Last year, IMG teamed with a French TV channel to make a documentary about model scouting. They revealed they travel to Siberia twice a year on a Russian railroad, meeting with hundreds of girls and taking a handful to Paris each season. Anna Mariya was discovered that way, and so was Tanya D.
Now Elite has paired with the Wall Street Journal, giving them a glimpse of their own scouting process. But instead of going to Russia, the agency heads to France, where it probes the banlieues outside of Paris for new faces.
That the shabby French suburbs have seen surges of riots and crime seems to only increase their appeal for the agency, which thinks the mix of French, Arab, and African cultures might produce the next big face of fashion.
The article also notes France’s increasing immigrant population, and how the advertising community is getting more sensitive to the fact that not every French girl looks like Eva Green.
Keep an eye on the catwalks this September, and see if any of their new discoveries make it past the pages of Figaro and into the big time.
If they do, it could signify a move away from the Russian peasant waifs and towards something more full-cheeked and bright-eyed (like the gorgeous girls at right, who are already Elite models…)