IMG Models recently signed Emhoff and poet Amanda Gorman, and also represents Christy Turlington Burns and nephew James Burns, who walked in Kim Jones’ Fendi couture debut, a next-level casting coup (and logistical feat) that also featured Naomi Campbell, Demi Moore, and Kate Moss and daughter Grace Burns.
Talent with a unique look or point of view can captivate not only the attention of the fashion industry, but of consumers — a vital audience to consider in today’s digital landscape, added Bart, whose NYFW.com platform has leveraged IMG’s Hollywood connections and production resources to help designers create and show digital entertainment content.
When it comes to that consumer audience, celebrities and model personalities are also multipliers, who help tell a brand’s story through their own personal style lens and through their own social channels. But is there ever danger that entertaining content, chock-full of personalities, will overshadow the clothes it’s meant to sell?
“I feel quite relaxed about that,” said Vevers, noting there are still enough brand cues throughout the content to keep the Coach storyline going. “These last two seasons, we’ve styled looks with the individual person in mind, playing to their character.”
The Proenza Schouler designers agree. “We cast women for who they are, we don’t like the idea of an army of sameness,” said Jack McCollough of choosing Emhoff for the show, and keeping her trademark curly hair and glasses as-is. “We want them to be themselves.”
Playing the runway for a wider audience is changing what model castings look like.
Casting Dior’s latest haute couture film was more Hollywood than anything Milan-based model casting director Julia Asaro had ever worked on. “I tried to find a middle ground between fashion and cinema,” she said, explaining that she worked with both modeling and theatrical talent agencies.
She and director Matteo Garrone and Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri sent the script to prospective models, and asked them to choose their favorite tarot characters and make a video of themselves in character to submit as an audition. “It’s very different from classical casting for a show where you arrive, give your comp card to the casting director or designer, you walk back and forth, say hello and goodbye,” Asaro said.
Zegna artistic director Alessandro Sartori was also looking for models who could emote, despite the fact that his script didn’t include any spoken lines.
“To deliver our message, we needed characters acting in a short movie, not just walking” he said of casting “(RE)set” with diverse talent, from Japanese model Yura Nakano as the protagonist (“He had a real affinity for the script,” the designer said) to artist Alfredo Ramirez, who closed the film.
Filming outdoors at the newly redesigned campus of Bocconi University in Milan and in studio on a dollhouselike set delivered the message of the versatility of the fall collection, he said of the film shot over five days, which cost less than the brand’s seasonal 1,000-person runway shows. “The reach and engagement is impossible to compare to a traditional show,” said Sartori of the film, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
“Before the pandemic, brands were already curious about a new kind of talent and beauty,” said Asaro, the casting director, explaining that it’s not just celebrity but also diversity and inclusivity driving change in the modeling world, something that younger designers are building into their brand DNA.
“The customer likes to see themselves in the content, it makes them feel part of the brand,” said Cowan of casting “A Fashion Thing,” with “SNL” cast members, Hilton, Parker Kit Hill and other representatives or allies of the queer community with which his brand identifies.
While the Coach film will feature fall collection pieces to preorder, as well as some current season pieces that will be linked and immediately shoppable, other brands are still figuring out how to turn entertaining runway content into quick commerce.
“As a smaller brand, we’ve not been able to have stock ready when we release but one day that’s definitely the dream,” said Cowan. “The content is bringing more people to our online channels, we see the engagement, and they stay because we keep giving them new content,” he said. “We will be dropping loads more in between seasons now to keep people excited and entertained by the brand. It’s an entertainment brand and a clothing brand.” ■