Five Models You Can’t Avoid No Matter Where You Go
One of my favorite pastimes is getting lost in a magazine store. Within seconds I’m high off the smell of all those glossy fantasies, the cologne inserts, and millions of dollars worth of ads for things I can’t easily afford. But my favorite thing within the favorite thing of the magazine store is looking at the models on the covers. You know you love fashion when you start to see the same models over and over again – they’re following you – and so you call them by their first names, “Oh hey, Chanel.” And if you look at it that way, it’s kind of like they’re your secret BFFs.
So who are my favorite models? It’s hard to say, really, because I like a lot of models. But only a select few rise above anonymity to the point where you’re like, who is that? Anyway. I like my dudes to be edgy and bad (of course), and I love when a girl knows how to work, when she can give high fashion better than RuPaul! It’s always interesting to me to see a designer or magazine chose this or that model, because like everything nowadays models are brands, too. And the model’s brand adds that extra level or so to the fantasy the designer wants to create.
Freja Beha Erichsen – just “Freja”
I don’t know who Freja’s agent is, but whoever s/he is they sure know how to hustle. Freja is everywhere in 2010. Wherever you go, there’s Freja, too. In August alone she starred alongside Dan Kling in an editorial for Interview magazine and PS, she took the covers of both French and British Vogue; at the same time. Also: She might be a lesbian!
Jon K
The guy in all the ads at H&M? Jon Kortajarena, Tom Ford protégé and (the real) star of A Single Man. Whether you’re into boys or girls, you have to admit that Jon is hands down a good looking guy. You might say he has that “je ne sais quoi,” but actually I know exactly what it is: that sexy Spanish grin appeals to everybody. All he’d have to do is whisper “fajita” in my ear and my legs would automatically be in the air. Girls and gay dudes want to sleep with him, and straight bros realize he’s sexy, don’t say it aloud, but wish they could be him because dude probably gets a lot of tail. When designers need sexy, Jon’s the go-to-bro. As Tom Ford’s creation, how could he not be?
Daria Werbowy
The girl in all the ads at H&M? Yep, you’re looking at Daria Werbowy. There she is, high cheekbones and all, crinkly messed up hair and perfectly made up to look like she could be any normal girl. Man it takes a lot of hard work to look average. What I love about Daria is that she does the “scenester” heroin chic look so well (see the last cover of Dossier Journal, which now has Freja on the cover, of course), but her high fashion editorials like the YSL ads show a completely different person. She does editorial, she does catalog, she does runway, she does androgyny. She is many models all in one. Plus, chick kinda makes me hot.
Karlie Kloss
Sometimes, I just don’t get the appeal of certain models. It all seems so arbitrary, like one designer shows an unknown model and soon after that everybody wants a piece of that ass. Karlie Kloss, I just don’t get. I love her in the Dior ads, because she gives drag queen high fashionness, which is what it’s all about. But overall Karlie just doesn’t do it for me, but she’s in all the ads so I guess it doesn’t matter!
Cole Mohr
I have a huge fashion boner for Cole Mohr. He’s kind of a bad ass, with his cold blue eyes, tattoos and strategically wild hair. Feel like dude would fit right in on Bedford Avenue, skateboarding down the street, sipping the milk out of a coconut. Cole’s the go-to boy for that skater, hipster, downtown look. And actually, for the past few years he’s been on a billboard at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Greenwich, which to me totally solidifies his downtownyness. Check him out this month on the cover of Fiasco magazine.