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Unlike Mr. Lagerfeld, we believe there can never be enough talk about the importance of charities and the fashion industry. See Clint Mauro (who’s been the face of Armani Exchange, Giorgio Armani and Guess Jeans) in the video above, on why he’s supports Jeffrey Fashion Cares. We interview Andrew Weir (below) for his take on the project.

MDC: What’s your favorite part of casting for Jeffrey Fashion Cares?
Andrew Weir: This is my favorite project of the year, hands down! The energy surrounding it is amazing! Even though it’s a lot of work, it doesn’t feel like work. All of the agents and models donate their time, as well as everyone involved in the project. Everybody comes together, and the enthusiasm is contagious! The event has grown to the point where we now raise lots of cash for several important charities. That feels great.

MDC: What are you looking for in this season for the show?
AW: The casting is always about handsome, sexy individuals with strong personalities & presence. I want every guy to look like a movie star when he hits the runway.

MDC: Who are some crowd favorites at past shows?
AW: We appreciate all the guys! They are a huge part of our success. Brad Kroenig. always draws a hush over the room. People go crazy for Parker Gregory! He really lights up and has fun and it shows. Cory Bond always has a loyal fan club. Andrew Moore and Matt Gontier are Jeffrey regulars. They’ve done the show every year and are part of our team.

Yuliana/WM Model Management , Marilyn Agency Image courtesy of WM

The opening slot at Givenchy doesn’t always convert into a boom of editorial and campaign bookings but for Yuliana Dementyeva her debut as Girl 1 for the Fall 10 show certainly is generating heavy duty buzz in the industry. But then Yuliana’s chameleon ability puts her in a very good position to take her classic beauty across a wide range of editorial platforms. Beauty with strength is always that sure sell.

Duke/Major. Photos: Andrew Weir exclusively for MODELS.com.

The annual Jeffrey Fashion Cares has turned into one of the industry’s biggest night for men’s fashion in NYC. Casting director Andrew Weir routinely gets the top men’s faces donating their time to walk in the show which raised half a million dollars last year for important LGBT causes. This year’s event takes place on the famous Intrepid aircraft carrier Monday March 22nd. Andrew sent us a preview of the aptly named Duke, a boxer and football player with incredible presence and energy. Sadly for us JFC fans, Duke just got booked for a big campaign and won’t be there Monday night, but we guarantee the final 40 chosen will bring the house down! (Stay tuned for preview 2)

Click here to buy the few remaining tickets.

Melissa Tammerjin / New York Model Management (NY) / Nathalie (Paris) Image courtesy of New York Model Management

Hers was without question, one of the most flawless booking tracks for a newcomer this season. Melissa Tammerijn started the season with a Calvin Klein exclusive then opened up her platform with  massive bookings in Milan for  Prada, Dolce, Fendi, Versace, Jil Sander, Marni, Missoni and  Gianfranco Ferre. With Paris as the clincher as the confirmations for Balenciaga, Rick Owens, Lanvin, Viktor and Rolf, Celine, Givenchy, Chanel and Miu Miu testify, Melissa now stands as one of those girls on everyone’s campaign and editorial list. That Dutch power strikes again!

Kate Dillon. Ph: Betty S for MDC.

Kate Dillon is a trailblazer: whether she is opening doors for models, heading up her own non-profit, or teaching us all a thing or two about green living, Kate manages to constantly be at the forefront. As one of the first plus size models to gain prominence, Kate played a unique role in broadening fashion’s view of beauty and helped to redefine just what a model can do. With a stellar career and a degree from Harvard under her belt, Kate is among the most accomplished models we’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting down with. Fresh off her second stint in Vogue’s Shape issue (she was the first plus size model to ever be featured in the magazine) Dillon sits down with MDC to discuss fashion, philanthropy and what it means to make an impact, both in and out of the modeling industry.

MDC: You’ve had an incredible career: what was it like working with all those amazing creative talents?

Kate: Photographers like Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton didn’t see size, they saw shape and energy and so I think people have always put me with edgy photographers. I’ve worked with some of the living masters as well. I’ve worked with Patrick Demarchelier several times; Craig McDean, a brilliant photographer. I’ve had a career that most models would envy even though I’m a lot bigger than they are, but I’ve had an amazing go of it. I also worked with Vogue Paris a lot early on. Carine and I knew each other. She’s another one who doesn’t really see size, she also sees shape and energy and for something interesting. I worked with her as a teenager in Paris and then when she found out I was modeling again as a plus size model….  She was really at the forefront, she put me in her magazine ten years ago.

