Cover Girl Ezine Models

Designers return to supermodels after celebrity flops
Thursday, July 27, 2006

By Rachel Dodes and Cheryl Lu-Lien, The Wall Street Journal

Italian fashion house Versace SpA is practically synonymous with celebrity ads: In 1995, Prince appeared with the word "Slave" scrawled across his face. Last year, Demi Moore lounged in a cleavage-baring halter dress; Madonna perched on a glass desk in a tight taupe shirtdress.

For fall, in a move likely to be widely watched in the fashion hothouse, Versace is planning another provocative advertising move: using professional models.

But not just any models.

Christy Turlington, Kate Moss and Carolyn Murphy will grace the new Versace ads in September issues of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle, wearing minidresses, A-line coats, black leggings and patent-leather boots. "This is a new angle for today," says Donatella Versace, creative director of the fashion house, who says she wants to draw attention to her creations, rather than to the celebrities who wear them.

Louis Vuitton, owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is also returning to supermodels, after relying on actresses Jennifer Lopez, Christina Ricci, Scarlett Johansson and Uma Thurman in recent years. Gisele Bundchen stars in its spring ad campaign; Ms. Moss, Naomi Campbell and relative newcomer Daria Werbowy appear in the fall campaign, which launches this month.

The change is also evident at Vogue, where the August cover features a pregnant Linda Evangelista, the first model to appear on the cover after 14 straight months of celebrities.

The pendulum's swing back to models reflects what some fashion marketers are calling "celebrity fatigue": A-list entertainers are so overexposed that "there is a major lack of trust," says Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a New York consulting firm.

It also underscores the tension between serious fashion magazines and celebrity books like People, USWeekly, Star and InStyle that increasingly feature pages of head-to-toe red carpet shots of celebrities sporting designer fashions.

"Ten years ago, having a celebrity in your ad would class it up," says Robert Thompson, founding director at Syracuse University's Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. "Now, there's something cheesy about it. ... There are so many celebrities on so many magazines all the time."

The return of the supermodel also follows some celebrity-ad bellyflops. This summer's multimillion-dollar campaign for St. John Knits Inc. starring Angelina Jolie hasn't plumped up the brand's sales and may even have alienated core customers, marketing experts say. Officials at the company weren't available for comment. Gap Inc.'s three-season contract with Sarah Jessica Parker, which started in 2004, seemed like a smart move at first, but by the time the campaign's third season rolled around, the series "Sex and the City" had ended, and consumers grew tired of the ads. A Gap spokeswoman declined to comment.

Of course, Ms. Moss, Ms. Evangelista and other supermodels are celebrities in their own right -- a fact not lost on Nikon Corp., which chose Ms. Moss for its digital-camera ads precisely because of "all the buzz that comes along with being Kate," according to Danielle Korn, an executive vice president at Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson, New York, which produced the ads. Tabloid newspapers chronicled Ms. Moss's recent drug problems, which led to the cancellation of the 32-year-old model's contracts with Hennes & Mauritz AB's H&M stores and Chanel SA. (Burberry PLC cancelled its fall 2005 campaign with Ms. Moss by mutual agreement. But it is using her again for fall 2006.)

Still, style experts say that models may convey more fashion gravitas and sophistication than screen actresses. "They're specifically related to fashion," says Sally Singer, fashion news features director at Vogue, which mostly used models on its cover until 2000, when the magazine started featuring mostly actresses, partly because readers were identifying with celebrities more.

Others see an unmistakable climate change. "We're seeing a return to the focus on the product rather than just the image," says David Wolfe, a New York fashion consultant and creative director of the Doneger Group. "People have decided that when they buy the image they are not really getting anything."

The shift back to models also involves practical considerations. A new model may make as little as $5,000 to $10,000 a day, industry executive say. Supermodels can get $1 million for two campaigns -- spring and fall -- for the same client in a year. Actresses, as a rule, can command several million dollars for a single campaign. Celebrities often demand more creative control and are difficult to schedule, since they are often juggling movie shoots or tours.

The new Versace campaign, completed in two days and shot by the fashion photographer Mario Testino, cost around $500,000 to produce, the company says. (For Versace, that actually exceeded the cost of some of its recent campaigns featuring Madonna, Ms. Moore, Halle Berry and other "friends of the house," who posed for nominal fees, free clothes or charitable contributions.)

Models can also be easier to work with, says Ivan Bart, senior vice president of IMG Models, which represents actresses and models such as Carolyn Murphy, Kate Moss and Shalom Harlow. "They're professionally trained to be photographed incredibly well," he says. "They know which camera angles work."

And models are also more timeless. "People are getting afraid that actors are only as hot as their last movie or TV show," says Faith Kates, founder of Next Model Management, New York, who expects her firm to see a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in revenue this year as a result of supermodels' return. Besides, shes adds, "models don't show up with an entourage."

Luxury labels, of course, aren't swearing off celebrities cold turkey. Dressing stars for their red-carpet appearances remains a fundamental tactic. The free clothes that fashion houses often lavish on stars help perpetuate the practice. Versace itself frequently dresses actresses, including Jessica Alba, who wore Versace to the Golden Globes and the Oscars this year. The company says it doesn't pay Ms. Alba to wear Versace but does "lend" her clothes.

Interestingly, the fashion industry has shied away from models for so long that advertisers seeking a well-known face have to go back to supermodels like Ms. Turlington (age 37) or Ms. Campbell (age 36) or Ms. Moss (32), says Sean Patterson, president of Wilhelmina Models, New York. "The industry hasn't allowed a new set of supermodels to be created," he says.

One exception is the 22-year old Ms. Werbowy, who is set to appear in coming Versace ads. She was born in Krakow, Poland, and lived in Ukraine before moving to a Toronto suburb when she was 3. Still, while she may be famous within the industry, Mr. Patterson says, "if you went to a mall in the middle of America, nobody would know who she was."

Meanwhile, as those in media and advertising search for the next fresh face, one publication has gone an intriguing route. Elle magazine last month featured an interesting choice of model in a fashion spread: Isabel Dupre, its very own style director.