Saša Jány: We want to present the Czechia at the world finals of Elite Model Look
Now the final evening will be designed so that it is primarily based on the Czech presentation. We want to introduce a Czech designer and artist. We fought for the world finals of the competition with Doha, New York and Barcelona, we wanted to take it this way from the beginning.
Will Prague become, at least for one day, an important place for world fashion?
Yes. Of course, foreign media will come, Italian Vogue or French ELLE. An international star from the film world is also in talks, but I don’t want to reveal more.
Who will sit on the jury? And how does the selection of winners actually take place, who evaluates everything?
The selection has three rounds, from 106 nationalities and tens of thousands of people who applied all over the world, the selection was narrowed down to the top 30 who will come to Prague. On Monday, August 29, the so-called Evaluation Jury, made up of agents and representatives of the competition’s partners, met. This group uses a halved selection. This selection will be presented to a panel of top executives, such as one of the heads of Elite Model Management, Chris Gay, or the global director of the Elite Model Look competition, Jennifer May Cope, and the president of Elite Model Management, Vick Mihaci. The jury will select the final winner and winner.
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It is not excluded that the Czech winners of the competition celebrate their successes abroad. What is the specificity of Czech beauty?
This is of course a pleasant feeling, we even hold the world record together with the Netherlands in the number of world champions. I think that our girls have a pleasant demeanor, they are cultured and also motivated. In modeling, there is no competition to win a prize for a year, someone lends you a car or an apartment. The payoff is that I get a life. The Czechs were perhaps better mentally prepared for the profession than their competitors, and that may be the deciding factor.
You have been a modeling expert for over thirty years. How did the world of modeling develop during that time and which leap was the most drastic?
The first turning point came in 2008, when there was a financial crisis. There we felt that the competition between agencies and models is huge. Some companies, especially the smaller ones, started undercutting prices, it was difficult to overcome that. Another trend was that modeling was more attractive for girls from the East. Today, Danish, Swedish, and American women have understood that it is still a very lucrative job.
Was the growing popularity of social networks a turning point in your field?
Of course. Socially, we had a negative perception at the beginning, but then we confirmed to the networks that there was no supermodel since Kate Mos. And suddenly social networks gave models a voice and new possibilities. Which, as a result, raised our field. I was skeptical at the beginning and today I am excited that we can move in the field of social media with our models and top models.
Do you feel any difference in the approach of the current generation of models to work compared to their predecessors, say 20 years ago?
What I miss a bit in the new generation is motivation. When we told a model 20 years ago that we could fly to Tokyo or New York, she was packed within half an hour. The times are of course different, the standard of living here and in Slovakia and the motivation of models is less. The ratio of earnings has also changed, previously top models bought a studio apartment after two trips to Tokyo, now I can’t even buy a balcony. We are solving how to better motivate girls to want to succeed, to go out into the world, to build a life, to overcome themselves. Sometimes I feel like I want to experience everything only on my mobile phone.
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How are the measures linked to the global coronavirus pandemic?
Covid clipped the wings of modeling, and I mean that literally, because it stopped flying, which is essential to this world. Covid has shown us that we all value our work. Even the models may have reconsidered the attitude that they are tired of traveling, I noted how good it is to fly around the world and do what they enjoy.
Who do you think is the biggest icon in the modeling world right now and why?
In the Czech Republic, definitely Hana Jiříčková, who was third at the world finals that we organized in Prague in 2007/2008, and since then her career has only been on the rise. On a global scale, it’s probably Gisele Bündchen, who I remember when she started Elite Model Look at the finals in Ibiza in 1996. From the new Italian Vittoria Ceretti.
Saša Jány
born in 1971
Director of the Elite Model Look competition for the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Co-owner of Elite Model Management Prague and Elite Model Management Bratislava agencies.
studied economics and marketing
he made a living as a translator, interpreter and teacher of French