Take a Trip Through Modeling’s History in the Pages of “The Reality Show”

Modeling’s history is a beloved topic in fashion circles, but few have explored it in as interesting a manner as The Reality Show. In its latest issue, editor in chief Tiffany Godoy and casting director Wayne Sterling go from the days of Janice Dickinson and Penelope Tree to modern obsessions like Alexandra Elizabeth and Binx Walton, outlining each woman’s impact on modeling and the culture at large. The ensuing portfolio combines nostalgia with a glimpse at the industry’s future. Style.com caught up with Godoy and Sterling to talk era-defining beauties and how they unearthed a treasure trove of artifacts from Twiggy’s ’60s heyday.

How would you describe the focus of this model-centric issue?

TIFFANY GODOY: It’s a very important moment where digital media, youth culture, and big business are incredibly symbiotic. Staying true to our anthropological approach, I wanted to create a snapshot of where the model scene is now and how we got here using both old-school and new-school media. It’s a mix of a book with oversized paper and a website. All pages are scannable with your phone, so it is something that is built to last, and something that is as fluid as the digital sphere.

WAYNE STERLING: Tiffany’s broad outline on the issue was to explore how models represent the changing reflection of our beauty standards. Hand in hand with the great fashion photography of the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s are always these kinds of emblematic beauties. A great beauty enables a great fashion moment. It’s what the best photographers, designers, and editors hunt for every day. I mean, the ’60s is Twiggy and Twiggy is the ’60s. You can’t not think of Gemma Ward when you think of the ’00s, which is an example of a face that changed the game forever.

How did you go about selecting the models featured in the Pioneers and Bibles sections?

TG: I knew immediately I wanted to work with Wayne, who has played a strong role in this model/media revolution, whom I have known since his Models.com days, and who has worked with a prominent fashion magazine in Japan for years writing a column on the model scene. We reviewed the recent waves of change—people like Winnie Harlow, the transgender models, the Insta models like Kendall Jenner, and Cara [Delevingne]. Finally, we settled on the question: Who will really go down in history to represent the era? Who will transcend trends? Who will the big beauty brands cast as their faces for the decade?

Pioneers gave us the opportunity to give it some backbone. Are we repeating history? If so, where do we go from here? Nigel Barker, a fixture on the mass-market reality-TV model scene, discussed his recent book, Models of Influence, and gave us incredible insight into the why and how models in history became the symbols of their respective eras.

Meanwhile, fashion historian Valerie Steele, who has curated shows on corsets, gay culture, and fashion, and is working on an upcoming exhibit on Susanne Bartsch and New York club culture, talked about alternatives in beauty and what bubbles from the bottom up.

                                                                                                                

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As a bibliophile myself—and as a partially Japanese publication—collecting and referencing is part of our DNA. I wanted to make the issue something that you could turn to as a reference—a place of discovery for younger people, and a reminder for people who have been in the industry. It is a visual digest that shows how much beauty and its key players have changed and how much they have remained the same.

With so many models serving to inspire this issue, how did you decide on Alexandra Elizabeth for the cover?

WS: We felt she had such an intense presence. Alexandra Elizabeth is very commanding, which is something interesting in a beauty shoot. There’s her bone structure, which is very much that of a ’70s actress. She can transmit a very kind of empowered woman in the Helmut Newton mode. Yet when you switch channels to her Instagram, you get a gleeful kid. Very prismic, which takes her far away from boring. She’s an incredible canvas for makeup artists and carries the point that beauty can both be superstrong as well as soft. Did you see the Tom Pecheux face she carried at Chanel Couture F/W ’15? Or that Pat McGrath beat at Galliano? Very memorable, that young woman.

What does the lineup of newer girls you selected say about beauty now?

WS: Well, we hope that it transmits a contemporary idea of beauty, the feeling that companies now cater to a post-global, post-digital taste. I think because there is so much information in our new media ecosystem, striking individuality is what resonates with the upcoming wave of consumers. There are thousands of models circulating today, but beauty bookings are what separate the girls from the women. If you can climb the runway ladder all the way to a contract, then you really are the MVP of the game. That game is not just in regards to how pretty a girl is but how unique…how indispensable she can make herself on the market. As models like Binx or Mona Matsuoka or Cindy Bruna surface for Calvin Klein makeup or Shiseido or Chanel fragrance, you see that beauty clients are refreshing their aesthetic.

The issue features several incredible pieces of model history, from the vintage model books to Twiggy’s comp form—how did you go about tracking those down?

TG: Obsessively! For the books, mostly from my personal library, and searching out names that were referenced in those books or magazines. Somehow I stumbled upon the gold mine Marlowe Press just before we were closing the issue. Peter Marlowe actually invented the model composite, among several other firsts within the industry. He created Twiggy’s first composite, which is featured in the issue—filled out by Justin de Villeneuve for the delivery date of April 26, 1966. Marlowe is one of the most important people in the modeling industry, without a doubt, and his archive is mind-blowing. Such a story, I am not finished with him yet!

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