MODEL PROFILES: ERJONA ALA

Born on 12^th July 1995, Norwegian model Erjona Ala made her debut in the modelling industry at the age of 15. Competing in the International Elite Model Look contest in 2010, she narrowly missed out on first place, coming in as the runner-up. However, Erjona still caught the attention of the industry, signing with Ford Models the following year. 

She made her catwalk debut in March 2011, walking in the Balenciaga show as an exclusive – an incredible honour for a newcomer. Her spot in the Balenciaga show made her an automatic standout: www.models.com featured Ala as their ‘model of the week’ as a result.

In June, Erjona modelled in resort shows for Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Louis Vuitton and Proenza Schouler. She made her couture debut the following month, walking in the Autumn / Winter show for Alaia Couture. But her big runway moment came in September, when she appeared in a mammoth 65 shows. She opened shows for Monique Lhuillier, Cynthia Rowley, Clements Riberio, Margaret Howell, Marios Schwab, Temperley and Haider Ackermann. She also scored closing spots with Sonia Rykiel and Thakoon.

For a model just months into her career, a season of this magnitude is still a rarity in an industry where a reputation can take years to build. Not only did Erjona walk in some of the biggest shows of the season, she was selected to open and close several high-prestige shows. Erjona’s look proved a winner on the runway circuit, neither leaning too strongly in either direction of editorial edge or mainstream glamour. It helps explain why Erjona would appeal to designers with aesthetic viewpoints as different as Monique Lhuillier and Marios Schwab. When a model’s look ‘connects’ with designers on this level, the effect tends to be incendiary. Like her peers Lara Mullen and Romee Strijd, Erjona has made her reputation, not through covers or campaigns, but the catwalk. Even in an increasingly digital age, the continuing importance of the catwalk should not be overlooked. 

With fashion undergoing a virtual reset every six months, a successful show creates its own momentum: the fabulous Gucci collection for Autumn / Winter 2012 created a huge stir on its debut in February, and its profile has been steadily growing over the past few months, culminating in an amazing cover spread for Italian Vogue. The catwalk still sets the pace: with campaigns, editorials and blogs relying on what comes down the runway. The magic of seeing a great collection coming down a runway in real time hasn’t lost its appeal. 

Erjona’s career then bridged out into editorial work, with a major spread in W magazine’s October issue. ‘Sects and the City’, photographed by Craig McDean, was a series of group shots featuring different fashion ‘sects’. Erjona modelled with Milou van Groesen, Ming Xi, Jess Gold and Cole Mohr in Twenties-style glamour, pre-empting the launch of Baz Luhrmann’s film The Great Gatsby’ (due for release next year). Erjona becomes a dead ringer for screen siren Louise Brooks, in a severe bob, floor-length gown and pearls. 

In March 2012, Erjona scooped the cover of British magazine ‘Dazed & Confused’. Photographed by Roe Ethridge, the ‘2012: if it’s not exciting, you’re not doing it properly’ issue, featured Erjona surrounded by banks of flowers, channelling 1980’s androgyny in washed denim. Erjona also appeared in their Spring / Summer season preview. Modelling luxury sportswear, Erjona worked the trend that, after two summers spent on the sidelines, is now feeling the love. With Team GB grabbing the golds, sportswear feels less niche and more on-trend. Erjona proved ahead of the curve, giving the sportswear a sleek sophistication; moving it away from its track and field associations to a more urban, fashion-led look. 

Erjona went ultra high-fashion in June with a spread for Bon magazine. Photographed by Marcus Ohlsson, ‘Television / Night Vision’, is right at fashion’s sharp end, establishing Erjona’s ability to work a complex shoot where themes are densely-layered and the model’s performance has to respond in kind. Erjona proved a brilliant choice for this shoot, with her looks easily lending themselves to such a premise. It often takes years for a model to be able to perform at this level – Erjona coolly handled the pressure, proving she could even take on fashion’s toughest assignments.

