If you’ve been glued in to Model.Live since its premier episode, we’re sure there’s been a subtle growth of attachment towards Austria, Madeline, and Cato. As you all know, I happened to have caught a case of Madelinophilia around the second episode and I’ve been enamored ever since. In my eyes, she’s a “true blue, dinky di Aussie so the philia is bona fide!
I digress, but for a reason. The fond memories of Madeline’s successful New York season came to a crashing halt, as she stood a breath away from London Fashion Week with only a silly passport stamp and some snooty immigration officers asphyxiating her way. Now if you read Madeline’s recount of the events over at her blog, the mere fact of having to stay overnight was not what got her “frazzled so to speak—it was being overly badgered, excessively frisked, and downright humiliated. Is being a burgeoning model with representation from IMG such a lowly calling to warrant a pat down of this nature? Homeland security is one thing, but the zeal was to a fault.
In retrospect, with all the tumult set upon the itinerant Model.Live girls, one has to ask is someone slipping up at IMG?
The grass is a lot greener in London for Cato as she nails ten shows with Giles, Christopher Kane and Topshop Unique amongst the slew of names—a strong season indeed. Cato’s steady ascent from New York to London is breathtaking sans her association with Russell Marsh which makes her feats seem all a bit nepotic. Marsh is a weighty character in the world of casting, fronting for Prada and Miu Miu as their “it casting director.
Sadly though Marsh has been tied to unscrupulous allegations along the lines of receiving bribery from certain agencies (we won’t mention any names) to cast their models front and center in particular shows. Cato got her break through Marsh last season, walking for Prada as a relative unknown. Hmm…it all seems suspect, but we trust that Cato’s strong showing in New York set in motion her tour de force performance in London.
Austria’s fortunes weren’t so rosy in London. She walked three shows, but the trek was an arduous one. It seemed her chaotic beginnings at Heathrow foreshadowed the havoc her idle mother agent, Socrates McKinney, and her headstrong driver would wreak! “I can’t write it down, because it gives me a headache. We literally wanted to pull at our own hair for the poor girl or maybe take a nap with her. Can you fault her? The stress of a haphazard driver can easily be compounded by a mother agent who refuses to talk on the phone and gets frazzled in an instant. Surrounded by all the brouhaha, it’s no wonder sleep emerges as Austria’s only solace.
For Austria, London proves to be tough, daunting, and not as receptive as New York, but one look at her snaps from Qasimi show are enough of an indicator that Austria Alcantara will be a force to be reckoned with as opposed to being just “number in the eyes of a certain casting director.
