John Pfeiffer, the elusive Casting Director for the Victoria's Secret show. Basically, John narrows down the candidates to walk the show from over 200 to just around 80. John casts for numerous other directional shows like Oscar and Ralph Lauren.
backstage is actually quite spacious and open, unlike at New York Fashion Week shows, where it's crowded.
Constance!
Numerous interviews simulataneously happen backstage. For 39 girls who walk the show, I'd say there are at least 25-30 interviews being simultaneously conducted.
Magdalena...
Shu Pei, a new face for the show. There were 11 new faces in the Victoria's Secret Show this season, down from 15 new faces last year.
With fashion month just around the corner, I thought this interview I did with modeling industry icon Faith Kates would add some balanced insight into the world of modeling.
Faith Kates is a modeling industry legend. She started NEXT Model Management in 1989. Recently, we sat down to talk all things modeling. Needless to say, it was a great learning experience. Enclosed are few snippets from our conversation. And to Faith and the people at NEXT, thank you!
WHY THE SECOND SEASON IN A MODELS CAREER IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE FIRST
Faith: Realistically, there's so many girls that have gotten ruined because they come the first season, they're not ready to do those shows and they do them. And the second season they're like, 'but she couldn't walk last season.' You know our job as agents is to prepare these models to get them out there, so that they do their job perfectly. ...we want to get them out there and we want them to know how to walk. I always say if you can get them a couple of good shows so they have some confidence. Think about being young from Latvia...this is the first time you've ever been on airplane and you walk out from behind the stage. You walk out and you're in shoes this high (gestures to a 5" stiletto) and there's a thousand people looking at you with cameras flashing. Think about that very first moment. See that's the story you should start talking to the girls about is, 'What do you fee like?' So it's a lot easier to do that exact thing in a smaller show and then another show and another show and then by the time you get to Prada, you got it.
Craig: So you might not necessarily try and book her for all the big shows?
Faith: Exactly. The first season is important but the second season is more important. Because the first season, lets say you got all the shows. You've got to keep them the second time. It's easy to get the first time. Now you have to do the editorial. Now you have to be out there the whole time. Because your only new once. (pause)
You are only a new girl once.
...you have to really know how to pace it. You have to know what you'll be able to sustain and not sustain.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EDITORIAL IN A MODELS CAREER
Craig: How important is editorial?
Faith: Very important.
Craig: More important than campaigns?
Faith: It's all about VOGUE. If you are a VOGUE girl you are everywhere. Go into VOGUE magazine. You want to learn something, go in Vogue look at all the girls that are in the well. Go in Anna J, any one of them, Catherine, those are the girls that are doing all the campaigns. Those are girls that are in all the shows.
WHY GOOD RELATIONSHIPS WITH KEY PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE IMPORTANT
Faith: ...I think that in our world...when a girl starts, if you have one of the three or 4 really important photographers behind you, that's the girls that are making it. So if you have Steven Meisel, you have Mario Testino, you have a Craig McDean, you have a David Sims... you have one of those guys behind you, you're in.
Craig: So that's the goal then?
Faith: That's the goal.
Craig: Is that how you view your goal, moreso the photographer?
Faith: It is. You could walk in 1 show. I could get you to walk in Prada, you can walk in Gucci, you can walk in 1 show. But you didn't do good in that show. Or you know. You had the exclusive for the good show. I've seen girls have an exclusive to Prada and you never see them again. They weren't so great in the show. But at least if you are in a picture, it's out there. and it's out there for at least a couple of months and people keep seeing it. It's different. It's on the shelf its always there...with magazines while they're sitting out there, people are able to take them home and they keep looking and looking and looking at them....
Craig: The photographers are the key then?
Faith: The photographers and the magazines have all the power. Designers are important, don't get me wrong. They are very important. But I think it goes first with if you can get to the photographer. There are some girls that are really photographers girls.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF A MODEL LIKING CLOTHES AND FASHION AS A NECESSITY TO SUCCEED
Craig: Does a girl with a genuine appreciation for fashion and clothing fare better in this industry?