Vogue April 2002 by Helmut Newton

MDC: What advice would you give to models just starting out in the industry?

K: My advice is always be yourself. If you’re going to be one of the bigger girls then be one of the bigger girls and there’s people who really want that. Secondly, make sure you have something else going on, more for your emotional life, to have vibrancy. It’s a very up and down kind of business so it’s really important to have that to anchor you to the ground. I did lots of things when I was modeling full time to do that; I did martial arts, I took classes, I got involved with causes, I started my own non profit organization. I think it’s really important to have something else to ground you in reality because the industry can get a little cuckoo, in a wonderful way but cuckoo nonetheless.

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MDC: Tell us a little bit about your non profit.

K: About two and a half years ago I was on a safari in Zimbabwe with my parents. We visited a school and this one little girl really captured my heart. They were looking for people to sponsor these children to go onto secondary school. Primary education is one of the development goals of the new millennium. It’s something that people have put a lot of energy into and with good results in a lot of cases. Secondary school is also really necessary and it’s not available to most girls outside of wealthy countries. Most of the time because they have to go home and take care of their families and lot of it has to deal with cultural marginalization of women. It is also extremely expensive because there aren’t secondary schools in a lot of rural villages and so they have to travel and get their uniforms. It can end up being prohibitively expensive.

When I finished grad school I knew that I wanted to start this fund to support girls and children from this region to go to secondary school. Around that same time I met a girl who worked at the Clinton Foundation and she had already started a similar fund in Rwanda. We sort of partnered up so we’ve got our one girl in Zimbabwe and we’ve got thirty girls now who we sponsor to go to secondary school in Rwanda.

It’s a really no-brainer to invest in a woman’s education. There’s empirical evidence after empirical evidence that shows that when you make a dollar investment in a girl, you’re making a huge investment not only in her but her family and her community. I’m really excited to playing a role in and advancing that issue.

Vogue April 2010 by Patrick Demarchelier

MDC: What makes the development of education for women in third world nations such an important cause?

K: Are you familiar with Nicholas Kristof? He’s a columnist for the New York Times. He’s written a book with his wife (Sheryl WuDunn) called “Half the Sky”. I highly recommend it. It’s a book that supports what we’re doing. It is saying that women are marginalized all over the world in a variety of different ways for a variety of different reasons. The impacts are forced prostitution, maternal health issues and poverty. There are a number of ways to get out of this but the first line of defense is education. What’s amazing is that there have been people that have really researched “What is an investment in a woman, what does this do”? Nelson Mandela said “You educate a girl and you educate a generation” and it has been proven that women have a tendency to reinvest in their communities, so the multiplier effect of that one small investment is incredible.

We’ve created a platform for philanthropic activity at the Wilhelmina’s W Curve board (Kate’s agency) called “Curves for Change”. We’re actually in the process of developing our first event which is going to be a 5K run/walk. Not sure where, not sure when yet but it’s going to be fall (2010). We’re raising money for a fund that will support three different organizations (to be determined). My organization is one of them I’m hoping. We’re voting on it, it’s all very democratic. That’s another exciting thing that we’re doing as a board and as a group of models saying, “How can we take the fact that we’re so fortunate to be in this industry and do something?” And it’s an industry where women can be empowered. Women get paid more than men in this industry, women have more power than men in this industry so we wanted to focus on something empowering to girls and to take that power and leverage it. I told the girls whether it’s right or not, people listen to pretty people and you have to make sure you have something to say. So we’re working on that as a board, as a group of women not just as individuals. I do think that it is about creating that momentum with more than just one person. It’s not just about a personality, it’s about a whole team of personalities.

Vogue Paris February 2006 by Mario Testino

MDC: How do you balance all your charity work with modeling?

K: What is so great about being a model is that if you’re lucky like some of us are, we basically get a full time salary with part time work because we don’t work every day. Plus size models don’t work everyday for the most part, there’s a couple of them that do. But for the most part you work basically part time, with sparks of more intense activity but then you have some free time to be entrepreneurial, to do something valuable with your time. That’s what we’re working on, trying to make a contribution.

MDC: Speaking of simple things people can do to sort of increase this sustainability within their lifestyle, what would you say are some things that everyone can do that they might not know about?

K: There was a study done, it was really interesting, that subtracts the total carbon emissions of a garment. I think they used a t-shirt and over the life time of the t-shirt the main sort of cause of emissions was washing and drying your clothes. The first thing you can do is when you have the time, because I recognize that people are time conscious so maybe one every three loads or something, wash in cold water and line dry your clothes. What I try to do is, there’s certain things that really I don’t have the space for in my apartment to line dry so what I do is, I’ll do three loads in cold water of everything I can then maybe all the socks and the towels, I’ll put in the dryer. Be very limited in your use of the dryer and always wash in cold water.

