Photo by Sam Sussman
Vogue announced the launch of Open Casting, a global model search to identify, encourage, and support a new generation of models that embody a modern ideal of beauty.
From April 24 to May 8, femme-identifying individuals 18 and older can access the Open Casting Portal on Vogue.com. There, they will be able to submit photographs and a short video, as well as answer a questionnaire to highlight their personality. Applicants can come from anywhere in the world, they do not need to be signed to an agency, and there is no entry fee.
The finalists will be chosen in June by a committee of Vogue editors, stylists, and casting directors, alongside industry professionals including Eva Chen, director of fashion partnerships at Instagram, model Paloma Elsesser, and Piergiorgio del Moro and Samuel Ellis Scheinman, casting directors and co-founders of the influential agency DM Casting.
“Finding faces to represent modernity and the now in an ever-evolving society is the endeavor of casting,” del Moro and Scheinman say. “It is with pride that we have joined Vogue’s Open Casting, a mold-breaking model search, and are excited to find the faces of tomorrow.”
That group will become the Vogue Open Casting Class of 2023, and get the opportunity to be featured in a photoshoot that will run in a fall issue of global editions of Vogue, as well as receive continued mentorship and support. The initiative follows the success of Vogue China’s Open Casting. The winner, Fanfan, has since walked the runways at Prada, Simone Rocha, and Burberry, among others.
“Some of Vogue’s favorite models were discovered in the most surprising of ways: Kate Moss at JFK airport, Naomi Campbell window-shopping in Covent Garden,” Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer, Condé Nast, and Global Editorial Director, Vogue, said in a press release. “Open Casting is an initiative that will foster the next generation of Vogue talent, with particular attention to the need for more diverse and inclusive representation in fashion. We can’t wait to meet them.”
