BONAE L'AMOUR

Kasia Struss (Women NYC & Paris) after the Balmain F/W...

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:18:00 -0400

Kasia Struss (Women NYC & Paris) after the Balmain F/W 2013.13 show

2 words to describe Kasia in that outfit: Damn Hot! This is an example of flawless model’s street style. Loving Kasia in her Rodarte jacket too!

It is of course always a pleasure to photograph the gorgeous and sweet Polish model. Anyway, I have to further thank Kasia for what she did before these pictures were taken. On that day, I was crossing the streets and talking to her, and a careless driver almost hit me, but thankfully Kasia pulled me to the side. You can say Miss Struss saved the photographer that day. ;)

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Malgosia Bela (Next NYC, Elite Paric) after the Balmain F/W...

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:08:18 -0400

Malgosia Bela (Next NYC, Elite Paric) after the Balmain F/W 2013.14 show

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Joan Smalls (@joansmalls of @IMGModels) after the Balmain F/W...

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:00:00 -0400

Joan Smalls (@joansmalls of @IMGModels) after the Balmain F/W 2013.14 show

Very sharp streetstyle from one of the world’s most beautiful women. Ranked #1 by models.com, Joan is currently in the H&M, Prabal Gurung, and Versace Spring/Summer 2013 campaigns. She also has a coveted long term contract with Estée Lauder cosmetics, which is the booking every top model in the world dreams about. Joan’s success however did not come overnight. It took years of hard work, not giving up, perseverance, dedication, influential support, and strategic management for her to get where she is today.

Joan continues to be one of the most in-demand models in the world. Earlier this month, the Chanel Resort 2014 show was held in Singapore. Of the 80 looks and 42 female models sent down the prestigious Chanel runway, only 1 of the models cast in the show was Black. That model was Joan Smalls. Her presence added the much needed diversity factor. However, we live in a world where it is undeniable that diversity is essential to our progress as a whole society and young women look to fashion to help shape their idea of beauty, worth, and existence. It is imperative that casting directors and designers become more open to cast more models of color. Joan’s position in the modeling world makes her a huge role model to all young aspiring Black models around the world. Seeing her and other top Black models cast on the high fashion runways and in prestigious editorials and campaigns gives females of color all around the globe a way to relate to fashion and beauty and provides them with someone who looks similar to them for inspirational and aspirational purposes.

The discussion on diversity should never stop. However, along with ongoing dialogue, people who have issue with the lack of diversity in fashion should also be proactive in buying magazines when models of colors are on the cover and in writing to editors, PR managers, and influential people about the casting of models of color.

For my part, when I am in the streets, I always am on alert for the Black models after the shows to photograph them because visibility is important. As a person working in casting, I am always presenting and recommending models of color - Black, Asian, Hispanic, etc. - into the mix. I refuse to ever give up on promoting diversity and challenging a world that continues to support a very bland and vanilla standard for beauty.

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Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party Click...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:15:27 -0400

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Constance Jablonski (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party Click here to...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:13:47 -0400

Constance Jablonski (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Nina Dobrev (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party Click here to view...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:12:00 -0400

Nina Dobrev (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Karolina Kurkova (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party Click here to...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:09:56 -0400

Karolina Kurkova (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Tyson Beckford and Shanina Shaik (in) 2013 Met Ball After...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:07:00 -0400

Tyson Beckford and Shanina Shaik (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Lily Cole and Vivienne Westwood (in) 2013 Met Ball After...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:05:13 -0400

Lily Cole and Vivienne Westwood (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Erin Heatherton (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party Click here to...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:03:00 -0400

Erin Heatherton (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Abbey Lee Kershaw and Nicholas Hoult (in) 2013 Met Ball After...

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Abbey Lee Kershaw and Nicholas Hoult (in) 2013 Met Ball After Party

Model Abbey Lee Kershaw can now add actress to her resume. She has a role in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road.

Click here to view the entire gallery of 48 new images from the event.