Her CV of edgy editorial and catwalk bookings paid off in June when it was announced that she would form part of the Autumn / Winter Louis Vuitton campaign. Photographed by Steven Meisel, Erjona joined Elena Bartels, Hedvig Palm, Julia Nobis, Marie Piovesan and Ros Georgiou. Posing in a train carriage, the models manage the blend of retro and modern that sums up the look of Vuitton.

Moving on from his blockbuster Spring / Summer collection, Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs returns to his quirky roots this winter with clothes trimmed in burgundy, with models clutching leopard-print totes. They are classic colours and prints, but given the Jacobs treatment: everything is fringed, furred or otherwise embellished. The idea of excess is at the centre of the Autumn / Winter season. Taking on a more-is-more approach, designers are adopting decadent fabrics such as velvet, fur and brocade to suggest wealth and a feeling of plenty. While some commentators have given the Louis Vuitton collection (and campaign) mixed reviews, this ad represents the core values for the coming season. The collection may be divisive, but in terms of what it says about fashion for the rest of 2012, it is impossible to ignore. For Erjona, the booking was nothing less than a stunning coup.

The most recent booking on Erjona’s CV rivals the Vuitton ad in terms of covetability, with Ala appearing on the July cover of Italian Vogue. If this wasn't enough of a score, the July issue also features a first look at the international collections - and Erjona was invited to the party. 

How Italian Vogue presents the collections for the upcoming season sets the bar for the rest of the fashion industry: much imitated, but never bettered, Italian Vogue still remains the benchmark in terms of editorial: it is an important and highly prized booking for any model to get. Photographed again by Steven Meisel, Erjona takes to the cover with Julia Nobis, Lida Fox, Mackenzie Drazan and Vanessa Axente. All dressed in dark chiffon gowns from Gucci, this fold-out cover has a supernatural, gothic theme at its heart. Italian Vogue’s message is clear: embellishment and luxury may be the focus, but they are not the same animals they were five years ago. This time, the playground of luxury has a macabre feel: the models are ‘at play’: on swings, on bikes, but the effect is anything but playful. Here, luxury is not something easy-going and uncomplicated: the right to continue making this kind of fashion has been hard-won. Fashion has come through the eye of a financial storm, but emerges as a different industry. The ideas are back, but our notions of decadence and glamour have changed and matured. Gucci’s darkly seductive collection is glamour with a twist, and has made a major impact, both in terms of editorial and appearances on the red-carpet. But Gucci is not this season’s lone wolf: every designer this season has contributed to the new breed of glamour – still beautiful, just a little older and a little wiser. 

Gucci deftly taps into the zeitgeist this season, and for a model, there’s no better collection to hitch your wagon to. Erjona’s association with Gucci – and the cover of Italian Vogue – has cemented her reputation as one of fashion’s rising stars. A choice booking for both catwalk and editorial, Erjona’s star is not just on the ascent, superstardom is within touching distance. In the space of just two years, Erjona has gone from runner-up to fashion’s front runner. 

HELEN TOPE

MODEL PROFILES: KATIE FOGARTY

Born on August 6^th 1992, Missouri native Katie Fogarty signed with NEXT Management at the age of 16. Having joined the blockbuster agency, Fogarty made her catwalk debut that September with appearances for Jill Stuart, Kenzo, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Ohne Titel, Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti and Prada.

The Prada show proved to be memorable, with Fogarty tripping up on the runway. The show, featuring the now-notorious 6” snakeskin heels, saw not only Fogarty struggle but several other models as well. Fogarty was helped to her feet by those in the front row, but after another trip, Katie had no choice but to remove the shoes and walk the rest of the circuit barefoot. It was a brave move for a new model and the footage created headlines across the world. Far from being a disaster for Katie, the moment scored her extra press attention, with both www.models.com and www.COACD.com featuring her as a top newcomer of the season.

Fogarty’s moment in the spotlight quickly translated into big-money campaigns with Balenciaga and Prada’s sister label, Miu Miu. The latter saw Katie model the Italian label’s beautiful pleated dresses – a trend that continues to have fashion momentum today. 

