Paris · The SeasonOctober 20, 2026
FASHION & MODEL
The people and machinery of fashion.
The Machinery

The Machinery

Agencies, casting, visas, contracts, and the economics of the trade.

The Restored Hamlet

In 1985 Brunello Cucinelli moved his cashmere company into a ruined Umbrian hamlet and began rebuilding the village around the business. The profile of a house whose factory, foundation and philosophy share one address.
By Rhea Malhotra · 2026-10-18
An aerial view of Solomeo in Umbria, showing the church, bell tower and stone houses of the hamlet above green fields.
Solomeo from above: the church, the bell tower and the restored stone of a hamlet that had been emptying for decades. Since 1985 it has also been a company headquarters, and in this house the two facts are not separable.

Front Row, Inc.

The front row is cast as carefully as the runway. Who draws the seating chart, what the placement is worth to a house, and why the same faces recur.
By Marcus Vale · 2026-09-29
front-row-inc lede photograph.
The most photographed seats in fashion are assigned, not claimed. Every placement is a message, and the cameras read all of them.

Twelve Microns

A Piedmont wool house spent a century chasing finer fibre, from its own mills to the sheep stations of Australia and New Zealand. Its finest merino, and one two-tone scarf, tell the whole story.
By Alessandra Ricci · 2026-10-18
A group of vicuñas standing on a rocky slope in the Arequipa region of Peru.
Vicuñas in the Arequipa region of Peru. The house built its name on fibres the rest of the industry considered impractical, and this animal, hunted close to extinction for a fleece averaging 12.5 microns, is where the method shows clearest.

O-1B: The Model's Visa

To work the American season, a foreign face needs the government's permission to be extraordinary. How the immigration categories and the evidentiary gauntlet actually work.
By Henri Beaumont · 2026-09-29
o-1b-the-models-visa lede photograph.
Before the castings and the bookings, the paperwork: a foreign model works the American season only with the government's permission, granted by category and proven by evidence.

The 18 Rule

LVMH and Kering have rewritten the model welfare charter: 18 to represent adults, formal rules for nudity on set, confidential reporting, and unannounced audits. The promises are strong; the enforcement is the story.
By Henri Beaumont · 2026-10-12
A model on the runway at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Berlin 2013.
A runway at Berlin Fashion Week, 2013. From the next Paris Fashion Week in 2027, the models representing adults on the LVMH and Kering runways must be 18 or older.

The 20 Percent

An agency is a bank, a landlord, and a talent shop in one. Here is how the modeling business actually keeps its books.
By Rhea Malhotra · 2026-09-29
the-20-percent lede photograph.
The booking board is the agency's true balance sheet. Every card is a ledger line: fees in, advances out, and the house's share held along the way.

The Cabine

In the Paris ateliers, the fitting model is a profession, not a placeholder. Weeks before the show, the collection is built on a living body, fitting by fitting.
By Juliette Moreau · 2026-09-29
the-cabine lede photograph.
The fitting room is where the collection actually happens. Long before the show, the clothes meet the bodies they were drawn for, and the pins come out.

The Casting Chair

A handful of professionals decide who walks the season's defining shows. Inside the fittings, the politics, and the eye that shapes the runway.
By Theo Almeida · 2026-09-29
the-casting-chair lede photograph.
The raw material of the season: comp cards and digitals spread across the table, waiting for the eye that will narrow thousands of faces to a few dozen looks.

The Maybe List

Victoria's Secret built an open casting funnel of more than 100,000 hopefuls for Sunday's Los Angeles show, while former Angel Romee Strijd spent five weeks on a maybe list before a definitive no. The two systems say everything about casting now.
By Rhea Malhotra · 2026-10-16
Jasmine Tookes walking the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show runway in London in 2014.
Jasmine Tookes on the Victoria's Secret runway in London in 2014, in the show's defining era. The cast sheet was once a closed list of contracted names; this year it also carries the winner of a nationwide open search.

The Model Apartment

The first thing a new face gets in New York is rarely a booking. It is a bunk bed. The economics of agency-advanced housing, and what the new law changed about it.
By Tomas Reyes · 2026-09-29
the-model-apartment lede photograph.
The first chapter of the New York career: a bunk bed in a shared apartment, arranged by the agency and charged to the model's account.

Two Exits and a Name

On October 15, Veronica Leoni left Calvin Klein Collection and Sean McGirr left Alexander McQueen within the hour, neither successor named. Three days earlier, Kim Jones announced a label under his own name. One week, three versions of the top job.
By Odette Marchand · 2026-10-16
Tasha Tilberg walking the Alexander McQueen Fall Winter 2018 runway in a moth-winged headpiece.
Tasha Tilberg on the Alexander McQueen runway for Fall Winter 2018, in the moth-winged headpiece. The house Sean McGirr led for three years built its name on tailoring pushed to theatre; his successor inherits both.

Who Pays for the Show

The runway presentation is a fifteen-minute illusion that costs real money. Where the budget goes, from the venue to the seating chart, and who signs for it.
By Mikael Strand · 2026-09-29
who-pays-for-the-show lede photograph.
The audience sees fifteen minutes. The house sees a budget with a dozen lines, each one due before the first model steps out.