Superlove of the Month February 2021 – Cara Taylor

CARA TAYLOR

Talkative, whimsical, and genial in nature, Cara Taylor born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama is something like Judy Garland meets The Raveonettes, bringing Southern American charm and creative dynamism to the world of high fashion modeling. Approached by modeling scouts since the age of 8, Cara’s heart was completely set on all things sports with little regard for fashion:

“I started doing sports in high school and that was just my life. I wanted to go to the Olympics or be a college volleyball player. I did volleyball, basketball, and I danced for five years. Sports made me more comfortable.”

The same healthy self image and confidence she built through sports, coupled with a tall athletic frame and slapstick sense of humor would only strengthen the resolve of agencies and scouts to sign the promising prospect, and Cara’s future mother agency, Onyx Management would do just that when they spotted the then 15 year old on Instagram.

“We could tell she was tall and had great bone structure, and she was silly and goofy,” says Janna Park of Onyx. “We’re not just about pretty faces. We’re looking for personality.”

I wanna know her
I wanna ask her
I wanna know where she did go wrong

Is it valium, is it all drugs?
Or is it just every day fun?

Yet, Sandy, Cara’s mother had her reservations, hoping Cara might get a sports-related scholarship, but after talking it over with friends and Cara, Sandy didn’t want the opportunity to go to waste: “My mom and I, we both chatted and we made a very big decision for the both of us that we we’re going to do modeling.”

Three weeks later, Cara who admittedly had very little experience with makeup or even wearing high heels, was already an exclusive for Alexander Wang, and walking for some of the biggest names in fashion like Prada, Rag & Bone, Jil Sander, Dior, Chanel, Dsquared, Etro, Moschino, Fendi, and Max Mara to name a few.

“I loved Alexander Wang because the music had me so pumped I couldn’t wait to get on the runway. It was a great first show to do, such a good experience and he’s the nicest person ever. I feel like that’s where I learned how to walk.”

She’s dancing in the street
Yeah, she’s dancing in the street
Dancing in the street
Yeah she’s dancing, dancing, dancing in the street

The next year in 2017, Cara would start to see commercial success, doing campaigns for Calvin Klein, H&M, Coach, Zara, Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs, Christopher Kane, and Diane Von Furstenberg. Cara also had some of first editorial work for Vogue USA, Vogue Italia, Vogue Paris, i-D, Interview, Harpers Bazaar, while gracing the cover of The Sunday Times.

By 2018, Cara had become a main fixture on the runways, winning over the hearts of designers in her ascent to the top of the fashion world, once again walking for names such as Burberry, Versace, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Givenchy, Stella McCartney, Fendi, Philosophy, Dolce & Gabbana, and Tom Ford. Cara even did campaigns for Hugo Boss, Topshop, and Alberta Ferretti.

Cara would finally land her first Vogue covers for Vogue China in 2018, Vogue Russia in 2019 and Vogue China again in 2020, and finally secured her first fragrance for Calvin Klein’s “CK EVERYONE Eau De Toilette!” Even with her impressive resume, Cara is determined more than ever to land an American Vogue cover and a makeup campaign for Estee Lauder:

See her go now
It’s a gas now
Watch her dance among the Bowery caps
People fear her
They’re so boring
They call the cops on anyone who is fun

“I want to be on the cover of the four top Vogues, British, Italian, French, and most importantly, American Vogue!”

To date, Cara has walked in over 250 fashion shows, has been featured in dozens of campaigns, scored a fragrance, and landed on three Vogue covers and and she’s just 19 years old: “Modeling has helped me a lot, especially the traveling with making me worldlier. I’m learning because I’m seeing so much and going so many places. I love meeting everyone; there are so many people from around the world involved in fashion.”

Cara Taylor is her very own special story in the dazzling world of fashion. She has such a buoyant and gleeful personality that it’s no wonder designers and agencies are so fond of her. You can see in interviews and on social media just how silly of a person she is. She really is like her own classic American vaudeville where there’s no accounting for age or seriousness.

Yet Cara’s modeling is quite the contrast from her usual harlequin antics as she’s quite subdued and refined on the runways and campaigns. When Cara’s modeling she can be like a chameleon, ranging from the androgynous, graceful, and creatively dynamic. She can be an imposing captivating figure to demure and pensive like a subject in a painting; it really is like Cara is a different person.