Appearing in editorials for Wonderland and Dazed & Confused, Katie’s next runway season grew to 44 shows including Brian Reyes, Chloe, Christopher Kane, Herve Leger, Jason Wu, Karl Lagerfeld, Missoni, Peter Jensen, Rebecca Taylor, Richard Nicoll and Valentino. As well as getting that all-important kudos from some of the biggest names in the business, Katie was a hit with fashion’s young talent, with Kane, Nicoll and Jensen all vying for her time.

Her successful season saw Fogarty lauded as a rising star by www.style.com and move into major editorial territory with appearances in V and Japanese Vogue. Katie made her couture debut in July, walking for Valentino. Her delicate features acted as the perfect complement to Valentino’s finely-spun take on femininity.

Katie landed another huge campaign in the autumn, this time for D&G. Photographed by Mario Testino, this was classic territory for Dolce & Gabbana’s diffusion label. Fun, exuberantly-styled clothes modelled against an opulent, stately home backdrop. With the off-setting of ‘old’ style language (headscarves, quilted jackets) on young models, D&G anticipated the trend for vintage-feel clothes several years before it became the norm. 

Katie’s stock rose even further in September with a massive 64-show season including the closing spot for the Roberto Cavalli show. Modelling for Chanel, DKNY, Erdem, Jonathan Saunders, Nina Ricci, Peter Pilotto and Thakoon, Katie was featured in some of the biggest collections of the season. Getting recognition from the American fashion press, Fogarty landed her first editorial for W in January 2010. Photographed by Craig McDean, ‘Run of Show’ included Elsa Sylvan, Frida Gustavsson and Hanne Gaby Odiele in a massive shoot featuring the season-defining looks from the best shows.

Now a runway regular, Katie appeared in the Autumn 2010 shows in February, in a smaller 33-show season. It was smaller for Katie, but of course, in the big picture, it was still a substantial total. Walking for Dolce & Gabbana, Giambattista Valli and Sonia Rykiel, it was a more niche season than the one before, with lots of newer designers in the mix including Prabal Gurung and Olsen sisters’ passion project, The Row.

Katie’s ability to take on the biggest campaigns continued in Autumn 2010, with an appearance in the Sonia Rykiel campaign with Anna de Rijk. Rykiel, a stalwart of the French fashion scene, shows the flip side of groomed Parisian chic. Rykiel takes her lead from the seamier aspects of Paris: it is not too big a leap to imagine the Sonia Rykiel woman in the Montmartre of Renoir, Van Gogh and Picasso. The feel of the brand is left-wing, artistic and free-wheeling, with a thread of naughtiness running through it. Katie and Anna get the tone of the campaign absolutely right with Rykiel sticking closely to her brand’s core values, proving that a successful campaign doesn’t necessarily need bells and whistles to grab our attention. 

In September, Katie returned to the runway with another massive RTW season including appearances for Balenciaga, Giorgio Armani, Peter Som and Reed Krakoff. Included in her list of new credits was a coveted spot in the runway line-up for designer Mary Katrantzou. This collection saw Mary go from hotly-tipped newcomer to fashion’s grande amour. Just three years ago, Mary was operating on the sidelines of high-fashion, but her fearless exploration of print has made Katrantzou a star. Her success is incredibly well-timed, as we’re all getting a little braver with our fashion choices, Mary’s way of seeing the world – a kaleidoscopic, joyful collision of pattern and colour – is not only deemed beautiful, but downright covetable.

Katie continued her association with fashion’s biggest names in early 2011 with a campaign for Barney’s department store. With stores dotted across the USA, the store has become a go-to destination for fashion’s brightest and boldest designs. The campaign follows suit, photographed by Juergen Teller, Nan Goldin and William Klein. Doing everything on a grand scale, Katie joined a slew of top models including Ming Xi, Mirte Maas, Karlie Kloss and Anja Rubik. Staged to look like a series of candid shots taken backstage at a runway show, the campaign makes itself the connecting link between runway and customer.

