Modeling Journey

Born in Puerto Rico in 1988, Joan Smalls began her career by signing with Elite Model Management in 2007.

Her career started off modestly, but soon developed, scoring a campaign for Liz Claiborne and catalogue work for U.S department store Nordstrom.
Many models struggle with the gap between being approachable but still high-fashion, but Joan’s early experiences of modelling provided her with the skills that would prove to be an excellent grounding for future campaigns.

Between 2007 and 2008, Smalls racked up catwalk credits with L’Wren Scott, Diane Von Furstenberg, Sass & Bide and Benjamin Cho. But her decision to leave Elite and sign with IMG in 2009 was a pivotal moment in Joan’s career. IMG Models, forming part of the huge global company IMG, is an agency that manages names such as Daria Werbowy and Gemma Ward, whilst housing newer talent such as Emily Di Donato and Barbara Palvin. What IMG is famous for, and it’s a strategy now used by many agencies, is applying the lessons it learnt from music and sports management and applying them to the world of fashion. It’s a smart way of extending the shelf-life of a model’s career, taking them from runway to celebrity.

Joan’s breakthrough came in January 2010. She was asked to walk in the Givenchy Couture show as an exclusive. The world of haute couture has often been criticised for being one-dimensional when it came to featuring models from different ethnic backgrounds. But Givenchy’s decision to hire Smalls as an exclusive was a signal, loud and clear, that times weren’t changing – they had already changed.

The ripple effect from the Givenchy show trickled down into Joan’s ready-to-wear bookings. Signing up to walk in 45 shows, Smalls appeared for designers such as Alexander Wang, Burberry, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Stella McCartney and Valentino.

Joan’s moment as fashion’s latest ‘it girl’ continued when she appeared in her first editorial for Italian Vogue. Working alongside models such as Lara Stone, Amber Valletta and Angela Lindvall, the editorial, ‘Shrink to Fit’, was a quirky take on cropped tailoring and high hemlines. Joan’s performance in the shoot was astonishing; calm, confident and assured.

In June, Joan was featured in American Vogue as a rising star. Selected by Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley, Smalls’ reputation as the next big thing was now established, with the nod from American Vogue being enough to catapult Smalls into campaign territory. In summer 2010, it was announced that Joan would be one of the new faces of Gucci.

It was a massively important signing. Gucci eclipses even Prada as the most famous label in fashion. Its reputation is the same the world over, a byword for luxury and glamour. To hire a non-Caucasian model to be one of the campaign headliners indicates just how far fashion has come in terms of embracing all kinds of beauty.

Silencing any doubters, when the campaign was unveiled, it was clear that Joan’s presence wasn’t a cynical attempt to appeal to the widest demographic possible. Gucci is the type of brand that doesn’t have to pander to anyone in order to get its goods off the shelves – the Gucci name sells itself. Working sophistication and sex appeal in equal measure, it was clear that Joan got the job because she embodied the Gucci brand from head to toe.

Following that Gucci ad, Joan could now add Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier to her couture CV, walking for both labels in July. Also appearing in back-to-back editorials for French and American Vogue, Joan took Fashion Week by storm when she opened shows for YSL and Jason Wu and closed the show for Dior. Appearing in a total of 41 shows, Joan was visibly moving up the ranks.

As much as Joan charmed the international runway crowd, she positively enamoured American Vogue. Her barn-storming performance at the world’s best runway shows, got her not just one editorial in their September issue, but four. Traditionally the best-selling issue of the year, Joan’s inclusion was not about special treatment, but equal treatment. It was a genuine coup.

Joan started off 2011 by renewing her contract with Gucci, also signing up to appear in campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and Stella McCartney. A month later, she appeared in two simultaneous Spring / Summer preview editorials for French and American Vogue.