Faith: You don't have to care about clothes...I don't think you have to love clothes. I don't think you have to dislike clothes. I just think you have to know how to wear clothes and know what feels good and right on you.
Craig: But like a girl who can get in touch with the artistic aesthetic of a Yohji Yamamoto because she's interested in style?
Faith: I don't think that matters.
Craig: It doesn't matter?
Faith: Not at all. I don't think it matters at all. I think that girl understands better what, and appreciate more what she's wearing but I don't think that that makes her a better model or makes her any better at what she does because she understands the dress
ON TWO TYPES OF FAME FOR A MODEL
Craig: How important is press as opposed to campaigns, editorials in magazines, and runways to a models career?
Faith: It depends upon the model. So there's a "high fashion model" lets call her that's doing all the campaigns and doing Vogue and doing all the shows. It doesn't matter. Because for her, her bible is the editorial, the Vogues of the world, and doing runway.
Then there's a whole other group of girls that, they are famous because of the press. They probably were not really famous models. But they became famous because they dated somebody that was famous, they were in the right place at the right time, they dated a basketball player, there was something about them that made them famous.
...There's 2 different kinds of famous. There's fashion famous which is what every model, I hate to say it , aspires to. They aspire to being in the well of American Vogue, they aspire to being photographed by Craig McDean, and David Sims, Steven Meisel, photographers Bruce Weber, like that.
And then there are girls that you know that their dream was to be in Sports Illustrated or to be in Victoria's Secret. Its a very different kind of famous and its a different kind of fashion. So its completely different. So there's two types of fame.
ON THE INTERNET AND PRINT
Craig: ...how important is the internet going to be to a models career as opposed to print publications?
Faith: I think we've all been struggling through it for the last 7 or 8 years. I don't see the print magazine or the newspaper or even the written book going away. As hard as I try to read and kindle it was the same as turning the pages. I think the internet becomes important because every day you can change it.
I do believe that the print magazine never goes away. I don't think VOGUE ever goes. I think that they are going to do business a bit differently.
AND FINALLY: THE BIGGEST NAMES NEXT HAS DEVELOPED FROM SCRATCH
Craig: The biggest names you've developed from scratch?
Faith: Milla Jovovich, Molly Sims, Joy Bryant, Diane Kruger (the actress), Angie Everhart, Anja Rubick, Anna Jagodzinka, Catherine McNeil, and Jessica Miller.
NUDE FOR SS17: Isabeli Fontana (Brazil) exits the SS17 Balmain show at Paris Fashion Week in October with hardly a hint of make up.
NUDE FOR FW11: Arizona Muse (USA) exits the FW11 show at Paris Fashion Week with hardly a hint of make up
HOW SHE WORE IT: Isabeli Fontana (Brazil)
HOW SHE WORE IT: Arizona Muse (USA)
The make up genius behind Balmain, Ralph Lauren, Derek Lam, Altuzarra, the Victoria's Secret show, and the SS17 Estée Lauder campaign is Tom Pecheux. He is needless to say, another World Thought Leader when it comes to make up. What I found interesting is how Tom chose a virtually nude make up aesthetic for both the SS17 and FW11 Balmain shows. When you think Balmain, you think Rock and Roll Edge. I know I would assume that Rock and Roll edge would be filled with a Debbie Harry like character -- with a stark black palette of mascara and strong eye shadow.
But, in both seasons, Tom Pecheux preserved the models original beauty. It's what British Vogue called, "a nude face becomes an aesthetic of its own this season, pointing to a woman that is completely at home in her own skin." American Vogue quoted Pecheux for the SS17 show "It's about what you don't see" and for the FW 11 show "...we want the girls to look like themselves".
Ultimately, this creates more booking value for the model too, since it makes their face more recognizable and memorable to key editors, photographers, and stylists--unlike other directional shows where the girl hides behind a mask or looks like a clown.
Something to think about next time you don your Balmain.
p.s. if you want to get a glimpse of my life beyond the blog, I'm tweeting with regularity now @WhatShaunaThinks
Erin appeared alongside model icon Lauren Hutton in the 2008 Lord and Taylor campaign, walked the 2008 Victoria's Secret fashion show, and is the June 2009 Paris Vogue Calendar girl.
leather jacket -- Balenciaga bag -- Chloe scarf -- Alexander McQueen
random passerby taking photo of Mercedes Fashion Force squad car
Karolina stops twins on the street to ask for a photo
Ornela and Odelia Samuels get snapped
Karolina also chose a 3 month old puppy, Daphne.