Following a challenging editorial for Chinese Harper’s Bazaar in February, Katie added beauty to her CV with a shoot in the March edition of Allure. ‘Spring Fling’, photographed by Greg Kadel, also features Ariel Meredith, Hannah Holman and Kate Spade’s newest campaign star, Anna Speckhart. Katie had already mastered fashion, but beauty can test even the most seasoned of runway girls. In this shoot, Katie looks cool, calm and totally on-game.

In September, Katie’s career went long haul with a trip to Australia. Working for Australian Vogue, she appeared in a major editorial plus the cover. The spread, ‘Night Watch’ saw Katie model sleekly gothic eveningwear. Each Vogue has its own personality, and Australia has a penchant for classic glamour. It might be surprising, coming from the country that as defined beach chic, but a lot of Aussie success stories are all in the field of glamour: Alex Perry, Colette Dinnigan, Alice McCall and Rachel Gilbert. Just like her long-standing association with Valentino, Katie is perfect for designers who deal in high-octane glamour. It’s a deceptively hard area to master: high-end modelling requires a subtlety that often takes years to get right. Glamour at this level is all about aspiration and creating that from scratch is no mean feat. Modelling glamour with a light touch to keep it sophisticated is a balancing act that requires confidence, poise and precision. 

Katie returned again to Australian Vogue in December with another editorial. ‘L’Afrique, c’est chic’ was an epic, multi-page shoot, featuring the tribal trend. Teeming with Aztec prints and vibrant colours, the shoot anticipates the surprise hit of the season. Shaking off its gap-year associations, tribal fashion has at last scored with consumers by playing up its adaptability: worn diluted (D&G, Stella McCartney) or in a more literal way (Kenzo), tribal fashion can be worn in endless translations. 

Its versatility makes tribal a core modern trend. The many ways it can be worn (even just an accessory can transform a neutral outfit) makes tribal a very contemporary way of exploring a trend. Its complex prints and colour palette put many off trying it for years, but its dilution on the high-street worked wonders, with consumers at last seeing its true potential. Tribal could well lead the way in how we digest fashion in the future: a trend that contracts or expands to suit us, but loses none of its impact however it’s worn, is nothing short of revolutionary. As we get choosier about where our fashion spend goes, a trend that offers serious mileage in terms of cost-per-wear is going to get our attention. Tribal may have started off as a micro trend, but its impact has been phenomenal. In making adaptability the focus of our fashion desires, thinking small could soon become the next big thing.

As Katie enters the next phase of her career, her ability to sell difficult trends puts her ahead of the pack. As fashion exits its ‘safe’ era and heads into new territories, boldly exploring print, colour and shape, the demand for models who can take the fear out of these designs will sky-rocket. Katie not only makes classic, familiar shapes look good, but can also work newer silhouettes in such a way that we feel we know them. Fashion that feels (and looks) like a friend is key to getting consumers to spend, when disposable income is at a low. The big surprise of the recession has been that fashion consumers don’t only want comfort, they want innovation. Individual pieces and limited editions have soared in popularity with new designers doing particularly well. The fact that we are buying these designs is empowering the fashion industry to create fashion that is bigger, better, stronger. Challenging the limits of what we wear, the future of fashion’s creative edge has never looked so good. 

HELEN TOPE

MODEL PROFILES: ALICE BURDEU

Although not a name well known beyond the immediate fashion circle, Alice Burdeu is one of the rare success stories to come out of the reality TV show franchise, ‘America’s Next Top Model’.

The programme, devised by former supermodel Tyra Banks, has been so hugely successful that a number of countries across the world have adopted the format for themselves.

Alice Burdeu, born in 1988, auditioned for Cycle 3 of ‘Australia’s Next Top Model’ in 2007. At 5’ 11” she towered over her competitors. She looked conspicuously out of place – her (newly-dyed) red hair and alabaster skin marked her out immediately as someone different – and someone worth watching.

Despite her painfully shy demeanour, Burdeu produced a body of work that was in a different league. In person, she appeared awkward and bashful, but on film she became bold, daring and in terms of fashion edge, completely on-target.

