The Charmed Circle of Fashion Awaits with Mall of Africa Face of Fashion Search
Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Bella Hadid – the glamazons that live in the same charmed circle as Serena Williams, Beyoncé, or Jennifer Aniston – a circle populated by people that stir our imagination and command our attention – the super models, sporting stars, top performers, and actors of our time.
It Factor
Launching this year’s edition of the Mall of Africa Face of Fashion search, South Africa’s only competition to find new models, South African Fashion Week (SAFW), director Lucilla Booyzen says that top models have an IT factor that allows the camera or the runway to access a unique spiritedness that lights up the world.
“It is a quality that can make a brand come alive or inspire a designer’s creative vision. It is an inner vitality that is much more compelling than physical good looks.”
This can easily be a departure from the conventional beauty ideal – a gap between the front teeth that gives a goofy loveliness such as with Dutch model Lara Stone or the distinctive birth mark of local favourite, Kgothi Iman that adds depth of character to the simplest shot.
True Grit
Superficially this career may seem as simple as pitching up, but the truth is that every successful model has a gritty staying power that enables them to face setbacks and hardships with the same elegance that carries them down the runway.
“Demand for the discipline and professionalism of South African models puts them among the top three countries with Sweden and Canada internationally,” says Jane Celliers, director of Ice Models. “In addition to being gorgeous, they are exceptionally industrious and dependable and simply great to have on a team because of their easy-going attitudes and ability to roll with the inherent challenges of the industry.”
Local model Nicole Bux for example, faced the choice of a bleak Christmas in a European winter without any family to secure a working visa for the United Kingdom when international travel to South Africa was prohibited after the discovery of the Omicron Covid strain. Her courage to tough it out has subsequently landed her a lucrative and significant career-developing opportunity to do a campaign with top international brand, Puma, she explains.
New Talents Glowing and Growing
Since its inception in 2019, the competition that drew a record six hundred online entries in 2021, has catapulted remarkable new talents onto the local and international scene.
“Models are key when it comes to the marketing of fashion. Without the models there will be no shows, fashion spreads, media coverage and none of the exceptional social media buzz generated about the new designer collections,” explains Booyzen.
Inaugural winners Trystan Riley and Lethabo Khunou of Boss Models have been a powerful addition to the agency’s board and have grown immensely as models over the past two years despite the hurdles caused by the pandemic, says booker Erin Heart.
Trystan’s striking Titian bob and delicately freckled skin has added a delightful quirkiness to television commercials for multiple local brands including KFC, Samsung and Share Now as well as on the international fashion front for Europa Art's SS21 campaign, and top hair stylist, Candice McKay's, international multi award-winning hair collection, The Lotus.
Lethabo, too, has shone brightly in her time at Boss. She became a muse to several SAFW designers, recently flew out to Tanzania to shoot luxury Danish brand Munthe’s Pre-Fall 2022 collection and landed the opportunity to star along Viola Davis in her upcoming feature film, The Woman King.
The competition was placed on hold for 2020 during the pandemic but resumed in 2021 partnering with Ice Model in a rotational structure that alternates annually between the two agencies who both offer the overall winners a year-long modelling contract.
“Like most people out there, the fashion industry took a huge knock during and after Covid but despite the challenge of finding fresh faces in a time of mask-wearing, the SAFW team unearthed incredible new looks.
The 2021 winners, female model Mareva Misambo (22) and male model, Tristan Wesson (23) have already walked for designers during SA Fashion Week this year – local cult brands Mantsho and Nthando XV, among others. The sky is the limit for both,” says Celliers.
According to Booyzen, the competition can open doors to a local and international modelling career as well as provide access to other opportunities in the broader fashion industry.
“There are multiple benefits to participating in such a high-profile event. All the finalists receive a platform on which to show their talents to an illustrious group of industry experts – top local models, fashion stylists, media, and agencies – and then to shine as brightly as they can to a huge public audience on the runways shows in the Mall of Africa. Simply being in such good company is a massive confidence boost that serves as an incentive to pursue other agencies.”
Mall of Africa Face of Fashion 2022
Boss Models will select the twenty 2022 finalists for 2022 – ten men and ten women. They will all participate in the SAFW Pop Up shows in the Mall of Africa from 1 – 3 December 2022.
The two winners - one male and one female - will be announced on 3 December 2022. They will each receive a R10 000.00 Mall of Africa gift voucher, representation by Boss Models for a year and cast for the SA Fashion Week Collections in April 2023
Entries are now open on https://www.safashionweek.co.za/competitions/mall-of-africa-face-of-fashion.
Suggested Pix:
Kgothi Iman
Nicole Bux
Trystan Riley
https://www.bossmodels.co.za/joburg/women/mainboard/1497793/trystan-riley
Lethabo Khunou
https://www.bossmodels.co.za/joburg/women/mainboard/1501743/lethabo-khunou
Mareva Misambo
Tristan Wesson