surprisingly, the idea that a runway star would come from the U.S. is somewhat radical. In the early 1990s, American models such as Christy Turlington and Tyra Banks earned millions of dollars a year with their modeling assignments. But over the last decade, as celebrities have taken over magazine covers, cosmetics contracts, and even advertising campaigns, and as waves of foreigners became “of the moment,” few American models have caused sizable industry buzz.
That now appears to be changing. Models.com, a website that ranks models based on their high-profile jobs, lists 10 American women in its top 50 list. Chanel Iman, Karlie Kloss, and Ali Stephens are just a few who are seen as the next superstars. Stephens has appeared in Italian Vogue; Iman on the cover of American Vogue; and Kloss and Stephens opened the last two Calvin Klein shows, for Fall 2008 and Resort 2009—the first Americans to do so in eight years.
“These are all big indicators that good things are coming,” Hamil says. “It’s an important part of the fashion industry giving their thumbs up.”
Management agencies are betting big on the phenomenon, investing in new locations (Hamil found his model at Elite’s new office in Salt Lake City, which has five full-time scouts) and in model development—at least $35,000 on travel and living expenses, test shoots, hairdresser, clothes, nutritionist, trainer, and a runway walking coach, before a prospective model has even gotten a job. To shore up those efforts, they are also putting time and money in parents.
There are parents who misbehave, are jealous of other models, try to sell their daughters at castings, or interfere at shoots—eventually costing jobs and money.Parents are inextricably linked to the talent and have a huge effect,” says Matthew Hunt, creative director at Ford Models. “If you—or your parent—are not easy to work with, they’ll find someone who’s easier.”
When parents are involved in a positive way, models are more reliable and confident, and less likely to succumb to the vices of the industry, including drugs, alcohol, partying, and eating disorders. “We love having the parents with the model. It gives the girls a sense of comfort and ease, which shows at castings and at shoots,” Hunt says.
Of course, there’s always a flip side, industry insiders say. One mother fed her daughter diet pills that made her delusional. (“We got her off the pills and instead sent her to a nutritionist and a trainer,” says Roman Young, director of new faces at Elite.) A father sabotaged his daughter’s career by insisting she attend a swim competition instead of a shoot for British Vogue. “We understand that there’s more to life than modeling, but you often get just one shot in this industry,” Young says. There are parents who misbehave, are jealous of other models, try to sell their daughters at castings, or interfere at shoots—eventually costing jobs and money.
Elite is now running informal workshops to train the parents of their new stars, answering questions and advising them on what lies ahead. “We want the parents to be fully educated, so they can be good partners when we manage their child’s career,” Hamil says. Parents get two-hour orientations as soon as they arrive for an initial visit to New York, with the approach tailored to their socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. There are follow-up lunches and dinners—and though a group setting might seem like a good idea, it’s something Young avoids. “You can have a conservative family at the same table saying they’d never let their child do a certain kind of job, and a liberal family saying how silly it would be to turn it down.”
This summer, Elite New York will bring 30 American girls to test the waters in New York; IMG Models brings in five or six. This will add up to tens of thousands of dollars invested in mothers and fathers, as a sort of insurance. “We have someone to hold accountable,” Young says.
The agencies are expecting a payoff in better performance. They typically take 20 percent of every paycheck and charge an extra 20 percent on top of the model’s total fee directly to the client. Elite will only keep a model if she earns at least $150,000 her first year, Hamil says. But top models such as Stephens and Iman can make in the range of $750,000 to $2 million a year. In 2007, Gisele Bündchen alone earned $35 million.
Ali Stephens’ mother says she always travels with her 17-year-old daughter to shoots, shows, and castings. “When Ali faces rejection, or if clients complain about her muscular runner’s legs, I’m there to turn her focus on the positive comments she has gotten,” she says.
China Iman, who travels with her daughter, featured as one of the next supermodels on the cover of May 2007 Vogue, is able to act as chaperone because of her flexible schedule as a flight attendant. “I heard Tyra Banks saying she never encountered the ugly side of modeling because her mother was always there, and I never wanted Chanel to be alone either,” says Iman, who always wears black at shoots so she can blend in. “The vices of the fashion industry are all out there, from the club promoters charming the girls to go out and maybe more, to smoking, drinking, and drugs. But when a girl has a parent with her, these people respect you in a different way and leave you to focus on the modeling.”
portfolio
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But the second and last shots are simply stunning!
I just love her in editorials, esp in this one the contrast of her dark hair, blue background and clean white clothes 
such a great shots! I love the second and third one! Such a great poses and she has got a great body.
