
Natalia Vodianova arrives at the Alexander Wang show at New York Fashion Week.
Natalia Vodianova arrives at the Alexander Wang show at New York Fashion Week.
exclusive shot of Natalia entering the Moncler Gamme Rouge show at Paris Fashion Week, which wasn't listed on the schedule, nor location of show made available to the public. Also be sure to check out my TUMBLR blog as I've been updating over there too.
Roberto Cavalli
Laetitia Casta gets swarmed by cameras
Natalia Vodianova
details: Natalia's bag
Karolina Kurkova
Walking Calvin Klein for a model spells value for her career in many ways, two of which are:
1. Highly Efficient Go See--Gets the attention of influentials in minimal time. A runway show is like a super efficient "Go See", where the model goes to see not just one possible client--one at a time, but hundreds. And in the case of Calvin Klein, those people mark the creme de la creme of the fashion world.
2. High face recognition--the girls faces aren't disguised behind a mirage of makeup, hair accessories, or masks. This improves her chances of facial recall for future castings.
Jessica walked 2 looks in her exclusive for Calvin Klein, past exclusives have included Natalia Vodianova, Karlie Kloss, and Lara Stone.
On a lighter note, I tawt I taw Jessica wearing a Tweety Bird shirt :)
Arizona Muse (Next, NY) exiting Balenciaga in Paris
Arizona Muse was arguably the new phenomena to watch this last show season. She captured the hearts of a wide set of Casting Directors from London's Russell Marsh to New York's James Scully. She's from New Mexico in case you are wondering and her show credits include opening and closing both Prada and Miu Miu, opening Chloé and closing YSL. I'm sure the Faith Kates team at Next NY will generate some amazing off season action for this new wonder.
Bo Don (Marilyn, NY) exiting Roberto Cavalli in Milan
Dutch wonder Bo Don first debuted on the runways at the Fall/Winter 2010 PARIS shows, but this Spring/Summer 2018 season marked her first full circuit of shows. Her appearence in Balenciaga marked two consecutive seasons in the show and her walks in the most directional shows like Cavalli, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs and Chanel point to what is surely going to be a colorful career to manage for the team over at Marilyn.
Britt Maren (Women, NY) exits Isabel Marant in Paris
Can you say "Hej Britt!" That's Swedish for you guys out there who want to show love by speaking in Britt's homeland language. I'm sure she'll get lots more love from the Women Model NY team lead by agency head Louie Chaban (the genius behind Agyness Deyn). With appearances in the most directional shows cast by a wide set of influential casting directors this season from opening Alexander Wang (Anita Bitton) to Balmain, Lanvin, Marc Jacobs (Michelle Lee) and Donna Karen (John Pfeiffer), I'm sure the editors at the worlds leading magazines will be taking note of her as well....perhaps Steven Meisel soon too?
Bambi Northwood-Blyth (Elite, NY) exits Balenciaga in Paris
Do you come from the land down under? Bambi does and somehow I think her booking value will be up and over the top in the off season. She's got a famous boyfriend (Ksubi co-founder Dan Single), plays in the social scene (maximizes her exposure), caught the eye of Casting Director Ashley Brokaw when she walked Balenciaga, channeled some Lagerfeld Love at Chanel, and apparently is a favorite of LOVE Editor-In-Chief Katie Grand enough to exclusively walk shows Katie styled in London.
Jessica Clarke (DNA, NY) exits Elie Saab
New Zealand hits the radar! Jessica debuted by walking a Calvin Klein exclusive. Scoring a Calvin Klein exclusive is like winning a New York Fashion Week MVP award. Past Calvin Klein runway exclusives have included Karlie Kloss (SS08), Natalia Vodianova (SS07), and Lara Stone (SS07). Jessica walked a tiny selection of other shows this season too, cherry picked from the best London, Milan, and Paris had to offer.
This the outfit she wore to the Valentino couture show.
Kate King (Canada/FORD, NY) walked Wang in her first season ever FW11
New York Fashion Week is here and from within the modeling industry, everyone's eyes are wide open to spot the next big face of the season. BCBG Max Azria on Day 2 will often set a precedent, followed by Alexander Wang on Day 3. The big question about Wang's show is, "Who will open Alexander Wang?" Wang has recently set a precedent with discovering The New Face of the season. I wish I could say it was me (ha) as he (Alexander Wang) often remembers me when I wear my Marc Jacob's silk georgette twill top with built in bow tie (shot his party at Paris Fashion Week wearing that and then a year later he recalled it), but alas reality sets in.
Wang wasn't always the hit wonder for models though. Up until he got the CFDA Top 10 nomination, he was casting more unknown girls. Taking a quick look at the history of who opened Alexander Wang therafter, this is what we get:
SS08 Noot Sear
FW08 Freja Beha Erichsen
SS09 Raquel Zimmerman
FW09 Natasha Poly
SS10 Mirte Maas
FW10 Natalia Vodianova
SS11 Britt Maren
FW11 Aymeline Valade
Is it any wonder with A-listers like Freja and Raquel opening in the past, that when a new face gets the first impression look in a show chalked full of A-list models and alpha editors now, the new face gains noteworthy public recognition in the modeling industry? Or when a new face walks the show at all for that matter...
Hang with me here for just a couple of more minutes. If you take a look at the other models who get cast for Wang, you will see a lineup full of A-listers. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see who The Real Queen of the Alexander Wang runway was. Which model has walked Alexander Wang MORE than any other model? So I went back in the archives at both style.com and vogue.com till they didn't have any older shows than SS17 and made a mini Runway IQ tracker which you can play with below.
Without further ado, the winners are:
1. Hanne Gaby Odiele (Ford) 8 looks
2. Freja Beha Erichsen (IMG) 7 looks
Kasia Struss (Women) 7 looks
3. Abbey Lee Kershaw (Next)6 looks
Alla Kostromichova (Women) 6 looks
Lily Donaldson (IMG) 6 looks
Magdalena Frackowiak (DNA) 6 looks
What's the point of all this? Well as the saying goes, you are judged by the company you keep and if you are keeping company in Alexander Wang's line up, a designer celebrated by the CFDA and getting press left and right for his companies sales, you are in good company.