Model Casting F/W 2025.26

[woemwoem]

The only people who can accurately predict which new faces are going to make it big are maybe Anna Wintour and Steven Meisel since they are the only ones who can actually determine which new girls will be successful. And I'm not sure even they have that power any longer. Every modeling and casting agent has pushed girls they thought would make it big, who didn't. Not even any designer today has the clout to make a new girl. Miuccia did but Prada doesn't have that cachet any longer. Lagerfeld made some new girls when he was around as did Calvin, but I can't think of a single present-day designer who can take an unknown girl and push her into the stratosphere.

 

[woemwoem]

Oh yeah, call me a die-hard hardcore fan of Andressa Fontana's work! And that's just one among a dozen of others I liked/loved from the Supreme years (and early Ford moments to some point). And while I did enjoy the work of the most successful ones like Alanna Zimmer or Hanne Gaby (or Meghan Collison!), it always seemed I had a soft spot for the slightly less-known (or totally undercover) ones. Even the most 'commercial' model of the back-then Supreme board (hello, Edda Petursdottir) was some kind of a standout and had quite that edgy book (with gorgeous polaroids).

Jokes aside, that's what I loved with the 'Paul Rowland years' of mine (literally what made me wanna stay late at night on tFS in the mid-2000's). Was inspiring and beyond. I'm not the one who'll call him the 'ultimate starmaker' but I will always disagree with those thinking he failed or whatever dubious of this kind. His work at the helm of an agency was nothing less than a 24/7 aesthetic statement, from the models he chose to work with to the way he promoted their work (book and those unforgettable polas). And this is impressive enough for someone as passionate as I am.

The day of super agents like Rowland are pretty much a thing of the past. It's really about all the agents in an agency's board working together to push a girl instead of concentrating power in the hands of one agent. And with agents continually jumping from one agency to the next, it's the best way for an agency to protect itself from such desertions.

 

[penny609]

The day of super agents like Rowland are pretty much a thing of the past. It's really about all the agents in an agency's board working together to push a girl instead of concentrating power in the hands of one agent. And with agents continually jumping from one agency to the next, it's the best way for an agency to protect itself from such desertions.

To be honest, it was about team work already back then (headbooker + other agents, agent + model, many different kinds of team work actually), even if people will more likely remember the 'big names' like Paul Rowland or Ivan Bart (two different stories, even two different roles within their respective agencies also). And yes, agree with you that musical chairs aren't about to stop any soon.

 

[penny609]

The only people who can accurately predict which new faces are going to make it big are maybe Anna Wintour and Steven Meisel since they are the only ones who can actually determine which new girls will be successful. And I'm not sure even they have that power any longer. Every modeling and casting agent has pushed girls they thought would make it big, who didn't. Not even any designer today has the clout to make a new girl. Miuccia did but Prada doesn't have that cachet any longer. Lagerfeld made some new girls when he was around as did Calvin, but I can't think of a single present-day designer who can take an unknown girl and push her into the stratosphere.

People like Wintour or Meisel don't predict anything, it's more like they choose who they wanna work with and due to their position, it becomes (or used to become) some kind of big push to a career. Agree about Prada and designers / brands in general. Even when Prada was that big of a thing during fashion weeks, how many Gemmas did we get compared to the complete list of exclusive bookings? And as we're talking about exclusives, it just reminds of the "Jil Sander curse" back then.