What Vogue Is Looking for in the Next ‘It’ Model

0:28This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mao. Iggy Murillo, who is Vogue's global talent casting director, and Jose Criales-Sensueta, regular on the pod and fashion news editor, are on the committee who will be selecting the winner. And so they'll be on to talk about the search process, what makes a good model, and generally the state of modeling today. I'm very excited. We had a lot of submissions, and they will keep coming. You know what else we had a lot of submissions for, Choma? Doug. The Doug cover contest. I cannot wait to see the winner. I mean, I feel like you might be the chief judge on this committee.

1:08Am I right? No, no. We have a robust judging committee, but also so for those who are not aware, we opened up a group chat on the app where people could submit pictures of their dogs and the winning dog will be a cover Doug when Doug launches on August 18th. We expected, I would say, a few hundred or maybe a thousand submissions. We got 52 ,000 submissions. That's a lot of submissions at once. It was a lot of submissions. It was much more than expected. We also don't know how to go through all of them. So we've had to ask everyone on staff to take 1 ,000 that they go through. Everyone's just like scrolling through pictures of dogs.

1:46Oh, my God. But it's extremely exciting. And we can't wait for our cover dog. When we whittle down our 52 ,000 to a couple of hundred, there is a select judging committee that includes also Ignacio Murillo, because these are dog models, Raul Martinez. And we're also involving the president of the Westminster Dog Show. Oh, my God. Who is going to weigh in on the best in dog. Fun fact, looking at cute animals is actually good for your nervous system. So. I believe that. So you're going to be very regulated after this dog search. I mean, there have been some very fun. There was one, a greyhound who was smoking Vogue cigarettes in the picture.

2:31So that won't really fly. But there's also a great Dane wearing pearls and sunglasses. Oh, my God. Sort of looking like Giambatista Valley. Oh, my goodness. I love that people are styling their dog covers in advance of the dog cover. That's right. well Chloe tell me everything about your fabulous week off in France I had such a good vacation it was you've got a lovely tan you look you look Chloe so much thank you very much Chloe Chloe um the one week a year when that will be the case uh I feel like it was the first year that my children who are three and five were actually like little humans who could negotiate with and have rational conversations about what needed to happened and moving through an airport and it wasn't like just traveling with two sort of feral creatures.

3:22So that was very nice. I don't know how far back your memories go, but Artie's going to start remembering these holidays from now on, right? Because it's like that's what we said. It's like, I definitely feel like this is a memory that has been set, which is exciting. So we had a lovely time, ate a lot of cheese, a lot of ice cream. and um what did you read i need to know the reading list because i know you're so you're so good with that well i mean i have to say traveling with children reading is not something that really happens i don't know how you do it with children period i can barely read and i have no kids i mean i read 40 pages of a wonderful john updike book couples that i'm going to keep trying to read but yeah it was not there was not a lot of reading happening chama i want to know about your very glamorous looking weekend where you were playing Jenga.

4:15You looked healthy and happy. We'd love to see it. Who won your Jenga game? It was a tie. So basically, my boyfriend and I went to the new Soho farmhouse in Ibiza, which is very chic. And I'd actually only been to Ibiza for a shoot for a shoot with Rihanna actually a cover shoot and I remember waiting around patiently to do an interview that happened in Paris actually so it was one of those trips and it was off season it was like in February so it wasn't like the Ibiza that we know and love which is like you know peak summer Ibiza and it was really fun um we walked around the the club zone where just to see what what the actual like club clubbing vibe was and it was like not for me like i think we want we wanted to see black coffee who's legendary dj who allegedly gets like 400k a night to perform wow isn't that crazy but that's crazy doesn't go on until 3am which you know is not we're not compatible with my aura ring score so we did not do that but we had a really fab time and it was kind of like a taste of summer because it was just like a couple of nights but you know when one lives in Europe one can do short trips to Ibiza so it was quite fun and now I just want to get a gigantic Jenga tower in my home or somewhere because it was really fun No you don't It was really fun, I don't know I know but then you have to clean it up Okay, well I don't know It's always tumbling It's more fun when it's not in your house.

5:55I get it. I'm just going to put that there. I get it. Choma, are you sad about In Just Like That being canceled? I'm so distraught. Radhika Seth, who wrote a great piece about it on the British Folk team, a wonderful culture editor, she and I were just commiserating about this because I don't really, I haven't watched any show. To me, I get it. I know it's not Sex and the City, but that was the one show I watched religiously, you know, of all the shows that existed. I think it's like that and Succession and White Lotus, the kind of series that I've never skipped. I've never skipped an episode.