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Sasha Luss (Elite Paris) after Paco Rabanne FW 2013 My top...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:10:00 -0400

Sasha Luss (Elite Paris) after Paco Rabanne FW 2013

My top breakout model of the Fall/Winter 2013 season! It is Sasha’s time! If you are a fan of the “underdog on top” story, then you would love the story of Sasha’s development. Here’s the 4-1-1 on the hottest girl this season — the deeper layers behind those hidden eyes…

The 20-year-old Russian beauty is technically not a new face on the runways. Miss Luss actually walked her first Parisian show during the Spring 2008 season for Alena Akmadullina. Without a debut success, she returned to the development board and was sent to less prestigious modeling cities in Asia to build her portfolio and further develop. A year later, Sasha returned to the runway as a new face at DNA Models during New York Fashion Week. For the Spring 2009 season, she booked 5 shows — all second-tier or lower casting except for DKNY. She also went to Milan that season, but only booked a few shows. None were major. Without much success on her second runway try, she returned to Asia for more development. She was only 16 at the time, still maturing and growing into her looks. Baby-faced and still learning to pose, Sasha’s look was too cute, young and girly at the time when alienesque-chic (Tanya Dziahileva and Mariya Telnaya) was in fashion. It wasn’t her time, and the agencies knew that. So, back to school and back to Asia — back to commercial and cutesy work.

Fast forward to over 2 years later in Milan during the Spring 2012 show season, Sasha booked a few shows — her best booking was Moschino. Then she walked for Chanel Pre-Fall 2012. Surprise! She followed that with walking Haute Couture Spring 2012 in Paris for a handful of shows with the most prestigious being Chanel. However, there was little room and opportunity to shine since Karl Lagerfeld books what seems to my eyes a million White models for every Chanel show (even if it’s Bombay or Shanghai -themed). A month later, she skipped New York and London and appeared on the Milan FW 2012 runways. She booked a lot of shows, but they were not top-tier. Her bookings remained unimpressive in Paris that season. Maybe by this point, many of us who follow the story would by now cast Sasha as a non-runway girl. However, the special thing about her story up to this point is that because she hasn’t break out yet — her moment — the right moment — can happen next season or years later. In other words, if she tried and reappeared when her look is in season or when some taste maker who has seen her probably 5 times already by now suddenly decides overnight that she is “it” (oh fashion…), a star would be born.

It’s September 2012, Miss Luss is 19 years young. She has been modeling since 2007. She tries her catwalk luck again in Milan. She booked shows, but nothing to help catapult her on the map. In Paris, Mr. Raf Simons is now the head designer at Christian Dior. Spring 2012 would be his debut ready-to-wear collection for the house. Sasha landed in Paris and booked Cedric Charlier on the 1st day among a sea of new faces. In fact, Sasha was still unknown 6 months ago and so she was misidentified on that runway by a major media outlet. A few days passed and no sign of Miss Luss. Then suddenly, Mr. Simons’s look #4 came out. It was Miss Luss! And her agency cancelled all other offers that season and called it a Dior exclusive (which technically isn’t what I would label as an exclusive)…

Is it her time? Could it be possible for Miss Luss’s soft feminine look to fit in with the handsome beauty trend that has been popular in the past few seasons? Can she compete? Weeks later, the Christian Dior Pre-Fall 2013 lookbook came out, and Sasha is featured in the shots along with Marie Piovesan and Marine Deleeuw — two of the French girls leading the handsome pack. What does that mean? It was hard to tell. Is there room for a commercial girl to shine on the oh so edgy prestigious high fashion runways?

Personally, I was rooting for Miss Luss then and now. I wanted another story of the underdog on top. I had been following Kel Markey, Martha Hunt, Ava Smith and Tilda Lindstam — all of their careers. The rise of these formal commercial under-the-radar girls booking 50+ shows or being cast in the top of campaigns kept me interested in fashion the last few seasons. None of these girls suffered immediately overnight successes; they were working for years with little runway successes up until recently. Having a love for just following the careers of underdogs, tracking Miss Luss’s bookings was my new pleasure for the past few months. I have a fondness for commercial (conventionally beautiful) girls going high fashion and succeeding, and I also have a fondness for the vice versa when high fashion girls succeed commercially, proving that as good models they can soften their edgy looks to make the image sexy and commercial. Overall, I love it when a young woman has the ambition and dare to challenge the image box that this cruel industry often confines her in. Fashion often give its muses only 1-dimensional stories and roles to play. I love it when a girl is out to prove the world wrong, and I love it more when she gets to succeed. Usually, anyway.

Following her debut on the Dior Spring 2012 runway, Sasha had an amazing Haute Couture season in January 2013. She opened Valentino Haute Couture Spring 2013. Her ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2013 runway season, 6 long trying years after she was signed as a model, was everything to be called a “breakout” season. 58 top shows, 5 opening honors, and 2 closing spots in New York, Milan and Paris. Everyone paid attention to Sasha this season, and they should. She’s one of the most beautiful and exquisite girl that’s still fresh at the present time. In other words, Miss Luss is fashion’s current hot commodity. I hope she will get more chances to prove the usefulness of her timeless feline beauty.

