Modelling blog

Girls as young as 13 and 14 are aspiring to be like Jordan according to reports this week. Young teens these days don’t look like the young teens that we used to be. They have coiffed hair, spray tans, false eyelashes, makeup, acrylic nails and look a lot older than they really are.

With the like’s of Jordan, making millions from her ‘assets’ many young girls see her as a role model and want to use their looks to make money.

This naive outlook is common among girls of this age, and it is becoming increasingly common amongst young middle-class girls, who would traditionally have gone to university, and wish to attain a respectable career.

Katie Price has got to the point where she is seen by many as feminist icon, having built a career on inflated breasts, soft porn, stage-managed ‘it girl’ type appearances and several books.

Her books depict female characters, like Crystal who doesn’t care that male admirers think she is easy, or promiscuous, and yet young girls, and worryingly their mothers are encouraging their daughters to want to be like Jordan - because she represents money, looks and fame.

Older girls are in demand for modelling agencies - proving that grey is the black. More mature faces are being chosen to to front major advertising campaigns from cars to perfumes. Claudia Schiffer, 38 has been selected for Chanel and Ferragamo, and Christy Turlington, 39 for Escada. Naomi Campbell, 38, recently replaced Kate Moss, 34 as the face of Yves Saint Laurent. But these ladies aren’t exactly ‘unknowns’ - they are all former supermodels, famous for modelling all over the world and have earned millions doing so, so should we be surprised by the fact that they are still getting work?

But it isn’t just the super-duper models in the older age bracket that are getting the work, apparently the market has exploded across the board and thanks to far more women these days in the work force, they have the spending power and want to see people more their own age advertising the products. This age-group of models is now the fastest growing with designers and marketing experts desperate to snap them up for ad campaigns, catalogues and magazines, at both ends of the high-end low-end fashion scale.

Abby Clancy, girlfriend of Liverpool footballer and England international, Peter Crouch, is set to host a brand new show on ITV2 called ‘The Fashion Project’. The show features Clancy searching for bargains on the high street, chatting to and grilling ‘top’ celebrity guests and talking about the forthcoming autumn/winter 2008/09 season’s trends.

Clancy recently became the face (and body) of Matalan’s swimwear and lingerie ranges. Sales are reported to have shot through the roof on these ranges and have touched a record high under her endorsement. Clancy has admitted to being thrilled by the sales news and she remains in demand as a top celeb lingerie model.

Clancy is not the only Liverpool WAG that has been turned out of late - not to mention queen WAG Coleen McLoughlin (or should I say Rooney!!) who has been leading the Liverpool WAG pack for a while now. Liverpool, a city that has always appreciated fashion, with it’s new £1 billion shopping centre, Liverpool One, a slightly more relaxed attitude towards fashion than London is determinedly vying with Manchester for the title of fashion capital of the north. This teamed with the existing boutiques like the Armani Exchange and the ever increasing fashion student population creating fashion designers of the future, Liverpool is shaking off the image that has been portrayed for so long: the orange, fake everything, wearing too many accessories girls of the 90’s and early 00’s!