6:33I've watched them like deeply. So now that with it ending, it just feels like I'm so invested in their lives. I'm not caught up, but I sort of jumped in late when she's with the charming British biographer. and I love that she wore the Vivian Westwood dress that was bought at the Vivian Westwood auction. And so it was actually from her, Vivian Westwood's archive. It felt like such an Ur-Carrie moment. Oh my God. And I felt like that was sort of old school Carrie Bradshaw coming back. It's like this sort of princess, it gives sort of Cinderella because it's this distressed hem, silk skirt and beautiful sort of Cinderella blue silk top.

7:21And it just felt, took me back to original SATC days. If you had to pick one designer on Carrie that you love the most, which one would it be? It might be Vivian Westwood. I know. I think for me it's that and Galliano-Irridor, like that. The newspaper dress. Yeah, but I do think Westwood has been a kind of thread throughout, and it just looks so good on her. It looks so good on her. So, yeah, we're just going to have to see what replaces this giant hole in my life. Hunting wives. Okay, is that what I'm going to be doing? Everyone's watching Hunting Wives. I've not yet watched it, but Emma wrote a great piece about the deceptive Southern sweetheart style of the hunting wives because they are much more cutthroat than they appear.

8:10But it's like sounds like a lot of drama happening in Texas. It's women who love to hunt. They're also it seems like it's vaguely trad wifey. But there's deceit and murder and all kinds of seven deadly sins involved. It's giving me Texan big little lies with rifles. Yeah, I'm more of a city girl. So I like an urban drama. But, you know, we can maybe I'm ready to go to the to rural Texas and explore this. But maybe this is a good white, good voyeurism for me. We'll have to see. Yeah. Well, this morning I went to a screening of Highest to Lowest, which is Spike Lee's newest film. I mean, we talked a bit about it with ASAP, didn't we?

9:00We talked to ASAP about this. Denzel Washington's in it. I don't want to give too much away because I think if you're into it, Basically, it centers on the life of a music mogul, a big, kind of a big New York music mogul. Who knows who it's based on, but it's probably an amalgamation of a lot of different industry, like hip hop industry figures. I don't want to give away too much. Denzel Washington plays this character and there's a kidnapping involved. And A$AP Rocky is part of this like plot. And it's ultimately the main character for me was New York. Like I literally shed a tear watching it because the Puerto Rican Day parade scene.

9:42I felt very nostalgic for New York and Brooklyn. And there's lots of the skyline. There's lots. Dumbo. One World Trade makes an appearance. Like it was for me, that was like one of the without giving too much away. That was one of the kind of like tender moments for me. And just watching Jeffrey Wright perform in any film. He's just the king. He is the king, him and Denzel. And then there's a very great scene with Denzel and A$AP Rocky, which is very tense and very suspenseful. But yeah, I can't wait for you to see it. Oh, I'm excited. So I did spy a story on the Vogue.com website by our beloved Margot Ambuba, a beauty editor.

10:31I have seen this viral trend on my Instagram everywhere. It's the Skims face wrap. And I've been dying to know someone who's actually tried it. I mean, tell me everything. um basically when this big drop announcement happened last week this even pierced through my low screen time french wilderness no it didn't oh i'm so sorry this was the thing that pierced through oh yeah well specifically anthony hopkins wearing one i didn't see that he i mean he wasn't wearing one of the actual ones but people were saying that they look like hannibal lecter masks. And so Anthony Hopkins joined the joke, which what an absolute dream.

11:17And more, I don't know what he was wearing, but it was an approximation of one. Basically, Margot was desperate to get her hands on one. They were completely sold out. Even Skim's PR was like, we don't have any. So Sergio went to Kim's team directly and they sent one of Kim's personal supply overnight. As worn by? Well, great question. Margot took it out of the box and it does it. It's not you have to sort of build it together. It looks like it's almost like Lego instructions. It comes. It's not like one seamless piece. No, it's almost X shaped. And you have to figure out where the Velcro goes and put it around your face.