Another thing is to buy used clothing/vintage. Certainly in New York there’s an unlimited number of fantastic vintage clothing stores and even “vintage” stuff that’s like two years old. Like Ina downtown, there’s several locations and they have awesome clothes at a reduced price. You get really high quality stuff and it’s not having an increased environmental impact, in fact its taking something that would have ultimately ended up in the landfill - there are almost 25 billion pounds of textile waste in our landfills. So cutting down on waste is another totally no-brainer choice.

Another thing would be to really pay attention to what fabrics you’re buying so avoid synthetic fabrics, avoid the polyesters or things that are primarily polyester. Buy the organic t-shirt if you have the choice between the organic and the conventional cotton one. The impact of cotton: very large quantities of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are used which is really damaging the soil quality and also can be a real health issue for people that are working directly with the crops. Those three things should keep people pretty busy and also have a real impact.

Hussein Chalayan is one of fashion’s most visionary talents, his memorable shows have become the stuff of legend: who doesn’t remember S/S 07’s groundbreaking animatronic dresses, or S/S 09’s molded minis? For fall Chalayan presented a quirky take on Americana, that was completely original: for a birds eye view of the collection see Stephan Moskovic’s exclusive shots from the Hussein Chalayan Fall/Winter 2010 show only on MDX.

Fashion week ended with a bang, but did you catch all the action? Have a look back on all that you may have missed in our Fashion Week Section - everything from exclusive backstage coverage of the hottest designers (Viktor and Rolf, Alexander Wang, Rick Owens ) to one of a kind videos and photoshoots.

» View it all, only on Models.com’s Fashion Week blowout.

Arthur Sales, Eric Anderson and Mitch Baker

In celebration of Arthur Sales‘ L’Officiel Hommes cover and 200 page editorial, Major Models held a fabulous bash at the Meatpacking lounge, the Griffin. The theme, filled with mysterious masks (courtesy of the Griffin) and beautiful male models created an intoxicating night. The super friendly Brazilian enjoyed the company of fellow agency mates and movers/shakers in the male modeling field like David Vandewal, Matt Albiani, Harry Apter, Andrew Weir, Matthew Scrivens, Nando Carvahlo and Nicolas Wagner, who helped him commemorate the must have issue. (Story and pictures by Kristen Bolt for MDC)

“Ranya & Feed” 2009, gouache, watercolor, chalk, graphite & frisket on paper, size: diptych 21″ h x 16″ w per.

It’s no secret we’re big fans of casting director Daniel Peddle as are some of the biggest clients in the industry. His upcoming show, “Backstage” is reviewed in the latest V Magazine and feature some familiar faces seen in a way not ordinarily viewed. We caught up with Daniel to ask him 3 questions.

MDC: What have you discovered in 8 seasons capturing backstage through this medium?
DP: I started this series in 2006. Backstage is a fascinating ritual to observe, sometimes more so than the fleeting few moments of the actual show. It has been really interesting to try and capture in a painting the role of the model, the center of this flurry of activity.

MDC: Are you ever interested in doing a different medium and if not, why do you prefer watercolors?
It is really not about the paint for me so much as the water!!! We cannot control water, we can only pretend to… I like the challenge of working in such a fluid medium as the work takes on a life of its own. Everything else can be a sticky affair but watercolor is pure to me.

MDC: What are your paints and papers of choice?
Found paper is my favorite! I also like to work off a roll rather than sheets. You have more freedom. As far as the paints go basically I like whatever is on sale in the grab bin!!! For me much of the process of creating art is about embracing accident and chance.

Tuesday March 16
Daniel Peddle “Backstage”
Envoy Enterprises
131 Chrystie Street
Between Delancey and Broome
6-8PM

Julia Nobis. Image courtesy of Elite NY

The elegance Ms Nobis brought to the runways via her Calvin Klein exclusive in New York, her turns for Prada and Dolce and her presence at Dries van Noten, Rick Owens, Celine, Valentino, Vuitton and Miu Miu immediately marks her off a key editorial proposition. Attention now turns from the runways to the magazines and campaigns and Julia’s unique almost painterly  beauty is sure to deliver a distinctive image. As the 2nd Elite girl this season to land Top 10 Newcomer, indications are clear that Ms Nobis is in the right place at the right time. Stay tuned.