In a surprising move, Joan also elected to appear in an all-black editorial for Italian Vogue. Dubbed ‘The Black Allure’, Smalls appeared with Chanel Iman, Sessilee Lopez, Arlenis Sosa and Aminata Niaria. The shoot referenced flapper glamour of the 1920’s, in particular, dancer and actress Josephine Baker. Of her time, Baker was extraordinary, and it is due to her efforts in getting diversity recognised that fashion more clearly represents the way we look now.

In March came the announcement that Joan was to join Liu Wen and Constance Jablonski in Estee Lauder’s new international beauty campaign. It was a brave move from Lauder because while they are widely known within the fashion industry, they are not the immediately recognisable faces normally associated with the brand, such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Elizabeth Hurley.

But hiring three relative unknowns put Estee Lauder in a strong position because without the baggage of celebrity, these models could quite literally be ‘everywoman’. There’s no bad film or questionable album release to hide – models tend to be the best hires for selling products because they come to a project as a blank canvas.

The signing of Smalls, along with Wen and Jablonski, created a great deal of excitement and rightly so – with this campaign, Estee Lauder effectively announced to the world that it is a global brand, inside and out.

Joan continues to be a prolific presence in 2011, with an A/W runway season totalling over 40 appearances, plus editorial work for American Vogue. Appearing in the April edition, Joan featured in ‘Bodies of Work’ with some pretty illustrious company. Raquel Zimmermann, Gisele Bundchen, Daria Werbowy, Lara Stone and Natalia Vodianova all signed on to take part.
The newest name among some seriously big hitters, Joan features in a simple body-con fashion shoot, channelling clean lines and athleticism mixed with a dose of glamour – just what American Vogue does best.

This type of shoot could also signal a change in Joan’s career, taking her from strictly runway to Victoria’s Secret and beyond. Having a marketable face is one thing, but a body that can transform from ultra-minimal tailoring to sexy body-con puts you in another league altogether. Being paired with Raquel Zimmermann, Lara Stone and Gisele Bundchen is no accident either. If American Vogue sees Joan as belonging to this group (and indeed she performs on a par with the more experienced names), then Smalls’ career could have a longevity far beyond the catwalk.

Of course, no model works alone – literally or metaphorically. A part of Joan’s success (and that of her peers) can be attributed to models like Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Yasmin Warsame and Alek Wek who made black models a legitimate choice for high fashion. From Yasmin’s delicate beauty to Alek’s all-conquering smile, the faces may not be as numerous as we would like, but that is visibly changing. Joan’s signing with Stella McCartney is the type of booking that her generation are coming to realise is theirs for the taking. Joan may look good in strong colours and exotic prints (an asset using to particularly striking effect in the Gucci campaign), but her range of bookings cover every aspect of global fashion.

The virtue of being an all-rounder is obvious, but what makes Smalls a particularly exciting prospect is that she hasn’t even realised her full potential yet. Her affiliation with labels like Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Roberto Cavalli is a sign of things to come. To go from virtual unknown to Gucci girl in less than three years is an indication of a model that can go the distance, in an industry where models’ careers are often short-lived.

But better still, what Joan has to offer (not just now but to future generations of models), is a career where nothing is off-limits. The idea of possibility is one that will ultimately transform the landscape of fashion, building an industry where beauty is made not only possible, but achievable, for every kind of woman.

HELEN TOPE

Born September 12th 1987, Anna Jagodzinska signed with Next Model Management in 2003, moving to New York that same year to pursue a career in modelling.

The Polish model had her breakthrough season in February 2004 with appearances for Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Chanel, Derek Lam, Louis Vuitton, Marni, Miu Miu, Nina Ricci, Prada, Sonia Rykiel and Zac Posen.

Editorials with W, i-D and Italian Vogue followed, and in 2005 Anna landed her first fragrance campaign with Moschino. Signing with the Italian brand gave Anna’s budding career a boost, with a highly successful runway season in February, including appearances for Celine, Marc Jacobs and Diane Von Furstenberg and an editorial for British Vogue, shot by legend Patrick Demarchelier. Her notability rose further still in August when she got her first Vogue cover, appearing for Australian Vogue.