12:01But yes, Margot wore it for several days. I thought she looked very glamorous when she tried it on in the office with her sort of cat eye shade. She looked amazing. The picture was, I mean, the holding image was like, pow. She did speak to a few dermatologists, and she said that she felt tighter and plumper. But some people that she spoke to said that you have to be careful that it's not, you're not sort of just getting microbes and bacteria around your face because it is sort of, if it's dirty, you're just rubbing that against your skin. Speaking of new things, I did see a picture of Kate Moss headed to the beach with a Birkin.

12:40And I wondered. Swoon. Right. I mean, isn't that sort of like carrying on? I mean, given this big Birkin sale, I wonder if it was like maybe she saw that and thought, I need to dig out like one of my like well-worn Birkins and just in the spirit of Jane Birkin, bring it to the beach. Because to be honest, like, it's exactly what Jane Birkin would have done. Don't you think? I kind of love it. Like, don't treat your bag as precious. Totally. I think that's the absolute spirit of the woman and the namesake. I love an unprecious bag. I love when you see sort of fancy older women in an airport with, like, completely destroyed, like, Vuitton trunks.

13:26Sick. What a delight. Use your stuff. Like, you know. Yes. It's very much the spirit of like, I have beautiful china and it has chips on it because I use it every day. Yeah. I think it is making me think which which which airbag that I do own can I bring to the beach? I don't think I have anything that's big enough to hold stuff. Well, that's the thing. I do want a big beach bag. And to me, a Birkin's not quite there. I need a large towel. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, maybe it's like one of those like LV carryalls or something. Okay, okay. First confession, I didn't, I'm so ashamed to know that I'd never seen what a placenta looked like until I saw Calvin Harris's Instagram about his wife's birthing story.

14:12And it really, like, made me think, huh, like, I didn't know what a placenta looked like. At this, at my big age, I didn't know what a placenta looked like. Anyway. I actually don't really know what a placenta looks like either. But you have had kids. What do you mean you don't know what a placenta looked like? Great question. I'm Googling placenta. So I started this whole conversation and we had Claire Cohen, who's a contributing writer, write this very great piece about why she thought it was quite, she thought it was a good thing that, you know, we were seeing this. And I've had lots of friends who've used their placenta, made their placenta into pills because it's so rich with nutrients and hormones.

14:50And it's something that you can use and freeze. and so many of my friends have done this, but I've never seen the actual contraption that does the making of pills, but he broke it all down. It was quite fascinating. Wow. And his man has 11 million followers. A lot of people were like, you should have put a trigger warning. I think it's not a trigger warning, it's something natural. And I think we should normalize this. But I felt quite like, wow, I don't know what a placenta looks like. And now I know. And as someone who has their umbilical cord buried under a tree in Nigeria, I felt like I should know this.

15:21Wow, Choma, what a flex. Yeah, this is what we do in our culture. I love that. It's like your tree for life. I think it's a lemon or orange tree, but you have one as soon as you're born. So my umbilical cord, not my placenta, but my umbilical cord was shipped or taken or hand-carried to Nigeria probably. That's not allowed, but that was what happened. And then it was planted with a tree on top. And so my brothers have it. Yeah, isn't it nice? And your brothers have their own trees? They have their own trees. We're not in competition, but they have their own trees. I think mine is probably the best tree, but like, don't tell them that.

15:59But we're not in competition. We're not in competition. We all equally have beautiful trees. No competition here, no. Yeah, it's funny. I do have a lot of friends who have made pills out of their placenta or like frozen their placenta. I had one friend who sent her assistant back to the hospital to pick up her placenta, which felt like it was probably beyond. You can't do that. You have to personally pick up your own placenta, guys. Just saying. No, exactly. That's a personal affair. Do you regret not having your placenta in your freezer? No, I actually don't. I feel just fine about that. I do have some regrets in my life, but the presence of my placenta, I'd much rather have a quart, a pint of Van Leeuwen ice cream.

16:47That's very on brand for you. Yeah.

16:54Okay, that's it for headlines this week. We'll be back with Iggy and Jose.

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17:47Please welcome to the stage and to the run-through, Iggy Murillo. Well, Ignacio Murillo, whatever you prefer, Diva. Vogue's global talent casting director. Did I get that right? Yes. Period. Hi. Hey, girl, what's up? You know, just working. So what's kind of your day-to-day? Like, what does that look like? I usually see you fighting for your life on the phone. Yeah, so it's a lot of phone calls, a lot of emails, trying to get options on the girls, making sure they're available for our shoots, for our events, for all things Vogue. So how did you start doing this? Specifically for magazines, too.

