The Newest Wave

Martine Schouten Hoogendijk @ Fresh (The Netherlands), Nathalie (Paris), New York Models (NY) -- video courtesy of Nathalie Paris

Makes sense. A short movie portraying Martine, taken in Paris, where she talks about modeling and her favorite things in life. From places she likes to food she loves, from what fashion means to her to the last thing she does before going to bed. It makes a lot of topics but simply reveals a few charming details without unveiling everything, keeping the mystery alive while her career takes off. The perfect balance between all the little things that allow us to know more about her personality and the gallery of expressions it shows makes the whole portrait even more relevant. Made sense, then to have it as an exclusive preview today. Especially when another rising star from Nathalie/New York Models, also from the Netherlands, is featured on Vogue Italia's new faces section a few days earlier. Dutch invasion or smart management and good timing ?

That's precisly what captures our attention at the moment. Besides how lovely it is to learn that Martine loves cheese as much as we do, what seems to be the foreword of her career-plan is worth taking a closer look. Fourth Dutch young lady signed with New York Models and ready for success, third one also signed with Nathalie, all of them sharing a certain look that tells a bit more on the current aesthetics set as these two agencies' trademark. Peculiar yet "easy to understand", meaning they effortlessly stand out from the crowd while not likely to induce dramatic changes in perception of beauty. Quite a nice concept we could translate as "unique and universal" as, far from reaching only a tiny niche within the whole fashion world, all of Martina's three agency-mates -- Patricia, Ylonka and Melissa -- got a remarkable response from New York to Paris.

Wether they come from the same mold or not is another question. And allows us to push that concept a little further than what initially seemed to be its boundaries. Today's modeling seems to move on (or go back) to striking individuals. Girls who tell you a story as soon as they enter the casting-room. Girls who wear the clothes (and not the other way around) but don't necessarily outshine a collection by some irrelevant star qualities. To give a proper answer to the question, if they all definitely belong to the same "wave", each has a distinctive look and vibe -- make sure you've seen both Martine's and Melissa's videos by the way. Actually, it's especially because of the difference that they belongs to that very same wave, which seems to stand for a certain idea of beauty rather than a definite beauty type. It's a bit tricky, it's a bit conceptual and maybe we push it too far on the intellectual way (instead of keeping the same light-hearted mood as Martine in her interview). But it would be really difficult for us not to celebrate a certain ideal of scouting and the precious management that goes hand in hand with it.

Comments

[Jonathan]

One of my favorite girls I ever worked with.

[Malte]

Was in dire need to check this when the link on facebook popped up! Always love when it comes to girls from Fresh Model Management you can tell they have some wise & considered strategies and take it like one step at a time(same to Code Amsterdam)....

I really love Martine, even though i don't know what exactly makes her so outstanding. There's definitely something outstanding but i cannot really put my finger on it, could it be her chin?
Anyway, she's so lovely, i want this kind of girl for Balenciaga and Miu Miu.

Hope to read more about her, would be wondeful if you both could do a polaroid feature on her some day?

Have a great week!