How models were discovered

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Julia Stegner

She was discovered by a scout of Louisa Models when she attended at the annual Octoberfest in Munich in 1999.

Dewi Driegen

Dewi was spotted by a scout from Elite Amsterdam at the age of 13 years in her home town (Amsterdam) but her priority was to finish school.

fashionmodeldirectory

Penelope Tree

Tree had been discovered in 1966 by Vogue's editor when she appeared at the Black and White Ball—the never-to-be-forgotten party thrown by the writer and social gadfly Truman Capote at the Plaza Hotel—in a daring get-up featuring car-wash slits that revealed her briefs and tights beneath.

vogue.com

 

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Shalom Harlow

Discovered at the age of sixteen while rocking out at a Cure concert in Toronto, Shalom (“peace” in Hebrew) had a hippie upbringing in a General Motors factory town an hour east of the city.

vogue.com

Twiggy

In 1966, Nigel Davies noticed the young Lesley and offered her a modeling contract.

fashionmodeldirectory

Rene Russo

Russo started a modeling career after allegedly being spotted at a 1972 Rolling Stones concert by John Crosby, an agent from International Creative Management.

wikipedia

 

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Karen Graham

In 1969, however, her life was changed forever when she shopped at the Bonwit Teller store in Manhattan one day. Becoming impatient waiting for the down elevator, she took the stairs instead, where she met modeling agency owner Eileen Ford. As Graham remembered in a 1999 interview, she had started chatting with Mrs Ford on the stairs, and by the time they were outside, Mrs Ford handed Graham her card and suggested that she think about becoming a model.

Marie Helvin

She was approached by a model scout on a visit to Japan with her mother and signed up as the face of Kanebo cosmetics at 15.

Patti Hansen

Hansen was discovered by photographer Peter Gert at age 14. After Gert took Hansen to a party hosted by former model and owner of the Wilhelmina Models modeling agency, Wilhelmina Cooper, Cooper signed the teen to her agency.

wikipedia

 

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Jerry Hall

Hall was staying at a hostel on the French Riviera when she was discovered sunbathing on a Saint Tropez beach by fashion agent Claude Haddad.

Nancy Donahue

While attending Lasell College in Auburndale, Massachusetts, she was discovered by Mademoiselle magazine after winning a modeling competition.

Kelly Emberg

She modeled part-time during high school after being "discovered" by Alan Martin, a local photographer in Houston who introduced her to John Casablancas. Casablancas brought her to New York City to join his new agency Elite Model Management, where her print career took off.

wikipedia

 

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Christie Brinkley

Brinkley was discovered in 1973 by American photographer Errol Sawyer in a post office in Paris. He took her first modeling pictures and introduced her to John Casablancas of Elite Model Management agency in Paris.

Cathee Dahmen

She was discovered in her late teens by an illustrator for The New York Times, Antonio Lopez, who introduced her to the fashion world in New York City.

Lois Chiles

She received her education at the University of Texas at Austin and the former Finch College in New York City, where she was discovered by a Glamour editor looking for a young woman to feature on the cover of the magazine's annual college issue.

wikipedia

 

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Dovima

Born in New York City, Dovima was discovered on a sidewalk in New York by an editor at Vogue, and had a photo shoot with Irving Penn the following day.

Yasmin Le Bon

In 1981, the young Yasmin was discovered by a local modeling agency while working a part-time sales job in a boutique.

Veruschka

She studied art in Hamburg and then moved to Florence, where she was discovered at age 20 by the photographer Ugo Mulas and became a full-time model.

supermodelicons

 

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Cindy Crawford

She was discovered at the age of 16 by a newspaper photographer. He noticed Cindy at work during her summer job of detasseling corn and took a picture of her. The photo and positive feedback she received were enough to convince her to take up modeling. She entered the Elite Model Management’s Look of the Year contest at 17 and was the runner-up. The Elite modeling agency in Chicago then started representing her.

Renee Simonsen

In 1981 she caught the attention of the fashion editor Birte Strandgaard, who convinced photographer Leif Nygaard to do some photos of her. Simonsen subsequently participated in the Ekstra Bladet Contest and won 2nd place.

Paulina Porizkova

An aspiring photographer friend took pictures of Porizkova and sent them to the Elite modeling agency in 1980, hoping they would notice her own photography skills. However, instead of taking the photographer on board, Elite head John Casablancas noticed Porizkova’s attractiveness and potential, and offered her a ticket to Paris.

supermodelicons

 

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Wanakee Pugh

Before Vera Wang became a national symbol for creativity and success, she was a talented and spirited fashion editor for Vogue Magazine. In 1981 she began featuring a new face in her glamorous editorial pages. Today artist Wanakee Pugh credits Ms. Wang for giving her a tremendous start that launched a successful twenty-year modeling career.

Catherine Roberts

The legendary Wilhelmina Cooper, another tall, voluptuous brunette, recognized the potential in Catherine’s classic features and luxurious dark hair and signed her to an exclusive contract.

Nancy DeWeir

At age 15 (1978) Nancy DeWeir was discovered by ad exec Vincent Teschetti ( Vice President of BBD&O) while traveling on the Long Island Rail Road with her mother to have dinner in the city with her father, who worked in the Twin Towers.

supermodelicons

 

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Karlina Caune (NY Models)

I was discovered randomly, my cousin sent my pictures behind my back and I got a call from my mother agent in a middle of Youthgard training. Funny combination, isn’t it?

Codie Young (DNA Models)

I was scouted in a shopping center in Australia.

Nadja Bender (NY Models)

My downstairs neighbor knows my booker, so she contacted me on Facebook and then it just went fast from there.

models.com

 

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Courtney Shallcross

I was at the airport with my brother, and we missed our connecting flight by five minutes. We were going from Pittsburgh to Charlotte and then catching a flight from Charlotte to Houston. So, we were stuck in Charlotte, just waiting around the terminal for a few hours, and I met my mother agent there.

Odile Coco

My sister [Marthe van Stuijvenberg] was a model. I went to her first test shoot, and the photographer was like, “Jump in.” It’s funny because we’re total opposites. I’m sort of narrow, and my sister is like a goddess — all the guys stare at her. There was never a rivalry between us because we’re in such different markets.

Charlotte Wiggins

There’s this thing in England, in Birmingham, called the Clothes Show. It’s just like little booths with clothes and sales. I went with the arty girls from school and an agent from Select, my mother agency, came up to me. He was this huge, 6-foot, 2-inch guy and he bolted towards me as soon as I came in the door. He kept trying to get me to go with him to the agency right then and there. At first I was pretty weirded out.

wwd

 

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Martyna Frankow

Somebody found me on the Internet. There’s this Web site called Max Models in Poland, with models, photographers, stylists, makeup artists, everybody on it, and people are scouted on it. It’s really popular in Poland now because everyone wants to be a model, but three years ago it wasn’t really big. One of my friends put my pictures on it, and then I was contacted by my mother agency. They told me I had a very interesting face.

Milou van Groesen

My mother agency, A Models Amsterdam, found me in a tram station in Amsterdam. I was with a friend, and I saw this couple looking at me. I was like, “Why are they staring?” I was wearing red pants and I thought that was why. But then they came over and were so nice and gave me their card. They turned out to be awesome people, so I was like, “Let’s do it.”

Vika Falileeva

There was a modeling competition in Irkutsk, where I’m from in Russia. I didn’t compete though. When I went and the judges met me they were like, “You don’t need to do this. You can just get signed now.”

wwd

 

[Pricciao]

Vika's story should be on the landing page of NTM official sites.

 

[petit fours]

Nadine Leopold was spotted in a shopping mall in Vienna.