As the fashion industry began to get a handle on Anna’s unique blend of quirky appeal and old-school beauty, her bookings started to match her strengths. Her runway season in February 2006 was a mixture of quirky talent such as Betsey Johnson with cutting-edge designers Lanvin, Jonathan Saunders and Preen, plus ultra-girly labels Temperley and Isabel Marant.

In March, Anna got the cover of German Vogue, photographed again by Demarchelier. The year ended with an editorial for Italian Vogue, and Anna then took a 2-year break to finish her education. Just like her modelling peer Iselin Steiro, Anna returned in 2008 to find the fashion world had moved on, but it had not left her behind.

Anna’s return to the runway featured appearances for some of the most in-demand labels of the moment, including Balenciaga, Chanel, Balmain, Stella McCartney, Givenchy and Viktor & Rolf. She shot an editorial with French Vogue in June, walked the couture runways for Chanel and Givenchy in July and landed two major campaigns with one major photographer. Anna got contracts for Alberta Ferretti and Calvin Klein Jeans, both of which were photographed by Steven Meisel.

Anna’s absence had made the fashion world’s heart grow fonder. In September, she appeared in editorials for Harper’s Bazaar, British, Italian, American and Japanese Vogue. Anna’s revival neatly coincided with fashion’s love affair with models from Eastern Europe. Sasha Pivovarova was already making a name for herself, and new model Natasha Poly had just received accolades from French Vogue, with her native Russian Vogue devoting a whole issue to the Poly phenomenon. Anna’s Slavic glamour slotted in perfectly and made her one of the most requested runway models of the season, walking for 58 shows in total.

In October, Anna received the ultimate nod of approval when she appeared on the cover of Italian Vogue. In January 2009, she got her second Italian Vogue cover, this time appearing with models Viktoriya Sasonkina and Anna Selezneva.

However, in terms of modelling success, it is campaign work that moves a great fashion model onto the next level, and Anna was destined to become more than just a familiar face on the runway: in 2009 she became the most requested model for campaign work, landing contracts with Balenciaga, Calvin Klein Jeans, Calvin Klein cosmetics, Chloe, Donna Karan and Prada.
February saw Anna perform editorial duty twice in one issue for American Vogue, and open the Autumn / Winter shows for Derek Lam, Dolce & Gabbana and Zac Posen. Also appearing for Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Lanvin, Rag & Bone, Ralph Lauren, Valentino and Versace, Anna’s moment had finally arrived.

The months that followed saw Anna rack up editorial and cover credits, including editorial work for American, British and French Vogue, plus the May cover of American Vogue, shot by Steven Meisel.

In late 2009, Anna took her campaign career one stage further, with heritage brands Oscar de la Renta and Bottega Veneta vying for her attention. She signed with both, and in September, got her 3rd cover of Italian Vogue.

But her year ended on a high note with three incredible campaign signings. She was asked to take part in the new ad for the Prada fragrance, L’Eau Ambree, with models Toni Garrn and Viktoriya Sasonkina, and was signed on to be the face of Tom Ford’s newest launch, Black Orchid and Stella McCartney’s latest addition to her stable of perfumes, Stella Nude.

All three fragrances were high-stakes signings, and Anna delivered every time. Her shoot for Prada was groomed and stylishly off-beat. The Stella fragrance shoot was simplicity itself; with Anna shot in profile. For Black Orchid, Anna became the quintessential Film Noir heroine, and her siren-with-a-secret angle was pitch-perfect, making the perfume one of the early success stories of 2010.

