The modeling industry
today looks almost nothing like it did a decade ago. As with other sectors
in the fashion industry, the impact of social media has given rise to new
trends in the modeling business. Traditionally, models were often scouted
in their hometowns and propelled into stardom on catwalks all over the
world. These days, fresh faces are most likely discovered on Instagram and
the number of their followers before they are signed by an agency is just
as important as the modeling portfolio. Another increasing trend is models
hailing from famous families are in demandto Dolce and
Gabbana. The right pedigree can almost immediately secure a high profile
campaign or at least a front-row seat as a special guest of the brand. Read
on for which current trends are dictating what makes a successful model in
2020.
Instagirls and the power of social media: Joan Smalls, Cara Delevingne,
Karlie Kloss
Back in September 2014, Vogue featured nine models on the cover and
officially termed the phrase, “Instagirls”. A new generation of
supermodels with millions of Instagram followers had arrived to rule the
runways. Fei Fei Sun and Arizona Muse may have been scouted the
‘traditional’ way while Cara Delevingne and Gigi Hadid were introduced to
the industry by their well-connected families, but one factor that united
them was how tech-savvy they were and their ability to engage with their
audience on social media.
Gigi Hadid, who to date has 51.8 million followers on Instagram told The
Independent in an article, “Companies are going to look at your following
and your ability to connect to different age groups and different people.
If you can connect to a lot of people by just being relatable and by
showing people different sides of your life and of you, that’s what brands
are looking for.”
Fashion icon and queen of the catwalk, Naomi Campbell was asked her
opinion regarding Instagirls on The Meredith Vieira Show in 2015,
she stated, “I just feel my generation of women, like Cindy Crawford, Linda
Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Claudia [Schiffer], we had to earn our
stripes and take our stepping stones to get to where we have gotten.”
Campbell further expressed that if she could do it all again, she’d still
choose the same old-fashioned way, rather than becoming one of the
industry’s current “Instagirls” because she feels that it’s “easy come,
easy go”.
Nepotism in modeling: Kaia and Presley Gerber, Kendall Jenner, Rafferty
Law, Hailey Baldwin, Gigi, Bella and Anwar Hadid
It seems that the days when a 14-year-old Kate Moss was recruited as a
model at New York’s JFK Airport, after holidaying with her family or when
Gisele Bündchen was discovered by an agent while eating at McDonald’s on a
school trip in São Paulo seem a thing of the past. In 2016, Chanel
announced that their new face for the fragrance No. 5 L’Eau, would be none
other than the 17-year-old daughter of Johnny Depp and French singer and
actress Vanessa Paradis. 90s supermodel Cindy Crawford’s daughter, Kaia
Gerber debuted in 2017 at New York Fashion Week while Hollywood actor
Stephen Baldwin’s daughter, Hailey Baldwin is the go-to girl for American
brands Guess and Ralph Lauren. With fashion runways across the world
seemingly turning into debutante balls, there continuously appears to be a
divided opinion between working models who don’t come from privilege and
the socialites favored currently by top brands.
In a controversial interview with Kendall Jenner by Love Magazine for
their tenth-anniversary issue, she expressed, “Since the beginning, we’ve
been super selective about what shows I would do. I was never one of those
girls who would do like 30 shows a season or whatever the f–k those girls
do. More power to ’em.” This out of touch statement ignited criticism on
social media from professional models that didn’t come from a celebrity
family. Teddy Quinlivan, a transgender American model who has walked for
designers including Jeremy Scott, Jason Wu, and Saint Laurent rebutted on
Instagram that most models weren’t born into privilege, don’t have the
opportunity to refuse work and make exponentially less for the same job.
Jenner’s model peers such as Daria Strokous and Amber Witcomb also weighed
in on the statement and were quick to remind Jenner that it’s closer to 70
shows some models walk a season.
Diversity and inclusivity: Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, Winnie
Harlow
With the growing trends of inclusivity and body positivity, “We now live in a culture with increased demand
for products which identify with wearers’ beliefs and interests. Fashion is
acting as a greater mirror for social mood than ever before,“ Two of the most successful American plus-sized models
Paloma Elsesser and Ashley Graham joined Vogue’s panel, “Don’t Label Us:
The Models Reflecting Today” held in 2018 to voice their perspective on
representing ‘the actual norm in America’. “Ashley and I are in the same
industry, but we represent very different women, different identities,
different experiences. It’s hard when we’re supposed to represent all of
those identities in one,” Elsesser shared during the panel. They concluded
that fashion will only become more diverse when it overcomes tokenism.
Democratization of the modeling industry: #metoo, speaking the
truth
The #metoo movement has ushered in a new social narrative which has also
largely impacted the fashion industry as well. For decades, modeling has
been a silent profession, but with the access to social media and numerous
platforms, more and more models are finding the necessity to ‘speak the
truth’ about unprofessional working conditions, non-payment and abuse in
the industry. “Now models have social media platforms, so even if they’re
not incredibly well known, they can still have a relatively big following
and articulate their views in a way they weren’t able to do before,” said
Francesca Granata, the director of the master’s program in fashion studies
at Parsons School of Design to The New York Times.
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Photos: courtesy of Nasty Gal, courtesy of Jimmy Choo, courtesy of Pronovias