Exclusives

[lanvinray]

Christopher Kane SS/10 Exclusive

Ursula Konina

wwd

 

[*Bianca*]

^^Nastya Karzan was actually a semi-exclusive (she was also at Chanel - thanks fadedcolours!).

It's a good idea to wait until the end of the particular city's fashion week before posting incase girls show up elsewhere

 

[*Bianca*]

MIU MIU S/S 2010 Paris

Lindsey Wixson (Closed)

Lisanne de Jong (Semi) (Opened)

style.com

(Lisanne did Balenciaga early in the week prior to Miu Miu, but have decided to just stick to saying 'semi' instead of 'mid-week' - as they both really are the same thing I guess, and in this case she only did one show)

 

[lanvinray]

^ I agree with Lisanne being semi exclusive, Nicolas probably asked Miuccia to let Lisanne walk his show

 

[*Bianca*]

LOUIS VUITTON S/S 2010 (Paris)

Inna Pilipenko

style.com

(source: women paris & iq models)

 

[lanvinray]

Givenchy Haute Couture S/S10 Paris

Joan Smalls

style

 

[agee]

^I don't have a problem with it, and it's a nice feather in Joan and her agency's cap, but why would Givenchy do an exclusive with an established model, especially one who does not do a ton of runway work?

 

[lanvinray]

Givenchy Haute Couture S/S10 Paris

Rose Cordero

style

 

[Bellaly]

Sorry, but what is a semi-exclusive? I read it everywhere, could someone please explain it?

 

[lanvinray]

Givenchy Haute Couture S/S10 Paris

Malgosia Bela

Ming Xi

Natalia Vodianova- CLOSED

all images courtesy of style

 

[roxana_09]

Marc Jacobs F/W 09

Diana Dondoe

style.it

 

[lanvinray]

Calvin Klein F/W10.11 New York:

Gwen Loos/MARILYN

Julia Nobis/ELITE

Melissa Tamarijn/NYMM

catwalking courtesy of childkid, Nils & iperlchen

 

[aubade218]

In what ways is it beneficial for a model to do an exclusive? Do they get paid more?

 

[helmut.newton]

I understand how being an exclusive is beneficial to a models career, but apart from creating buzz, what benefits does a brand have in having exclusives? I mean, I understand why you would want one girl as an exlusive (or two in the case of the Prada/Miu Miu link) but why several girls? What benefit does this have for the brand? I'm so confused by this aspect of it.

Also I'm not too clear on the idea of having exclusives for Haute Couture. Are we sure these girls are necessarily exclusive? What if they just couldnt book any other shows?

 

[Forrest]

PRADA F/W 2009 Milan
Ymre was a worldwide excl.

and Cato was defo. a excl. for Givenchy at f/w 2009

 

[1FashionVictim]

I hope we get some good exclusives this year as last season was pretty dire. Prada had bearly any, Jil Sander had none, and Gucci haven't had any since Louise Maselis had to decline.

 

[*Bianca*]

Karmen & Anja were Gucci (semi) exclusives last season. Unless you were talking about new girls.

I'd imagine we can probably lock in Othilia (Russell excl.) and maybe even Kirsi, for Prada exclusives.

 

[*Bianca*]

^Oh, and Dasha Sushko from pre-fall ( I don't think she's shown up anywhere yet..).

Hopefully it's not this predictable.

 

[Bamhutt]

^I hope so too!
It would be great to have a new girl with no hype and no info show up on an exclusive, it would be much more exciting

 

[agee]

I understand how being an exclusive is beneficial to a models career, but apart from creating buzz, what benefits does a brand have in having exclusives? I mean, I understand why you would want one girl as an exlusive (or two in the case of the Prada/Miu Miu link) but why several girls? What benefit does this have for the brand? I'm so confused by this aspect of it.

Yep, I have the same question, but I don't think there is a definitive answer. To me, the biggest deal with exclusives at this time, is that it is a parlor game for model-philes - the people who enjoy following exclusives and speculating about them, so it benefits those folks for sure. I don't think exclusives have been a great predictor of a model's success, for every season that the designers lock up "the next big things" as exclusives, there are three or four seasons where the models who were tapped as exclusives do no better than their non-exclusive peers.

I guess I don't see any major usefulness of exclusives as it exists today, not that I am losing sleep over their existence. There isn't a romantic angle, it's not like girls are being plucked off the tundra, the Serengeti, or heck even obscure mother agencies in Kiev or Budapest and then flown to New York or Milan to be inspected by Francisco or Miuccia. The major agencies have figured out what Russell Marsh, et. al. like and have stocked their board accordingly. The followers in the media and the blogosphere also know the casting directors and designers' taste and stalk the IMG, Supreme, Next and Marilyn's websites and speculate with a fairly high degree of accuracy.

Also, while the motivation for exclusives vary by designer, I think in Prada's case it was a move to counteract the model-centrism of the supermodel era, and the outcome is has actually been the opposite, a significant chunk of the buzz that Prada gets during the runway and campaign seasons are model related. If Senora Prada truly thinks that the emphasis should be on the clothes and accessories and not the models, then she definitely should stop doing exclusives.

Furthermore, once the exclusives are tapped, what happens next? Yes they tend to have the inside track on getting a campaign, but all the designers have done is given everyone a heads up on who will get the campaign. But then again, non-exclusives get tapped for campaigns all the time. Perhaps I can see the usefulness of exclusive if the designers did a watered down version of what Victoria's Secret does with its Angels - I know it's probably heresy to bring up VS in a discussion about the practices of Givenchy and Prada, but anyhoo, I can see the designer saying these are my models for the next season or two, they will walk in only in my shows, they will be the faces in my campaigns and lookbooks, they will be my showroom models when the major editors and buyers visit, I will try to influence the top editors and photographers to adopt them as muses (of course, a designer would not say this out loud), etc. Another scenario I can see is a designer locking up a model who walks in a lot of shows like Karlie, Kasia or Iris or a blue chip model like Natasha, Natalia, Daria, Anja or Raquel and even then they need to do something very noteworthy with her like have her close wearing a spectacular garment a la Shalom in the Dior origami dress, or some other stunt like Coco dancing at the JPG or the Raquel film at the SS 2010 McQueen show.

Also I'm not too clear on the idea of having exclusives for Haute Couture. Are we sure these girls are necessarily exclusive? What if they just couldnt book any other shows?

I also don't see the point with HC as is, but I do see potential. I agree that it seems like a number of girls who get exclusives are not in demand girls and why does the designer even care if she walks for other show, I especially wonder about this when the designers book a model as an exclusive and then put her in the middle of the pack when it comes to the order she walks. Dior did this with Chanel Iman in a recent season and I could not figure out why. However, I can see exclusives working quite well if it is part of a theme, e.g., a designer does a geisha theme and locks up all the top Asian girls or locks up a bunch of red heads for a Celtic theme, but again there should be some logic to it, not just because it's there and that is what we've always done.

ETA:
Geez this is a long post!