18:21Like, what's kind of that career path like? Well, I started, like, over 10 years ago at Bazaar. I got an internship there, and then luckily I became, like, the assistant to the editor-in-chief. Okay. So I kind of got to learn about this job that I did not know that kind of existed. But I've always kind of, like, loved models. Okay. So I just kind of was, like, the medium person between the casting director of the time and the editor-in-chief. And she kind of noticed that I like more of the same taste that she liked. Okay. So I kind of got lucky that I was just giving the job without even knowing how to do it.

18:55Well, you didn't get lucky, you worked. Yeah, but it's like... No, I just like to reform it. Well, it's like, yeah. So it was basically that. My first call was like with Joan Smalls agent. I didn't even know, like, I didn't know what I was doing. So my first call was I was trying to get Joan Smalls to do this story. Like, I had no idea what a first option was, what second option was. What is a first option? Well, a first option is that means that the model is available for, like, your job. Like, you're the first job that is in your calendar. Okay. And then a second option means if a job is in front of yours.

19:22So when you have a second option, you're just praying and hoping that the other option doesn't get confirmed. But yeah, it's just I kind of got, I work for my luck and started doing models there. And then three years ago, I got also lucky and I got this job. Yeah. Well, we started almost at the same time, which is cute. I remember. I was like, oh my God, we got two Latinas. That's exactly, I think it was like a few months after. Yeah, it was like right around the same time because it was like I started early 2022. You started late 2022, maybe? Yes, I think. Right? I'm not good at math, but yeah.

19:53Period. You're good at models, though. Yes. So let's go back to that. I mean, I want to go back to sort of when you were much younger and you started sort of, you found this obsession with models. Like, how did you come across models and started loving them? Like, was it magazines? Was it TV? Like, what was kind of that experience? It was magazines. Because I came to this country when I was like 10 years old. So kind of like the way that I use magazines was kind of like to learn the language. And then also like I come from like not the most wealthy background. So it was kind of like the I use magazine to take me to Paris.

20:28Yeah, I just like to take me to all these places. So I've always I love like Vogue, GQ, Bazaar, like all of those magazines. So it's kind of like when I first started to take notice of the girls. And then obviously like during my childhood, Victoria's Secret was like the biggest thing. So it's like, I love watching the show. And yeah, that's what kind of started me loving models. But again, I did not know that this was a job that I could pursue. I mean, it's so interesting because I love that you say that you love models. Because something I've noticed about seeing you work is that you care about models.

21:00It's not just you like someone because they look good, because they photograph well, because they walk well. But you have a relationship with models as well. I also love seeing that models love you. what's it like for you to develop relationships not just with people in the industry but with the models themselves right like hey like he's calling i don't know i just think it's like it's important just to kind of treat them like people and um having that relationship with them like it helps a lot when like they don't want to do this project that you know or like it just helps you kind of get them on board right and then also build the trust that they can trust us that the pictures will be like the best pictures ever or like the videos and the interviews like all of it it's just like that you're looking out for them yeah exactly just gaining the trust from them yeah absolutely so not to ask you to pick favorites but pick favorites like historically been one of your favorite models or like a model you've always looked at as kind of like the epitome of modeling perhaps uh there's one that i want her to come back is jasmine warry i'm probably mispronouncing her last name a queen an original catwalk yeah like the walk is like larger than life so i'll Just like hope that she comes back.

22:08Well, there was, I mean, I don't even know if I should be saying this, but those are the best stories. But there was like a couple, maybe like a year ago, she was supposed to come back for a huge brand, right? Yeah. That was the story. No, it's like, yeah. So, and then it didn't happen. And then it didn't happen. I was devastated. Because I heard through like the gays in the industry that it might have happened. And it didn't. No, it's like, yeah. It's like, you know, for our listeners, Yasmin is like one of the true OG supermodels. But if you sort of contextualize her at the same time as like Alina Evangelista, Chrissy Turlington, Asinda Crawford, and Naomi Campbell, she was one of the models that was like a model's model, right?

22:44Like she was a catwalk queen, like unlike a lot of models who sort of stepped away from the runway and pursued other opportunities on camera or like commercials, et cetera. She was truly like a runway diva, right? That was like, yeah. I mean, just the walk. Just the walk. Like one of the best walks. But of course, it's also I'm obsessed with my ultimate ultimate is Kate Moss. Also, I feel like Kate, we're on the same age. And I feel like Kate is such a big part of our coming into fashion and fashion as pop culture. Because, you know, I do, I remember when there was a lot of controversy around her and her going out and all these things.

