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"In the future, the word "model" will be replaced. In the 40's a model was someone who just stood there but in the 90's a model is a feeling, a persona, an aesthetic". Michael Flutie, head of Company Model Management
What a terrible prophecy Michael spoke.  Models loom so large on the cultural landscape these days, you can only agree with Flutie's tacit call for a more energetic word than "model" to describe their deep impact.   I mean, style wise, who moves faster than those sleek ineffable figments of our collective imagination.

The ultimate urban nomads, they ricochet from city to city, collection to collection, cross pollinating the worlds of night life, fashion and music with their trans-global cool.  They live one season ahead of the rest of the world, profiling springwear in the depths of winter and winterwear at the blistering heights of summer.  They make unspeakable amounts of money wearing the most expensive clothes in the world (You don't want to see Chandra North's rate sheets from the last NY Collections ! Oh the depression!)   All this because a genetic accident aligns all the elements so that the chosen girl or boy grows up to be taller, sleeker and more starkly striking than most. 

Models, just naturally know what time it is.  Trend trackers of the world, drop your focus groups and find an absurdly cool girl who models.  Focus on her and her doings and you have your retinue of upcoming trends for the next six months.
I mean look at what our beloved covergirl Elite's, Alice Dodd is representing in the middle of the Tribeca loft where she is prepping for the cameras.  She's stretching her lithe 5'10" frame, writhing slowly to work out the kinks in her back, smiling that ravishingly sweet smile that reminds you she really is only 19 years old.  You see its Monday and all of Sunday was spend snow boarding in her new house in upstate New York, the one overlooking its own little lake. (Write that down trend trackers. Snowboarding is in. As is having a mortgage)

The premise behind this shoot is to establish a cool girl's inherent style.  How many times have you been at a shoot and the girl who walked in was infinitely cooler than the horrific end product the editor contrived.  To ward off that dire fate, Alice was encouraged to bring a slew of her own clothes to mix in with the Yamamoto the stylist pulled.  She's wearing a wild looking army skirt designed by some mates back in London called Maharishi Intl. Corp.. (Two weeks later they will be profiled in Arena magazine as one of the hippest new labels in London.)  She's paired the skirt with some very ornate stockings John Galliano let her keep when she did his triumphant couture show for Dior in Paris.  The baby blue ski hat and the Nike kicks (which are vintage and two months later will be featured in May's Harpar's Bazaar) were bought in Tokyo by her beau Simon Katz who's the lead guitarist in Jamarquoi.
Out of her travel bag pours some unbelievable Helmut Lang, Anne Demulsemeester, Costume Homme and Dirk Birkkenberg pieces, all insouciantly crumpled.  The message?   Mixing, repeat mixing, couture, designer and sportwear is the epitome of modern styling.  Anybody who styles with one designer, one genre, one price point is simply not happening. (Quoth Alice: "Real style is about being able to have a broad spectrum of tastes".)

Speaking about spectrums, flipping through Ms Dodd's CD collection is like glimpsing the library of the hippest radio station that never was.  The Chemical Brothers, The Fugees, Charles Mingus,  Spring Heel Jack,  LTJ Bukem,...its all there.