Burdeu made it to the final and won – Alice was an obvious winner, but she was given some crucial advice by the judges. Her look would not suffice for Australian companies wanting upbeat, sun kissed girls to promote their products. Alice’s future was in New York. She took the advice and travelled to America. She impressed Elite Model Management so much they signed her up immediately.

Six months later, Alice debuted at New York Fashion Week. Her list of catwalk credits proved she was no slow-burner. Straight out of the gate, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler and Marchesa all booked Burdeu. For any working model, it would be impressive – but for an absolute beginner, it was an extraordinary coup.

The advice she had been given was absolutely right. Her delicate, editorial look of pale skin and a shock of red hair which looked so out of place on ANTM was a perfect fit for high fashion.

Following New York Fashion Week, the successes began to mount up. Burdeu took part in a D&G campaign shot by Mario Testino, scored 3 Australian Vogue covers and a multi-page editorial spread with British Elle. She became the face of Blumarine Resort, and won another ad campaign (this time with Sonia Rykiel). Getting noticed by the fashion press, Alice was profiled in http://www.style.com/ as a rising star, with http://www.models.com/ capping off the year by naming her one of their Top 10 newcomers to the industry.

This heady whirl of achievement is dazzling, but is all the more surprising considering Burdeu’s background. Eleven seasons in, the original ‘’America’s Next Top Model’ has, to date, failed to produce a model of Burdeu’s calibre.

The reasons for this disparity are not entirely straightforward. The fashion world has seemed reluctant to take on previous winners, with many being forced to branch out into acting or presenting in order to get noticed. Maybe there was an assumption that if someone needed the springboard of a television show, they couldn’t be up to much as a model.

Burdeu wrong-footed this assumption from the get-go: her editorial look propelled her to the top of the industry. However, Burdeu has made it to the top because she is both the exception and exceptional.

Her mournful, Isobel Archer-like quality has made her a favourite in Europe because she embodies that sensibility so completely that it is impossible to resist. Burdeu possesses the ability to seamlessly translate trends with intelligence and insight, and this instinct cannot be taught.

The fact that she has been, so early in her career, accepted into the fashion clan, makes it clear that a good model can be coached, but a great model cannot. Alice’s level of success shows that being a winner in real-life remains very much hit-and-miss. While it can be a rude awakening for some contestants, it is a reminder that the level of success Burdeu has achieved is a rare thing indeed.

ANTM is a television phenomenon, and has done a stellar job in opening up the modelling world to a much wider audience. Once a ‘closed book’, teenage girls know what a ‘go-see’ is, and what constitutes a good portfolio. While this knowledge can only be a good thing, ANTM has also changed the way people view the modelling business.

With a 12-week format, contestants compete against each other in a bid to win a 1-year modelling contract handed out at the end of the series. But while the prize is guaranteed, success is not.

Alice’s meteoric rise proves that the reality show can breed winners, but Burdeu succeeds where so many others have failed because she listened to her instincts. A quick study and willing to not only listen to advice but act on it, Burdeu’s star shines as brightly as it does, because she left the show knowing that a ‘success story’ does not end when the cameras stop rolling. To truly excel takes more than just ticking boxes. Ambition is not nearly enough.

As her demand continues to grow, it is probable that Burdeu’s link with the modelling contest will someday be forgotten. A hit in Paris, she is already working with the biggest names in the fashion world, clocking up runway miles for Lanvin, Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton.

The fashion industry‘s welcome to Alice was so immediate because they recognised something special. Burdeu’s awkward stance lends itself perfectly to high-fashion runway, and her bird-like features sit comfortably in what is considered beautiful right now. It is not a face that belongs on a sunscreen commercial, but an intriguing face that inspires more by giving away less. Fashion loves romance, and Alice has that magic – the indefinable something that engenders desire. She tells a story, and we want to know more.

Not resting on her laurels has ensured Burdeu her part in fashion’s future. She has taken the prize and won the game because, quite simply, she is the real deal.

HELEN TOPE