With campaigns of this standard, clothes, body language and camera angle all play their part, but it’s the face doing the lion’s share of the selling, and fragrance is notoriously hard to sell.
With a handbag, we see it in the advert, and if we want it, we buy it. But with fragrance you have to take the campaign at its word. If the feel of the shoot is light and airy, you will only be disappointed if you are met at the fragrance counter with a brooding musky perfume. That’s why so much effort goes into casting these campaigns: like the fragrance itself, the campaign has to linger in the mind if we’re to go out and buy it. Without that lure, it doesn’t matter if you’ve created the most beautiful perfume in the world. If the campaign isn’t spot on, no-one’s buying it.

Why Anna is in such high-demand is because she understands that for one-dimensional ads for cosmetics or fragrance, you need to build an image that appeals to all the senses. Despite what’s happening elsewhere in the fashion industry, fragrance remains one of the most financially buoyant areas because certain scents can trigger long-forgotten memories. If a floral note in a perfume reminds you of a particularly memorable holiday, the chances are you’ll stay loyal to that brand for a very long time.

A model that can turn out a great beauty shot is not hard to find, but a model that can turn a beauty shot into an image that has depth and meaning remains a rarity. It’s why Anna’s CV features so much beauty work: she gets that to make an image truly beautiful, it’s got to be more than skin-deep.

With seven Vogue covers to date, Anna’s strength is undeniably the close-up. Beauty shots and campaign work are often underestimated, with people assuming that a high-fashion editorial is the tougher call. But with beauty campaigns, there’s nowhere to hide. The model’s job isn’t just to evoke the notes of a perfume’s personality, but to create a connection with the person looking at the advert. Perfume ads should provoke a response in you – whether that is ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ – but if it leaves you cold, something has gone very wrong.

Anna’s career has been the success it has because she brings a tailored approach to every assignment. Her shots for Prada, Tom Ford and Stella McCartney are indicative of a model that looks at the bigger picture, and then gives the client what they want, by paying attention to the detail. Models are fashion’s sales-girls, but what makes their job even harder is that the best campaigns only work when they apply the soft-sell; look at any successful perfume campaign and it’s all about what isn’t being said. As with acting, the best modelling happens when it’s made to look deceptively easy.

Anna’s return to the industry was about more than good timing or a lucky break: whatever fashion asks of its models, the beauty industry’s requirements remain the same. A made-for-beauty face helps, but knowing what to do with it is a whole other story. Knowing what to do with it whilst maintaining your credibility? That’s the calling card of a truly great model.

HELEN TOPE

Born 11th June 1985, Anja Rubik’s success stems from fashion’s ability to turn a classic beauty into a very modern commodity.

Anja, born in Poland, took an active interest in modelling from early childhood. At the age of 15, she decided to pursue the goal of becoming a model and took part in a local modelling contest. This would prove to be a pivotal decision: there Anja was spotted by a Parisian agency that immediately recognised her potential.

Anja’s debut into the fashion world marked her from the outset as someone to be reckoned with. She debuted at the A/W shows in Paris, walking for Givenchy, Rochas and Nina Ricci. A hit with Paris, Rubik moved to New York two years later to pursue modelling full-time.

Success came quickly for Rubik. In February 2003, she appeared in the A/W shows for Burberry, Jil Sander and Stella McCartney: all names that can seriously boost a girl’s portfolio.

With http://www.style.com/ naming her the rising star of 2005, Rubik landed contracts with Emporio Armani and Emanuel Ungaro. In the autumn of 2005, she became the face of the Jimmy Choo brand and walked S/S runways for Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren and Proenza Schouler.

In 2006, Anja’s career went supernova when she signed a contract with cosmetics giant Estee Lauder. If Rubik needed proof that her career was moving in the right direction, this was the moment that did it. A long-established beauty brand, to sign up Anja (at that point still relatively unknown) was a gamble, but one they clearly felt justified in taking.

