My top breakout model of the Fall/Winter 2013 season! It is Sasha’s time! If you are a fan of the “underdog on top” story, then you would love the story of Sasha’s development. Here’s the 4-1-1 on the hottest girl this season — the deeper layers behind those hidden eyes…
The 20-year-old Russian beauty is technically not a new face on the runways. Miss Luss actually walked her first Parisian show during the Spring 2008 season for Alena Akmadullina. Without a debut success, she returned to the development board and was sent to less prestigious modeling cities in Asia to build her portfolio and further develop. A year later, Sasha returned to the runway as a new face at DNA Models during New York Fashion Week. For the Spring 2009 season, she booked 5 shows — all second-tier or lower casting except for DKNY. She also went to Milan that season, but only booked a few shows. None were major. Without much success on her second runway try, she returned to Asia for more development. She was only 16 at the time, still maturing and growing into her looks. Baby-faced and still learning to pose, Sasha’s look was too cute, young and girly at the time when alienesque-chic (Tanya Dziahileva and Mariya Telnaya) was in fashion. It wasn’t her time, and the agencies knew that. So, back to school and back to Asia — back to commercial and cutesy work.
Fast forward to over 2 years later in Milan during the Spring 2012 show season, Sasha booked a few shows — her best booking was Moschino. Then she walked for Chanel Pre-Fall 2012. Surprise! She followed that with walking Haute Couture Spring 2012 in Paris for a handful of shows with the most prestigious being Chanel. However, there was little room and opportunity to shine since Karl Lagerfeld books what seems to my eyes a million White models for every Chanel show (even if it’s Bombay or Shanghai -themed). A month later, she skipped New York and London and appeared on the Milan FW 2012 runways. She booked a lot of shows, but they were not top-tier. Her bookings remained unimpressive in Paris that season. Maybe by this point, many of us who follow the story would by now cast Sasha as a non-runway girl. However, the special thing about her story up to this point is that because she hasn’t break out yet — her moment — the right moment — can happen next season or years later. In other words, if she tried and reappeared when her look is in season or when some taste maker who has seen her probably 5 times already by now suddenly decides overnight that she is “it” (oh fashion…), a star would be born.
It’s September 2012, Miss Luss is 19 years young. She has been modeling since 2007. She tries her catwalk luck again in Milan. She booked shows, but nothing to help catapult her on the map. In Paris, Mr. Raf Simons is now the head designer at Christian Dior. Spring 2012 would be his debut ready-to-wear collection for the house. Sasha landed in Paris and booked Cedric Charlier on the 1st day among a sea of new faces. In fact, Sasha was still unknown 6 months ago and so she was misidentified on that runway by a major media outlet. A few days passed and no sign of Miss Luss. Then suddenly, Mr. Simons’s look #4 came out. It was Miss Luss! And her agency cancelled all other offers that season and called it a Dior exclusive (which technically isn’t what I would label as an exclusive)…
Is it her time? Could it be possible for Miss Luss’s soft feminine look to fit in with the handsome beauty trend that has been popular in the past few seasons? Can she compete? Weeks later, the Christian Dior Pre-Fall 2013 lookbook came out, and Sasha is featured in the shots along with Marie Piovesan and Marine Deleeuw — two of the French girls leading the handsome pack. What does that mean? It was hard to tell. Is there room for a commercial girl to shine on the oh so edgy prestigious high fashion runways?
Personally, I was rooting for Miss Luss then and now. I wanted another story of the underdog on top. I had been following Kel Markey, Martha Hunt, Ava Smith and Tilda Lindstam — all of their careers. The rise of these formal commercial under-the-radar girls booking 50+ shows or being cast in the top of campaigns kept me interested in fashion the last few seasons. None of these girls suffered immediately overnight successes; they were working for years with little runway successes up until recently. Having a love for just following the careers of underdogs, tracking Miss Luss’s bookings was my new pleasure for the past few months. I have a fondness for commercial (conventionally beautiful) girls going high fashion and succeeding, and I also have a fondness for the vice versa when high fashion girls succeed commercially, proving that as good models they can soften their edgy looks to make the image sexy and commercial. Overall, I love it when a young woman has the ambition and dare to challenge the image box that this cruel industry often confines her in. Fashion often give its muses only 1-dimensional stories and roles to play. I love it when a girl is out to prove the world wrong, and I love it more when she gets to succeed. Usually, anyway.
Following her debut on the Dior Spring 2012 runway, Sasha had an amazing Haute Couture season in January 2013. She opened Valentino Haute Couture Spring 2013. Her ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2013 runway season, 6 long trying years after she was signed as a model, was everything to be called a “breakout” season. 58 top shows, 5 opening honors, and 2 closing spots in New York, Milan and Paris. Everyone paid attention to Sasha this season, and they should. She’s one of the most beautiful and exquisite girl that’s still fresh at the present time. In other words, Miss Luss is fashion’s current hot commodity. I hope she will get more chances to prove the usefulness of her timeless feline beauty.
Patience, development and strategic management were needed to unleash the most captivating girl of the season. Say hello to who I consider to be my top breakout star this season!
so happy for her! finally! love the story of her!