Patience, development and strategic management were needed to unleash the most captivating girl of the season. Say hello to who I consider to be my top breakout star this season!

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Street (heart) Beats: Paris Fashion Week FW 2013 – Part 2 A...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:48:00 -0400

Street (heart) Beats: Paris Fashion Week FW 2013 – Part 2

A continuation of my photo diary from Paris… 40 new images of some of your favorite runway queens! And some motherly love with Mackenzie Drazan and her mom as well as the return of the modeling veteran Ann Catherine Lacroix captured after the Dior Fall/Winter 2013 show holding her daughter!

From top to bottom: Karlina Caune, Julia Frauche, Mackenzie Drazan (Elite Paris) and her mom, Esther Heesch, Kel Markey, Maria Bradley, Sam Rollinson, Bette Franke, Iris van Berne, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Magdalena Frackowiak (Elite Paris), Lina Zhang (Elite Paris), Karmen Pedaru, Joan Smalls, Marcele dal Cortivo, and Ann Catherine Lacroix and her daughter.

Click here to view the entire gallery!

Special thanks to all the models for sharing these moments with me as well as my friends at Elite Paris.

Tilda Lindstam (in) The Yellow Cap Project I love a contagious...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:57:23 -0400

Tilda Lindstam (in) The Yellow Cap Project

I love a contagious laughter! True beauty comes from within when a woman is smiling inside and outside. It does not matter how she dresses and it doesn’t matter how she appears to others; she is beautiful because she can genuinely share a piece of happiness with the world. Remember to smile today. =)

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Sigrid Agren (in) Model’s Portraits It’s not the...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:50:00 -0400

Sigrid Agren (in) Model’s Portraits

It’s not the perfect portrait, but it’s the perfect image of kindness and grace. Having just taken her makeup off from the Calvin Klein Spring 2013 show, her eyes were puffy. I like this offness; for me, real beauty is never about the perfected calculated perfections.

Sigrid is now represented by The Society in New York, which is an extension of Elite Paris.

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Caroline Brasch Nielsen (in) Model’s Street Style Sweet...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:34:00 -0400

Caroline Brasch Nielsen (in) Model’s Street Style

Sweet Caroline in New York City! Caroline is Everything! Love her!

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Karlie Kloss (in) Model’s Street Style America’s...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:22:00 -0400

Karlie Kloss (in) Model’s Street Style

America’s modeling sweetheart and the newest Victoria’s Secret Angel, the stunning and always smiling Karlie after the Balmain F/W 2013 show in Paris!

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Street (heart) Beats: Paris Fashion Week FW 2013 – Part 1 In...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:26:00 -0400

Street (heart) Beats: Paris Fashion Week FW 2013 – Part 1

In the cold streets of Paris during fashion week on the first 2 days, 40 frames of catwalk darlings made the cut as moments to be desired. They are expressed through friendship, love, smiles, chaos, laughter, beauty, distance, and some naughtiness. A special kind of beauty will always fuel the soul of the photographer who passionately seeks for the kind of beauty and moments we have to feel and not only see alone.

Click here to view all 40 images in higher quality.

Models: Daphne Groeneveld, Zuzanna Bijoch, Grace Mahary, Sam Rollinson, Lais Ribeiro, Agne Konciute, Josephine Skriver, Cora Emmanuel, Sasha Luss and Isabeli Fontana.

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Marine Deleeuw (in) Model’s Portraits Some women are...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:10:00 -0500

Marine Deleeuw (in) Model’s Portraits

Some women are beautiful, and they don’t have a clue about the extent of their beauty. Marine is one of the most alluring faces I have ever encountered. It’s silent, it’s obvious, it’s striking, it’s mysterious, it’s sad, it’s captivating, it’s haunting, it’s fragile. Her eyes tell me so many stories; I’m sucked into wanting to figure out those vulnerable layers. I can snap her forever… Yet, every season, I would have a little argument with her about her beauty — and how she doesn’t see what I see, which keeps me even more interested. Most girls would tell me “thank you” when I compliment them on their beauty, but this girl tells me “oh no, I don’t think so…” — which pretty much makes her even more beautiful to me.

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Kayley Chabot (in) Flying Ninja Models Kayley flying in Paris!...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:19:00 -0500

Kayley Chabot (in) Flying Ninja Models

Kayley flying in Paris! =)

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