Casting Directors Spill All: “Bold” Is In, “Perfect” Out

As full-time catwalk and magazine observers, we often wonder what's going on in the minds of the people casting the leggy ladies striding those runways and gracing those glossy pages. Yeah, we have friends who model and friends who cast, but getting them to sit down and spill on the trends they see is something we always forget to do over drinks (can you really blame us?).

This being the case, reading Mhairi Graham's interview with AM Casting gurus Noah Shelley and Angus Munro on AnOther magazine's website was a true treat. Not only does the duo that casts for Ann Demeulemeester, Pringle, Marios Schwab, Dazed & Confused, and more spill on their Fashion Week lives, methods for rejecting aspiring models, and the differences from city to city, but they also keyed us in to the forecast for coming seasons.

Says Munro, "Regarding purely aesthetic trends, I feel like ‘strength’ is a good word, and confidence." He continues, "There is a trend towards beautiful women that don’t seem to be pushovers; girls and women who are emboldened by their beauty and wear it well."

If that weren't already wonderful to hear, Shelley echoes his sentiment. "The girls I find people want to see in magazines are the really bold ones," he says. "Not just the pretty, chic or perfect ones, but the girls with defining character. Not every runway girl is bold." Music to our ears.

See, not only do we like tough, interesting young women, we think they're good for the industry as a whole. Since designers often design with the most popular models (or at least the prevailing model trends) in mind, strong personalities on the runway make for bold fashions for confident women in the stores. We like that.

As well, it almost goes without saying that — given all the self-image issues models tend to generate among the public — it's always better to have women on the catwalks and in magazines who are valued more for their individual identities and unique looks than fashion's idea of the "perfect" body.

Said Munro, "As a general rule, I think the girls are getting more aspirational. I have said for years that I just do not understand why we had the faceless generation of models that was so prevalent in the early-to-mid 2000s, and this season a more beautiful, aspirational trend continued but, more importantly, evolved somewhat. These girls had a bit of an edge, which is where it should be." Exactly — models should be interesting, inspring people women aspire to be, not "faceless" people women feel they have to be. (AnOther Magazine)