Model search is onTeresa Lourenco to sit on panel

The model search is on. Coco Velvet International will host its final model search for 2018 at the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) on June 24.

Starting at 1 pm and ending at 3 pm, the search will try to find 12 aspiring models “with potential to work in the international fashion capitals.” The agency issued a release to media on the search.

The modelling agency, founded by Christopher Nathan, has launched the careers of ten TT models since its start in 1997 among them London-based TT model Naomi Chin Wing. Since her international debut at the Paris Spring/Summer 2018 Fashion Week last year, Chin Wing “has walked for over 40 high-profile fashion brands in London, Shanghai, Los Angeles, NYC, Paris and Milan and she has shot fashion editorials for Vogue Italia, British Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Material Magazine and i-D magazines,” the release said.

Coco Velvet International, it said, is searching for TT teens “that meet stringent international model industry criteria for its professional fashion model workshop this summer.” This will lead to a two month modelling boot camp from which 40 top models (male and female) will be selected at the semi-finals of Top Model Trinidad & Tobago 2018. The 40 semi-finalists will compete at the grand finals of Top Model Trinidad and Tobago held on day three of Styleweek, October 14.

Styleweek, the release said, “is being positioned as the ‘official Fashionweek of the city of Port of Spain’ and there will be three daily catwalk shows at 2.00 pm, 5.00 pm and 8.00 pm in the Lord Kitchener Auditorium, National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA).”

The three-day fashion trade show which will run from October 12 to 14 and will feature industry seminars and a fashion market which will allow exhibitors to sell fashion merchandise.

Five of TT’s most successful foreign-based models including Chin Wing will return for Styleweek to sit on the Top Model judging panel. Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliam, designers Peter Elias, Meiling and Claudia Pegus will also sit on the final judging panel. TT’s first international model Teresa Lourenco will also sit on the panel and will also be modelling a few select designers for StyleWeek.

Elite Latin and South America, the Miami-based international model management company, will award ten management contracts to the top five male and female winners.

“Eighty-eight secondary school pupils were selected at the last screening on May 27 for the summer model boot-camp at NALIS. The selected candidates were mostly from schools on Trinidad’s north and east coasts. Therefore the agency is trying to attract male and female candidates from Tobago, central and south Trinidad for this final Top Model Trinidad & Tobago screening,” the release said.

The agency’s founder had a word for aspiring models. Nathan cautioned that professional modelling at this level takes its toll on the mind, body and soul. “It demands many sacrifices, total dedication, a whole lot of discipline and a killer instinct for success even when rejection occurs. In one week a top model can work in three different continents,” he said.

Interested candidates must be between the ages of 14 to 21-years-old. Females must be over 5ft 7 and males 5ft 10. For more information on Top Model Trinidad & Tobago’s 2018 final screening, visit Coco Velvet International on Instagram and Facebook @cocovelvetinternational or send an e–mail to cocovelvetinternational@gmail.com.