"I'm in the export business," says Raul Andresson,
co-president of Beatrice Mass Model Management, a model agency
he runs with his wife Beatrice herself a model and well-known
celebrity in Estoniaóout of a sprawling, light-filled
flat in downtown Tallinn. Andresson proudly handed a reporter
the agency's newly-minted, lavishly-produced 2000 calendar,
flowing over with seductive portraits of this year's line of
long-stemmed, fine-boned, amply-proportioned beauties: Kadri
the blonde, Victoria the brunette, Martina. "I export beauty,"
he said matter-of-factly, interrupting the reporter's admiring
muse.
Indeed. At last count, there were at least four full-fledged
model agencies based in the Estonian capital, a prodigious number
for a city of half a million and the phones are jangling in
each of them. "Everyone is crazy about Estonian models,"
said Margit J¦gger, co-founder of Estonian Modeling Agency,
as she reached for her cell phone for the third time in a minute.
Everyone, it seems, is looking for the new Carmen Kass, the
Estonian model who was discovered in a Tallinn supermarket in
1992, when she was 14, and has since risen to become one of
the world's top supermodels. Kass' Amazonian features graced
this February's U.S. edition Vogue magazine, which pronounced
her, along with Gisele Bundchen, one of the world's two top
supermodels.
Not many people outside fashion may actually be aware that Kass
is from Estonia, and many may still have some trouble placing
it on a world map. No matter. Kass' success, along with the
increasing worldwide demand for Estonian models, is but the
latest proof even it is but skin deep-of the country's acceptance
by the Western world. For model agency heads, the boom times
have come hard. "All the things we have worked for years
are finally paying off," said Marge Tilk, head of ModelNet,
a local agency she founded several years ago as her own modeling
career was beginning to taper off.Tilk was one of the few Estonian
girls who worked for the Soviet-era model agency Red Star a
period she would rather not talk about. Today the 28-year-old
redhead still occasionally works as a model herself, although
she is generally too busy running ModelNet.
"The girls are out there on the runways," says Tilk
with enthusiasm. "They're doing Milan. They're doing London.
And people love them." "Of course, we always knew
that the most beautiful women came from Estonia," says
Margit J¦gger, at her cavernous, old town office, which
is covered with magazine covers featuring her models. "Now
everyone knows." Jigger and her partner Katrin Rannali
met with lots of blank Estonian stares when they left their
Tallinn advertising jobs to start EMA back in 1992, a year after
the country regained independence from Moscow. With the Estonian
economy in free fall, the notion of actually paying someone
to pose for an advertisement struck many Tallinn businessmen
as absurd. |
Nevertheless Jigger and Rannali persisted in their quest to bring
the beauty business to Estonia. When they weren't expostulating
with quizzical Estonian neo-capitalists, the two were roaming
the cobblestone streets near their offices looking for recruits
for their new-fangled line, asking a girl here and a girl there
to pose for modeling tests.Somewhat surprisingly in a country
known for shyness, almost all of the girls they asked said yes.
After half a century of dwelling in the gray Soviet void, Estonian
women, who had been known during the inter-war years for their
exquisite fashion sense, were fast discovering the world of beauty.
The notion of becoming a fashion model in 1992 was very in. It
still is. By 1996, J¦gger and Rannali had put together
a cadre of eager-to-please, assiduous Estonian models, and their
girls quickly went international. The export business had begun.
One of EMA's first major discoveries was Iris Teiter (center photo).
Waiting for friends in Tallinn, Teiter was politely accosted by
an out-of-breath J¦gger, who persuaded her to enter one
of the increasingly popular model contests then being held in
town. The contest was scheduled to begin in 30 minutes. The doe-eyed
beauty won.
Within two years, Teiter was living in a flat off Champs Elysee
and modeling for the likes of Chanel and L'Oreal, along with her
then roommate, Marge Tilk.
Meanwhile, another enterprising prospector, a former photographer's
assistant by the name of Paolo Moglia had hit upon an even more
momentous discovery-the statuesque form of Carmen Kass. Faking
her mother's signature on the model's release form, Kass flew
straight to Milan and immediately began modeling. It wasn't until
two years ago by which time the fashion-magazine world had outgrown
its affinity for the evanescent, decadent "waif" look
that Kass' and Moglia's years of hard work finally paid off and
she attained cover girl status. Today, in addition to being one
of the world's top models, Kass is a partner with Moglia in Baltic
Models, a Tallinn model agency. Located on the second floor of
a small building off M¸¸rivahe, in the Tallinn old
city, the agency is a virtual Carmen shrine, adorned with Carmen
magazine covers and posters.
Moglia himself already thinks he has discovered the next Carmen:
a 12 year old by the name of Tatiana who he whisked off to Milan
this year though this time with her parents' permission.  The
other agencies have their own Bright Hopes.
At Beatrice Mass Model Management, it's a stunning brunette by
the name of Katrin. At EMA, it's a svelte 18-year-old by the name
of Helis. At ModelNet, the girl of the moment is a small town
girl by the name of Anu whom agency head Marge Tilk discovered
at a relative's wedding. "I'm a hunter," says Beatrice,
as her dachshund-cum-mascot Elizabeth barks approvingly. "We
all are."
Given the ongoing demand for Estonian models, it looks like the
hunt-and the Estonian model craze is set to continue.
Gordon F. Sander is a freelance writer based
in London and New York. He has written for The New York Times
and The Financial Times. He is also author of the book, Sterling
: The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man. He is
also an accomplished photographer and has publish a book of his
pictures. The above article was his first contribution to CITY
PAPER. |
