Does the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue mean anything?

[Luxx]

I feel like that's a very narrow view of modeling. Sports Illustrated basically turned Brooklyn Decker from just another catalog model into a household name and a franchise. Every high school girl and her grandpa in the middle of America knows about Brooklyn Decker. She's relevant in the media. She's in movies, magazines, tv, giving interviews, has her own workout dvds, people want to know her.

Everyone knows who Bar Rafaeli is now and she has tons of endorsements.

Irina Shayk is diversifying her career since Sports Illustrated. Before, she was just another catalog model with not a lot of top editorial but now she's been shooting with Mario Testino and Bruce Weber--something she wouldn't have done without SI. She gets paid to appear at events , still shoots SI and walked in Givenchy this past season. That's a diverse career.

Kate Upton is going to be one of the biggest stars in the media of our generation.

Sure this means nothing in high fashion but most people couldn't name a high fashion model and most people are probably never going to remember one of the top runways girls of these past 5 years in the next 30 years.

Exactly. You hit the nail on the head with this.

There is more than one way for a model to be successful and at the end of the day most of these girls who people don't think are high fashion enough are the ones making the most money.

In the past 5 years SI has boosted the careers of Bar, Irina, Brooklyn and of course the seemingly unstoppable Kate Upton. If making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year amounts to crickets then please sign me up.

And the girls inside the magazine also get a great boost, Alyssa Miller, Jessica Gomes, Chrissy Teigen, Anne V...

 

[LabelWhore4]

So in the last 5 or so years what has SI done for a model's career? Besides Kate Upton, I hear crickets.

Ummm, who in the entertainment/fashion industry was checking for Irina or Brooklyn before their covers?

Thought so.

 

[BBfrom89]

I don't follow Brooklyn or Irina but that's good to know. SI still doesn't seem quite as big of a deal as it used to be.

 

[MissLimaVzla]

It depends on each model i think. For example Kate Upton is probably the most famous model right now and if you haven't heard of her you've been living under a rock for the past two years. Why? Because she took all the right steps after getting her SI cover last year. Now she's booking good jobs, getting paid probably better than 99% of HF models & she's America's golden girl.

Brooklyn Decker also made smart choices for her career, she took advantage of the boost on her career after the cover to make the transition from model to actress. Now she's done with modeling and might not work every day but people still knows her thanks to SI.

Bar Refaeli on the other hand, made stupid choices and was MIA for a while until her Super Bowl commercial came out this year. But in the years post-Leo and pre-Super Bowl she wasn't booking big jobs. And I'm a huge fan of her, but that's the true. She's doing better in recent months.

Irina Shayk is a special case, the SI cover did absolutely nothing for her IMO, she is still not doing great things in the US. However she's quite big in Europe thanks to a high profile relationship and her new agency is doing wonders for her now, but right after her SI cover I don't feel her career had a big boost in the US.

Nina Agdal hasn't even been on the cover and she's been doing great since her first SI pictorial last year. She's getting more & more popular with people. Between SI & Aerie she could easily go big a la Kate Upton. I'm sure she's the front-runner for the cover next year.

Other models who are doing better thanks to SI are Alyssa Miller, Genevieve Morton (not popular on tFS but very popular with commercial jobs), Chrissy Teigen and there's others. But there's also the models who did SI and their careers didn't change much like Izabel Goulart, Kenza Fourati & Shannan Click.

So like any other job, it depends on how you handle it. You need to be smart and have a smart agent too. SI can make it for a model or can go completely unnoticed.

 

[theBlueRider]

^^MissLimaVzla, good points. I'd say Izabel was a fairly well known model prior to SI. She was an official VS Angel so it was more like a plateau for her. I'd say the same with Shannon Click as she was already a very successful model. Hilary Rhoda and Emily DiDonato and that Hannah girl fall under the same umbrella. They've already had very successful careers and people recognize their faces from other high profile work like cosmetics and fragrance.

I remember Heidi Klum once saying that SI changed her career from a rejected struggling model into a superstar. Everyone wanted her. Seems like SI's biggest stars are also the kind who are "atypical" for the modeling industry and kind of struggle at the beginning of their careers. And even with all the money and success they make, there are still people who undervalue them as models because they never walked for Balenciaga (yet they can buy the entire collection from the money they made modeling).

I think someone we haven't mentioned is Cintia Dicker. She's never had a cover and is only featured in some of the spreads. But she has a cult following from SI and her name is far more familiar to the average joe or jane than Karmen Pedaru or Anja Rubik. I'm personally hoping she gets a cover one day!

Finally, I don't know much about Jessica Gomes but I know she has a huge presence overseas since she starting appearing in SI. Apparently she has her own tv show in Korea and just replaced Miranda Kerr for David Jones.

 

[Pricciao]

what is exactly the good step Kate taking? I know she's a new star in fashion now, but does she do big tv spots or something else that everyone can see besides SNL?

 

[Faith Akiyama]

^Superbowl commercials, viral videos, association with mass market brands like Gilette and Samsung, rampant dating rumors...you name it, she has been part of it. If you have "Kate Upton" in Google alerts, there are at least 10 to 15 major news outlets reporting on her on a daily basis (Even if it's the least important of updates). Going above and beyond "fashion" and having that mass appeal is something her and her management have definitely accomplished

 

[Pricciao]

oh crap, now that's huge.

 

[MissLimaVzla]

Kate is also rumored to be getting a Vogue US cover this June, which would be huge for her.

As for Cintia I'd love to see her getting the cover one day too, but right now Anne V is the one I'm crossing my fingers for even though I think Nina will be the next cover girl