23:21And like, I remember vividly when McQueen wore that t-shirt that was like, we love Kate or we always love Kate or something. It was, I feel like it was like, hey, we love you or we love Kate. He was kind of like standing behind her and being like, no, like you are a supermodel. We love you. Like it's fine. Life is life, you know? And I just remember, but like speaking of Kate, I think this is a good tag actually. So she was famously discovered at JFK airport. She was very young. I think she was like 14. And, you know, Naomi Campbell was discovered window shopping, I think, in London. It was like, there's a lot of these kind of really iconic discovery stories, but something that has happened in the age of social media is that a lot of models are now discovered online.

24:03You know, Alex Consania was discovered, I think through like her TikTok presence probably. And Paloma Sesser famously was discovered by Pat McGrath, the makeup artist, the makeup queen. Why do you think there's been sort of a pivot in the industry in general for the discovery of models to be on these online platforms as opposed to like an in-person scouting? Well, I think it's just like times have changed And then also with like COVID and all that, it's easier, I guess, to find them. Like everyone is online. So it's just like easier, I guess, to just like find them. But also there's more that they're looking now for like personalities and all of that aspect.

24:39And like you can get to, you can get a whole sense of like who a person is through like their socials and all of that. I mean, that is super interesting, right? Because now we sort of operate based on the standard of a lot of these models that we've mentioned, right? We see them as these larger-than-life figures, and we know that it takes more than just a good photograph, than just a good walk. We know that it involves just being good on camera, being funny, charming, all these things. And to your point, we sort of get a well-rounded image of someone online. But speaking of discovering someone and discovering someone on our phones, we are here also to talk about Vogue Opencasting, which we're doing for the second time ever.

25:20We made the announcement earlier this week on the 4th. What can you tell us about Vogue Opencasting, since it's a project that you're majorly leading? It's basically a model search to discover and encourage and showcase new generations of models. Right. So we did it for the first time in 2023. Yeah. And that was really cool. We had both just started this job, and I remember, you know, famously, Vogue has done model searches in the past, but this was kind of like the first one, I think, that was fully like online in the context of, you know, American Vogue and Global Vogue's all working together, right?

25:55Yeah, it was very global because we ended up also picking like eight finalists, which was very global, like from Japan, from South Africa, from the US, Morocco, London, France, like it was all over. That's so major. So like this year we're formatting this a little differently. So now models can apply on the Vogue app. So they go, like we've sort of worked on developing been this beautiful system where you where models can submit their applications and to your point where we're talking about social and their personalities they show us their walk they show us um you know they answer a couple questions they do like an interview i mean i remember i was reading grace coddington's memoir um a couple years back and i didn't know this but like she won a vogue model in competition and that's how she sort of before she was like one of the most prolific sittings editors and creative directors at vogue she was a vogue model yeah just kind of iconic So tell me, what are you looking for in this year's finalists?

26:52Because this is also what's different. The first time around, we selected eight finalists. This year, we're standing behind one model, which is crazy because it is a large pool of applicants that we're narrowing down to just this one lucky would-be supermodel. Yeah. So what are you looking for? Hopefully we find her. The simple answer is just personality. like you can have the looks and the height and the measurements and all of that stuff but it's just it's who you are like it's just like the biggest factor right so it's just like simple as the personality right and it's interesting right because to your point about height measurements that are all of that has changed as well right like there's no one specific set of measurements there's not one specific kind of height requirement there's not one specific size like that is almost like secondary what you really want is charisma uniqueness of and talent exactly yeah exactly yeah that's so you're describing it better than i am well we've been working on this together for a minute i'm i'm curious about you know kind of like and we we've just talked about this as well because we've been prepping for this and working on other projects but like who are some of the kind of like latest models to break out that you're really excited about.

28:09You know, I think there is kind of like a new class of supers in the making that is really exciting. And I obviously have my own favorites, but I'm curious who you have your eyes set on. I mean, I think she already reached that level, but like a Mona, it's like, to me, it's like that. Alex is like rising, like there's no tomorrow. Like it's insane of how popular like she's gotten. It is really wild. No, it's like her and I have the same birthday. Oh, well, it's like Jose Consani now. It's really just two supermodels. Exactly. But yeah, I mean, she's just like so extraordinary. There's also like Lolly Bahia, who has a crazier TikTok following without having a TikTok.