Want to become a model? Well the casting director for Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang shares amazing model tips for aspiring models.
The perfect casting director can turn a bad runway event to one of the most talked about fashion shows of the century. In a recent interview with Vogue, casting director for Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs and Balenciaga, Anita Bitton, reveals what it takes to become a supermodel.
The casting director covered several interesting topics including getting discovered, becoming an overnight success, and creating a group of models that will get along.
But one of the best piece of information shared by Anita Bitton was how models hone their skills and it relies on taking dancing classes, learning your craft, and look at models that look like you.
I always tell the girls: Take a dance class, learn your craft, look at models you like, what did they do? Raquel Zimmermann, Gisele, Karen Elson, Carolyn Murphy, why are they still here? They’re amazing models. And they like to model. Who wants to be around somebody who doesn’t really want to be a model?
Lexi [Boling] spent a lot of seasons with Alexander Wang doing looks and getting to know the collections; I think she is still learning to become a model, but she likes being a model. She’s into it, she’s working on her craft, and I admire that about her. Same with Anna Ewers, Vanessa Moody, I think those girls have been given an opportunity. They’re all girls that we’ve worked with and seen develop. Julia Nobis, I worked with her first season, she did a lot of looks at Alexander Wang. That was a long stretch, but she’s now a big model: That wasn’t overnight. It won’t be easy, but models need the opportunity to learn, to graze their knees and get back up again. These kids are splendid, they’re brilliant. I like it when they love it.
Another key point was the fact that talent agents are constantly trying to “discover” new talent but, at the end of the day they are trying to make money off of their client. In addition, Anita Bitton pointed out that models do not become famous over night.
These girls don’t become stars overnight, none of them do. You name me one. It just doesn’t happen, there’s a lot that goes into it. Just because I go to Sweden and see a girl at an agency, she isn’t being discovered—she’s a model waiting to be booked. Anna Ewers is a good example; Alex [Wang] sent me a picture of Anna—love this girl—she drove in from Germany to meet Alex, he met her, liked her, but she was really, really green. So then, what he did—what he’s always done—was keep in touch with the girl, because you make your girl. It’s that familiarity. And so she came back, and did another season, and did Valentino, and it happened very slowly. When a designer sees a model that he loves, you know, that designer-muse relationship is unbreakable, and he did discover her for that moment, but it took more than “discovery” to make her a star.
You can read the full interview here.