With a campaign shoot in Alaska for all-American label Tommy Hilfiger, Rubik capped off an amazing year with 50 runway appearances including couture shows for Dior, Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier and Valentino. Being selected for a couture show is the one of the highest accolades a model can receive, and with Anja’s popularity continuing to grow in Paris, the demand for the face that merged the best of commercial and editorial also showed few signs of letting-up.

With eight Vogue covers to date, Anja Rubik has become one of the top beauty faces working in fashion today. In addition to her numerous fragrance, beauty and eyewear contracts, Anja has walked runway for every notable designer, ranging from Dolce & Gabbana to Loewe, Vera Wang, Thakoon and Gareth Pugh.

Classic beauty, like the little black dress, never really goes out of fashion, and like the LBD, Anja’s look is one that will always be in style. Anja’s list of credits bear testament to the fact that there is always a place in fashion for beauty. Whatever fads come and go, classic beauty finds favour in the fashion industry because it is creates immediate style shorthand by utilising pop culture icons like Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. The blue-eyed blonde continues to fascinate because the look is loved by designers, used over and over again by advertisers to sell virtually any product, and directors such as Hitchcock dedicated much of their careers to exploring our obsession with the blonde.

Nowhere is this ongoing obsession more evident than in Anja’s signing with Chloe. The signature fragrance for the French label, only launched in 2008, feels far more established, but the campaign, introduced to the fragrance industry in late 2007, featured Anja alongside actors Chloe Sevigny and Clemence Poesy. The trio, simply styled, represented a very fresh, modern slant on femininity. Deliberately underworked, Chloe’s brand of new femininity has been so successful that the fragrance can already claim modern classic status.

Luxurious and aspirational, but striking the crucial balance between cool and allure, the success of the perfume has proved that the reported demise of the print ad is somewhat premature. By adopting a clear-headed approach to marketing, its subdued glamour has made the fragrance a worldwide hit, ensuring that not just the fashion literate have heard of Chloe.

By hiring Rubik as the only model to front the brand, Chloe cleverly tapped into Anja’s accessible and easily identifiable beauty. No previous knowledge of fashion required: anyone can look at a Chloe advert and understand the connection between model and product. Anja is the perfect match for Chloe because she herself represents a modern femininity that has nothing to do with flounces or frills. It dials into a simpler aesthetic: something that is refreshing in an age where even reality TV contestants are groomed to within an inch of their lives.

Anja’s reputation rests on her ability to make elegance approachable. Ice-cool hauteur isn’t in vogue anymore: advertisers can’t afford to alienate consumers, and the models who are doing well right now are the ones who can tell a story in a single frame. Being relatable isn’t the same as being over-commercial or not high fashion. Making that link with the person buying the magazine or passing the billboard is a skill and one definitely worth cultivating.

High-fashion and beauty have not always been synonymous, but Anja, with her impressive CV of covers, editorials and runway credits, clearly operates within the realm of high-fashion, but is still recognisably beautiful in the contemporary sense of the word. Being ‘pretty’ used to be a distinct disadvantage if you wanted to get taken seriously, but not anymore. The respective successes of models like Lara Stone and Jessica Stam show that fashion has widened its own horizons to allow faces like Anja to not only work in the modelling industry, but to succeed and excel.

Faces like Anja get the attention that they do because they simply don’t come around that often. Finding that lucky mix of genetics that permits Anja to be equally convincing in couture as she is in a Gap commercial is a rarity even in the modelling world where outstanding beauty is par for the course.

Its rarity is what makes beauty so desirable. Everybody wants it; and those who do have it are the subject of intrigue, fascination and envy. It’s still, even in these times of shaky finances, the most potent form of currency we have. Anja’s extraordinary body of work shows that, whatever is on fashion’s agenda, beauty takes pride of place. It not only sells magazine covers and bottles of perfume, but it sells the promise of something better than we already have, and at the end of the day, that is what fashion is all about. A face that represents the ultimate in versatility, Anja Rubik is well on the way to becoming one of the most formidable forces in fashion history.




HELEN TOPE