She’s dancing in the street
Yeah, she’s dancing in the street
Dancing in the street
Yeah she’s dancing, dancing, dancing in the street
Dancing, dancing, dancing in the street

“Honestly it’s so weird because I don’t wear makeup and probably never would have if I didn’t start modeling. Seeing myself in all these different ways still surprises me, sometimes I look at a picture and I’m like, “Who is she? She’s sexy!” It’s amazing how all the makeup artists and hair stylists can transform you into this different person.”

I can’t wait to get to know you
I wanna be the one that keeps it alive
If they catch you and commit you
They’ll never know what this life is about

With a little over four years of experience in the fashion industry, and still in her teens, Cara Taylor has cemented herself as one of the top models in the business, winning over fans, editors, and designers alike with her whimsical presence and love for the job. In a time where it’s easy to be swept away with all the minutiae of the day, Cara is very much content on being a conduit for humor and love.

From her small southern metropolitan roots to enamoring many on the worlds most coveted runways, Cara Taylor is charming as she is talented. She’ll have you grabbing your sides from the pain of laughter while wooing an audience on the runway during fashion week. A Superlove that’s her own fashion rhapsody where the asphalt streets and runways serve as her dance floor, invariably possessing your heart and joy from laughter, Cara Taylor.

She Owns, She Owns, She Owns the streets…

Rianne Van Rompaey Models Ports 1961 SS21 Advertising Campaign

With a focus on playful, upbeat energy and chic, graphic simplicity, Rianne Van Rompaey under the direction of Fabien Baron, and photographed by Steven Meisel, delivers all of those qualities and more for the latest SPRING-SUMMER 2021 Advertising Campaign from the grand looks of Milan Fashion Week! The Bisou, Contrast Black and White, Black Satin Cape, and Figures Coat Dress are all elegant enough to turn heads on the runway and simple enough to exude the modest of countenances. Rianne Van Rompaey made this campaign so fun. All her characters just scream an early 20th century silent film starlet like Lillian Gish, and being photographed by Steven Meisel himself, made this all the more fantastic and memorable!

Giedre Dukauskaite for Givenchy Beauty’s Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Glow Foundation

Giedre Dukauskaite showcases Givenchy Beauty’s latest offering from their Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Glow Foundation. The formula emphasizes a lightweight foundation & hydrating skincare for an exceptional glow. The formula is also made of 97% of natural ingredients with a glowing complexion that last up to 12 hours and 24-hour hydration, ranging in 30 shades color from warm, cool, and neutral undertones.

Kristina Grikaite for Vogue China March 2021

Celebrating the Chinese New Year and focusing on “creativity” in the March 2021 edition of Vogue China, Kristina Grikaite puts on a lively showing like only she can as a big kid at heart, resembling colorful themes from The Little Rascals and Walt Disney with plenty of spirited gaudiness from Versace and Chanel! Photography by Roe Ethridge

Superlove of the Month January 2021 – Marjan Jonkman

MARJAN JONKMAN

With all the flamboyance and creativity of David Bowie, coolness of Sid Vicious, and hardcore punk style of the Misfits, Marjan Jonkman has been an industry favorite and standout ever since she made her debut for Saint Laurent’s 2015 Spring Summer fashion show in Paris, where the runways would become her home away from home.

Before becoming an exclusive for Saint Laurant and top model, Marjan led a normal life with her loving family in Friesland: “I grew up in a small town in the north, Sint Nicolaasga in Friesland. I still enjoy being there, especially during busy periods around Fashion Weeks. I like to take long walks in the woods, and even leave my phone at home.”

Usually upbeat with a pep in her step, admittedly, Marjan was a bit of a problem child and was quite the opposite of what she is today. “I was quite a problem child, a lot of tantrums and often sad, I had intense mood swings and was quite closed.”

With a Rock n’ Roll spirit and a deep desire to leave her village in Sint Nicolaasga with some 3,300 inhabitants for something more, Marjan, who never wanted to be a model was scouted at the age of 18 years old on Instagram and saw an opportunity, cancelling her studies at the University of Groningen:

“At first I thought: what is that man [scout] talking about? I canceled my study and room in Groningen. Two weeks later I got on the plane. I am quite impulsive, I didn’t really expect anything from it, but saw it as a nice opportunity. I partied in New York for two months straight.”

I’m an alligator
I’m a mama-papa coming for you
I’m a space invader
I’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut
You’re squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I’m busting up my brains for the words

18, her agent away in Mexico, and still very much uninterested in modeling, Marjan’s start couldn’t have been more doomed, and to make matters worse, no one knew what to do with Marjan’s look and despite the alterations and haircuts, work just wasn’t going well.

