French Fashion Flair

There is nothing like the flair of the French. Whenever I took a flight in Europe and landed at Charles de Gaulle, I instantly would be hit with a case of style envy. From toddlers to grandparents, everyone dresses with panache. They never look like they stepped out of a catalog but always out of a spread in Vogue. How do they do it?

Ultra Stylish Brigitte Bardot

A recent  article in the NY Times about the new book The Killer Detail, by French journalists Francois Armanet and Elisabeth Quin, outlined the easy recipe for achieving that certain je ne sais quoi:

The secret is balance and detail.

“Wear a vintage Chanel jacket — with jeans. Wear a little black dress — with flaming red stilettos. Never dress yourself from head to toe in one designer; never wear everything new.”

Models absolutely should follow these rules. Vintage clothes, a fantastic pair of jeans, the little black dress, the surprising detail that makes you stand out from the cattle-call mass—these are your best friends.

Model Audi Martel at Fashion Week

Read the whole article: In the Book “The Killer Detail,” Considering the Essence of Chic

Stay tuned to “Meet the Judges” of the Modeling Mentor Model Search next week! Don’t forget to like your favorite Model of the Month.

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Fashion Week is here for Spring 2014! Let’s start with this Fashion Week for Dummies Tip: Next season’s fashions are shown about six months ahead of when they will appear in stores, i.e. Spring 2014 collections appear on catwalks now, and Fall 2014 will debut in February.

The models who walk in the most shows during Fashion Week often are the same models who will garner the most tear sheets in fashion spreads this fall. The editors who go to the shows are reviewing the clothes and looking for the season’s hottest models.

The most renowned Fashion Weeks occur in New York, Paris, and Milan, but London has been a contender for decades and every other city from here to Tokyo seems to have launched their own version (Miami, Los Angeles, Scottsdale, Toronto, Montreal, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Moscow, Jakarta, Tokyo, Perth… The list goes on and on).

The Model Strut

The style may be a tad different from season to season, era to era (the sexy strut of larger-than-life supermodels, the trudge of the heroine chic girls…), but some things haven’t changed since China Machado walked for Givenchy and Balenciaga in Paris in the ’50s. Runway models must:

1. Exude confidence

2. Stand tall (and have long slender legs)

3. Put one foot in front of the other (literally)

4. Not hunch their shoulders

5. Make whatever they are modeling look fabulous

Model Money

Linda Evangelista once famously said that she did not get out of bed for less than $10,000. Those were the days. Few models make what the supermodels did doing runway shows. That’s because they were a select posse of girls (about 10 to 15, with Linda, Christy, and Naomi leading the way), whom every designer wanted. The masses knew their names, they had big personalities, their agents kept upping their rates, and designers paid, and paid, and paid, until… until, well, enough was enough. And celebrities started stealing some of the limelight on fashion magazines, weakening models’ clout.

These days models turn over faster, so few have bargaining power to demand huge rates. A small show may pay $200, or, more likely, pay in trade, i.e. clothing (probably an item or two, not a whole wardrobe). A big-name show may pay $1,000. Back when I did Fashion Week (a few years ago…ha), I made about $500 a show, or, in one case, nothing, as the designer just never paid. Who was it? Hint: A photo from that show is in this collage and it is NOT Alberta Ferretti …

Sign up for my free monthly Modeling Mentor Newsletter. I’m announcing September Model of the Month there tomorrow!

Congrats Grace!

Photo by Debra Somerville

Age: 12     Height: 5’2″     Size: Girls 10/12     Shoe: 6

Seeking Representation

Greater New York Area

Watch for Grace on the Fashion Week runways in a few years. What a beauty! Check out the range of looks she rocks:

Photo by Debra Somerville
Brooke Shields’ Hair!

Photo by Debra Somerville

Photo by Debra Somerville

Don’t forget to “like” the page of your favorite Model of the Month! These likes will be taken into account by the panel of industry experts who will name the Modeling Mentor Model of the Year in November.

If you haven’t entered yet, there’s plenty of time to get in the running: Modeling Mentor Model Search

Subscribe to my free monthly Modeling Newsletter to see the finalists first and stay up to date on model news and tips!

Looking for a model with more heft than a toothpick? In a recent New York Times article, Guy Trebay declared that designers and editors finally are, in male models anyway. The scrawny skate-rat look is out. The strong man with suits in his closet and stubble on his face (or at least enough testosterone to sport bristled cheeks on the weekends if he wants) is in.

Naturally, images of strong women should follow. Models as distinctive, powerful, and enduring as the supermodels of the 80s. Models who—get this—eat.

I’ve always asserted that most models have naturally high metabolisms and lean bodies. When I walked Fashion Week catwalks in the 90s, I had 127 pounds on my five-foot-ten frame. I ate. My model friends ate. We vomited when we had the flu, not after dinner. Okay, maybe once too many drinks came up, with a slice of Ray’s inadvertently mixed in.

Sorry for the colorful imagery, but it’s not nearly as gross as the emaciated figures I encountered in New York during Fashion Week this fall: wide-set-eyed girls being robbed of their late-night pizza bonding moments, their energy to enjoy the adventures of modeling, of youth. I, seven years past my last runway strut (or waddle, since it was a maternity show forLive With Regis & Kelly) should have been eyeing these models in their prime with envy; instead, I felt sorry for them.

Worse yet, today’s mannequins are in and out of fashion as fast as the latest iPhone model. All that starving for a millisecond of fame and no chance of being known the world over by their first names. Bring on the next Cindy, Christy, Claudia, Linda, even Naomi (if the new version has a tad more self-control). It’s been long enough since a sylphlike girl named Kate Moss ushered in the era of Heroin Chic, which laid the foundation for the era of Skeletal.

The trend has bottomed out. Limbs with zero muscle definition, jutting hip bones, the absence of womanly curves—it’s no longer novel. These bony clothes hangers can’t go any lower, except six feet under, which is exactly where several anorexic models have ended up.  The subsequent BMI minimums on Madrid and Milan catwalks didn’t eradicate the “size-zero” models—the girls who are barely there—and models born with a tendency toward a low BMI, no matter how many Big Macs they eat, got upset. I knew girls like that, so I can see why they’d be peeved to hang up their pumps. A size 6, maybe a 4 in the odd generously sized couture gown, I would have passed even if I were newly in love or freshly broken hearted (the crush and crushed diets were the only kind I ever went on).

A few years later, the paper-thin girls linger. The health of these young role models and the masses that look up to them doesn’t seem to be a cause that influences the fashion set. It’s all about what’s in and out. That’s why now is the time. The weedy guys are out. Their female counterparts should exit with them. Editors, designers, photographers—come on, it really only takes one trailblazer. Hedi Slimane single-handedly sparked the wimpy boy era with the models he booked for Dior. Now all these muscular “real men” are back. It’s the perfect time for a Marilyn Monroe moment on the female front.

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