Nada to Prada

The luxury fashion house Prada, based in Italy, are well known for their luxury product status. More recently the fashion house have found themselves on the radar for making their mark during their recent show casting at fashion week. In terms of casting, Prada may not be leading pioneers for casting trends, but the brands exclusively showcase some of the freshest new faces around.

The Milan based house is a far cry from the likes of London based brands such as; J.W Anderson and Marques’ Almeida who’s showcase has stepped away from the conventional prim and proper, sleek, chic models that typically grace the runway in exchange for a street casted, real looking models. The brand now seem to have become the leading front runners for new faced success. Prada are now firmly on the radar for the success stories of the models that they sign as exclusives. An exclusive face in modelling is a model that has been casted for a particular brand, met typically during fashion week, that can only walk for the brand in it’s chosen location. Meaning that no other shows can be booked for that model, resulting in either success or nothing. Being a new face in the industry is tough, how a model is represented in the early stages of their career corresponds with the path that their career will take.

Consider model Aya Jones, the Parisian belle found her success after being cast as an exclusive for Prada in their Spring/Summer 2015 show.The twenty year old beauty, born in Ivory Coast, grew up in Paris. Aya was scouted in Paris and was later signed to The Lions in New York. Since securing and being recognised for Prada, the model has been on a whirlwind journey securing work with the likes of Marc Jacobs, Moschino and Burberry.

Image of Yasmin Wijnaldum 17 year old model Yasmin Wijnaldum, the Dutch model first was introduced to the modelling industry after being cast in the Gaultier and Valentino couture shows in July 2015. Taking a look at the models journey, these shows did not shape nor count as the models big break; this came later when Yasmin walked as an exclusive for Prada. Coincidence not, again since walking for the brand Yasmin Wijnaldum secured a number of clients from Lanvin to Kenzo and secured the corresponding advertising campaign with Prada’s new collection. The model has been on an unstoppable streak and is labelled as one of the leading new faces of the modelling world, with a bright future ahead. All with the help of her exclusive big break provided by Prada.

Prada seems to be the client all model bookers pray to for their new faces to land and Model Issue questions if Prada are setting a new trend for other luxury fashion houses to take a hold of. Undoubtedly, the fashion house have made a name for themselves and have secured a position in the modelling industry. Being a Prada exclusive seems to be the real life golden ticket to a successful career and is enviable by many.

Who is behind the casting success? In early 2012 American casting director Ashley Brokaw became the casting director for both Prada and little sister brand Miu-Miu. Brokaw started as an assistant for the infamous Bruce Weber and opened her own acting company in 2005. The casting director has changed the image of Prada casting ever since her arrival and has been in charge of the catwalk and advertising show cast. Having looked at the success stories, it is an undeniable fact that Prada’s show cast is highly influential, it is as if Prada measure themselves on whether a model is worthy enough of being deemed successful for the industry. The fashion house make their mark of approval on the freshest new faces more frequently than many other design houses. Other brands have dabbled in signing exclusives, for example Saint Laurent cast 6 exclusive girls, all of which were new faces but did not reach the same status that Prada models have. Model Issue cannot help but note that what works for one brand will not work well for another, a key theme in the fashion industry is authenticity. It is what currently leads to the results of street casting and perhaps why Saint Laurent’s exclusive faces never really took off.

Where Prada goes, the rest of the industry seem to follow and this has proved to be very influential shown by the impact of the new faces that the brand showcases. Prada provides the “golden ticket" for many new faces, leading the way and becoming the holy grail for new faces to wish for.