Edward Barsanian of the New York Times - T Magazine.
Of this gentleman, Karolina said, "I like his little Russian hat. It's smart and he's staying warm, which is very important. It's different. You know I don't see a lot of men wearing those kinds of hats and he's owning it. I like that"
Tuesday afternoon as part of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Force program, I was offered a car ride with Karolina Kurkova (discovered by Miuccia Prada at age 15 and later a Victoria's Secret Angel). We weren't exactly police men in that black and white car though, more like street style bounty hunters as Karolina kept a keen eye for stylish peeps on the street--from twins, to a T Magazine editor, to a 3 month old puppy....And not only did Karolina act as the street style hunter de jour, but I also got to ask her a few questions while we drove:Craig: When you were a little girl, what did you dream of being when you grew up?
Karolina: I wanted to be a princess. I wanted to have super long hair. When i was a little girl I had short hair. ... I was like a little tomboy. And I'd walk around and put a tiara on and I'd put a duvet [editors note: duvet = bed sheet] on my head like I'd have super long hair to the floor and I'd wear my mom's high heels and walk around.
Craig: If you could wake up anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be?
Karolina: Somewhere on the beach. This beautiful beach. Sun is shining...(pause)...sun of the ocean...it could be anywhere. I just love the beach. I love the sunset and watching the ocean and hearing the sound.
Craig: so what are you wearing today?
Karolina: I'm wearing a J. Mendel coat, nice and warm. And then I'm wearing Hervé Léger--let me show you. I'm wearing a dress and over the dress I'm wearing an Hervé Léger skirt. So I'm kind of layering and playing with his clothes to make my own. And make it so I feel comfortable, yet stylish but at the same time comfortable and me. And then I'm wearing Brian Atwood beautiful patent leather shiny boots....
Former Victoria's Secret Angel Izabel as found exiting the Dolce & Gabbana show. Did you know that according to her Wikipedia entry, she once told Conan O'Brien that she learned english by watching Woody Woodpecker cartoons? While I haven't shot her a lot, she sure seems like fun :)
Also, just a reminder that this blog will be moving to TUMBLR within the next couple of weeks. Because of the unfortunate incident of flickr deleting without advance warning 3.5 years of archives (of which I don't absolve myself of responsibility for causing), I've decided it was best to move to a new platform which is more internet savvy. So the chronological order of the archives won't be preserved in the same linear format they are presented here.
Dandy Model Management entrance. Riga, Latvia is full of so many different types of architectural references as you can see from the rooftop of this building, which is Parisian in reference.
During the Soviet Era, all the designers were based out the building that Dandy Model Management is currently headquartered in.
Nils Raumanis, founder of Dandy Model Management. Nils discovered Ginta Lapina and Ieva Laguna among other top models.
THEN: Dmitrijis Kopeikins as a model
NOW: Dmitrijis is now the Director of Dandy Models, while Nils focuses on the scouting end of the business.
Dandy Models is a boutique high fashion modeling agency run in Riga. It's run like a true New York agency, profiting from campaigns and bookings, as opposed to model training schools, a common approach in the Baltics. Dandy is #1 in the Baltics for male model representation.
Ginta Lapina
Dandy's Dog
A motorcycle motif theme runs throughout the offices.
I just got back to New York from a Baltic State tour including Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. While in Riga, I had the opportunity to visit with the Dandy Model Management Team, the mother agency to Ginta Lapina and Ieva Laguna.
The one thing that impressed me most about Dandy Model Management beyond the fact that their founder Nils discovered Ginta Lapina and Ieva Laguna, was how their agency plans to integrate the internet with it's agency goals. Click for a LIVE STREAM of their agency office as a case in point or have a visit to their web site HERE.
I'll be shooting more behind the scenes action including tonights Victoria's Secret show, so stay tuned for fresh updates!
