Mother agencies of the world unite and take over! This is not a call to arms . It is merely a way to address what has become the new reality of the modeling industry. Those mother agencies in Sweden, the Ukraine, Russia, Finland, Moldovia, Brazil, Denmark..they know. They have a direct line. Major casting directors are emailing them directly and the information, the access, the connections that used to be the purvey of only a few big city power agents is now in wider circulation. What that means is those new faces that said mother agencies trade like vital commodities ..they want INSTANT results on those girls. They want them in blue chip shows pronto. They want them shuttled right now to the Meisel studio. They want them opening Marc Jacobs now. They want that Calvin Klein exclusive right now. They want them in front of Russell Marsh asap and they need to see career traction, if not within weeks, within days of the girl hitting the market.
Having spent the past week looking at new girls (I counted upwards of 300) I can safely come to this conclusion because it has been years since I have seen so many new girls of such outstanding quality clustered around a New York show season. Paris yes, but never like this in New York at the start of the season. For the first time in a long time the glut of models is actually serving a productive purpose. Apart from making a casting easier, it is also signaling that on the level of scouting there is a clear distinction between those agencies with first pick status among mother agencies and those with last pick position. Last pick, we'll get to later but that first pick bounty.... You can tell by the quality of girls each agency is platforming. You can tell by how carefully she is packaged. You can feel the judicious choices being made around her. Case in point was an IMG go-see from which 3 girls easily leaped out as instant contenders for Top 10 Newcomers. Girls like Frida, Vanessa H and Julija Step apart from being blue chip, beam first pick, a status that IMG as company works tirelessly to achieve. Or take Auguste,a Top 10 Newcomer last season from Women now in NY for her first season. This is precisely the kind of girl who walks in with that first pick carriage. You clearly see that this is the kind of girl who never has to book a single bad job in her career given her pristine potential.
At Marilyn you see a girl like Katlin and you know she is a rare thing, precisely because casting directors are buzzing to you that in just one week, she has already soaked up the kind of New-York-underground-sub-cultural cool that makes youth so irresistible to mainstream designers. Word is floating around town that Katlin is showing up with an entourage of Margiela wearing New York cool kids and you think "God bless a girl who gives us moments". Moments are what you look desperately for as
castings...fitting...consultations and considerations stretch on and the nights get later and later. You start to wonder why you're doing this? You start to wonder why a last pick agency thought it prudent to send in an ungroomed girl with bad skin and asymmetrical shoulders. Did they not stop to think that she would be going up against the best of the best? Or is it that some people can't see the extremity of the competition they face?
Shows, as we all know make no money for the agencies. But they exist to maintain relationships with those powerful casting directors and stylists, and most importantly designers who filter down the glut to the most refined choices on the market. It is common knowledge that US Vogue keeps a keen watch on who walks which shows as a kind of qualifier before deciding if the girl is worthy of heavy rotation in its pages.
Apart from filtering the truly outstanding girls from the fillers, what criteria do you use to gauge her potential as a long distance runner? Short answer...quality of management. Can the management team behind this girl move her across the chess board to a six or seven figure career? Are there relationships with the right casting directors, the right photographers, the right designers and editors that will give her career that competitive edge? Which leads us back to those mother agencies. They know now! They know those hall marks and grace notes of a good career very well now. And they are watching!
But why you think that Frida Gustavsson doesn't fir BCBG? I think she looked extra hot, same as Yulia. About the rest I could even agree!