Yet in Paris, a better market for edgier models, Marjan’s fortunes would begin to turn when Hedi Slimane, then creative director of Saint Laurent booked her exclusively for his show and also for the Saint Laurent campaign. Marjan would then have a Linda Evangelista transformation to her career when Hedi decided to have her hair and eyebrows bleached.

Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah

Don’t fake it, baby
Lay the real thing on me
The church of man, love
Is such a holy place to be
Make me, baby
Make me know you really care
Make me jump into the air

After that, Marjan’s career began to take off majorly, walking for brands like Gucci, Max Mara, Trussardi, Lanvin, Miu Miu, Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, Fendi, while having some of her first commercial work for Adidas and Anteprima, and editorials Numero, Vogue and Interview Magazine.

In just her first year in 2015, Marjan walked in up to 70 shows, opening for Rochas, Missoni, MSGM, Emanuel Ungaro, and closing for Marc Jacobs. Yet, the following year in 2016 would be even grandeur as she walked for Chanel, Moschino, Dior, Puma, Vera Wang, Michael Kors, Simone Rocha, Guccie, Fendi, Philosophy, and Isabel Marant to name a few. By the end of 2016, Marjan walked over 100 shows, cementing herself as main fixture on the runways.

“Hedi Slimane is my favorite designer and he always will be. He is the one who launched my career. Besides, I really love his style, at least as much as I love him as a person.”

Marjan would have one of her most successful years commercially in 2016, doing work for Topshop, Marc Jacobs, Lanvin Eyewear, Dsquared, Net-A-Porter, and Roberto Cavalli. Marjan. Marjan would also land her first fashion magazine cover for Vogue Me China for their December 2016 issue, photographed by Zeng Wu.

Matching her down-to-earth Dutch, Frisian nature and big heart, Marjan became an ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages, an independent, non-profit, non-governmental, organization providing humanitarian and developmental assistance to children in need. “I have such a nice life and I want to give something back. The family is central to the organization and family is also the most important for me.

“Playing with all those children and helping in the SOS families with peeling potatoes and cutting bananas. Four-year-olds could do better and laughed at me. They also called me ‘mzungu’ all the time. white! My hair was an attraction.”

Today, Marjan Jonkman is one of the most sought-after top models in the industry with hundreds of fashion shows under her belt, dozens of fashion editorials, magazine covers, and campaigns! “I always had the feeling that I had to leave Sint Nicolaasga, a village with 3300 inhabitants. My modeling turned out well for me. I found my way.”

Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah

I think Marjan is such an exciting and unique model. I love her bleached eyebrows, hair, and killer bangs. There’s something about her that screams David Bowie to me. I guess it’s because she’s so flamboyant and eccentric. On fashion forums, she’s critiqued by some for not being versatile enough on the runways.

But I love Marjan’s walk. She has more of a glide to me, poised and self controlled. She makes fashion and Haute Couture so fun. Haute Couture usually looks silly to me, but when Marjan wears it, it makes sense and looks pretty cool. She’s a rockstar in what she wears and she brings so much punk spirit to fashion that the runway becomes her rock stage.

“It’s so, so, so important [talking about what fashion means to her]. Not only because I work in it myself, but also because you can express yourself through clothes and emphasize all sides of yourself.”

When Marjan isn’t doing fashion, she’s riding horses, going on long walks as she’s an exercise addict and vegan, and she loves her family and boyfriend above all else, that along with her Dutch upbringing, keeps her grounded in an industry where it’s hard not to feel like a superstar: I give everything on a set, it is sometimes tough but you don’t hear me moaning. I am well paid for it. Besides, I do not take this life for granted.”

Much like Rianne van Rompaey, Marjan is a larger than life personality and creative. She’s such a likable person with a big heart and bubbly personality. Her looks reminds me so much of the Ziggy Stardust persona, Sex Pistols, and Misfits. Like more and more top models in the industry, she’s so relatable and talented, that I just admire her work and what she does creatively.

From Hunky Dory to an out of this world punk inspired model, Marjan Jonkman is the type of model and person, I can’t help but adore. She’s terrestrial and extraterrestrial at the same time, uncanny and quite unparalleled. As Bowie was to music, so is Marjan to fashion. A Superlove that inspires the spread of humor and love, yet otherworldly, a moonage daydream, Marjan Jonkman.

Freak out (Freak out, freak out, freak out, freak out…)
Far out (Far out, far out, far out, far out…)
In out (In out, in out, in out, in out…)