R E A LM A G A Z I N E

The Talent Maker

The Talent Maker

“We were racing back to the La Mamounia hotel from a photo shoot in the middle of the Moroccan desert and our van kicked up a rock. It broke the client’s windshield. A few minutes later the windshield caved in, but the client kept on driving. Next thing you know it started to really rain and the client is getting soaked. I know, rain in the desert? Finally he pulled over and got in the van with the models. He just dumped the rental car on the side of the road in the middle of the desert. It was really kind of funny.”

Meet Susan Schwabinger, aka model Susan Chase. Since the age of 19 she has immersed herself in the modeling industry, from traveling the globe to now owning Alexa Model and Talent Management Agency. After attending the Art Institute of Atlanta, she started out as buyer for an upscale retailer. Shortly thereafter Susan decided to go it alone as a model on New York’s Seventh Avenue, the heart of the fashion industry, and never looked back.

Socializing with all the right people in New York City, she met Yama Yamamoto, an influential individual associated with Max Factor and Nikon. He liked her, “So I was in.” That connection opened the door to Wilhelmina Models, a top modeling firm. Susan’s first booking was Harper’s Bazaar. Soon thereafter she was booked everywhere and off to Europe.

Landing in Milan, Susan ended up spending a significant amount of time there, and worked almost every day. “I worked for all the major magazines. I did the collections in Rome, and they only use the supermodels for those. I even did a shoot in Giorgio Armani’s apartment. Not many people can say they have done that.” Her Milan base led to a shoot in Israel. “I liked Israel a lot. The desert is gorgeous. The sunsets are an orange rosy glow. Beautiful.” She echos the same about her Moroccan desert experience “Spectacular views. The people too. The scarves they sold were brilliant colors. The little kids would surround us. They were fascinated to see a Polaroid. We were an anomaly to them.”

Next, London came calling. Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and a host of others filled her calendar. While she was there, a photo of Susan was put on the AP wire and released internationally. The Huntsville (AL) Daily News picked it up and ran a story comparing Susan to Ava Gardner. Her Aunt

Pretty Faces Going Places

Susan Schwabinger

By Ed Bertha | Photography by Giovanni Lunardi

I even did a shoot in Giorgio Armani’s apartment

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“One of the things that makes me the most excited is to take someone who hasn’t worked before and develop them through photography and comp cards leading to bookings and a career.”

in Alabama saw the article and immediately called Susan’s mother. All had a good chuckle.

While in London her mother came to visit. At the time Susan’s apartment was in the West End. During her mother’s stay there was a huge street fair that got out of control leading to the infamous West End riots. Needless to say it was a scary time for the two women but keeping their wits about them, they emerged unscathed.

From London Susan jetted off to book for Paris Planning and Francois Lano. Marie Claire, Elle, and Vogue all came calling. It was during her extended stay in Paris that Susan met John Casablancas whom she would cross paths with later on in life. “In Paris I worked every day; designers, collections, shows, magazines. It was the collections that

catapulted me home. I worked almost 24 hours a day for 2 weeks; shows during the day and shoots at night. You’d get up for a 6am booking and work till 6pm then you’d have a 7pm booking that would run till 2am. 3 hours sleep. It almost became like I was hallucinating. That was it.”

From Paris she headed back to New York City and Wilhelmina. “At one point, I had my picture all over Fifth Avenue in New York.” Informed that CHANEL was looking to replace Catherine Deneuve, Susan was game. Thus began an intense 1 ½ year affair leading to her selection. Then the unforeseen happened: Wilhelmina was diagnosed with cancer. Two months later she died, dealing a debilitating blow to the agency. “Wilhelmina was the rock. She was the only one in charge. Nobody could step in and run the

“I loved being able to live among the different cultures, not as a tourist

but as one of them. It was an incredible experience.

It helped me learn how to

work with people in

difficult situations.”

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office. I had a $5 million contract. It was signed, executed. It went away. I was angry, quit modeling, decided to get married and have a child.”

After five years of marriage Susan divorced and moved back to Florida, where she grew up. With no plan other than to care of herself and her young daughter, she landed at Kelly Services. There she quickly went from temporary work to a managerial position within the firm.

While at Kelly Services she started teaching classes at John Casablancas Model and Career Center. Once again Susan was back in the world of modeling and high fashion. Her abilities made a strong impression; Susan was asked to be the director of the school, which ultimately leading to her running the facility. Under Susan’s guidance the Tampa center went from being the worst performing center to the best performing center in the country for three consecutive years.

All of the beautiful faces attending classes began to catch Susan’s attention. Always one with an eye

“Clothes, styling, hair and makeup, combined with an excellent photographer, make the image pop.”

Blouse by Ralph LaurenSkirt by BCBG MaxazriaJacket by St John

Husband Keith, Tim Miles and Susan reviewing photos.

Continued on page 34

Katie Holliday:I entered the world of modeling at the age of 13. Dani Davis scouted me, who at the time was managing the Barbizon of Tampa. Dani soon introduced me to Susan and her agency, Alexa. With clients like Bealls, Dillards and HSN locally, we started my model-ing career. Around the same time I became a contestant in the Elite model look of the year for 1995/96. I won the state of Florida and went onto New York City for the nationals. 10 girls won for the United States, including me, so we set off to Nice, France to compete against 59 other countries. I didn’t come home with the win that time but signed a contract with Elite anyway and started working out of Miami, New York, and LA. A lot of German catalogs, Target, JCPenney, Teen Magazine, Sketchers shoes, etc. It’s been a long trip so far, but I’m happily along for the ride.

Dress by Craig Signer

Kim Ulmer:Kim began a more than 25 year career in the fashion industry at the very young age of 10. Her career took off at the age of 13 after meeting Susan of Alexa. Susan placed Kim with Elite in New York City, and she went on to win Elite’s Look of the Year. That set off a 13-year span of foreign travel. From New York to Tokyo, then off to Paris and Hong Kong, Kim has worked in at least 9 countries. She held lingerie and beauty contracts in 3 different countries at the same time. Modeling has more than shown her the world which if you ask Kim, was the best part! “Good friends and fabulous cultures, these experiences have made me who I am. I am grateful to Susan for beginning such a rewarding and interesting career for me. That is the purpose of a great mother agent.”

Dress by Parker

“I’m a people person. It’s a people business.”

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Victoria Warren:Victoria was born in Ukraine and grew up mostly in New York City. At the age of 13 she asked her father to take her on a model search that LA Looks was hosting at the Empire State Building. After winning first place, she signed with an agency and shot for major magazines and commercials. It wasn’t until she was attending New York University that she decided to stop modeling and focus on her degree. Victoria married James and lived in England for five years, in which time she had two children, Alyssa and William. They moved to Florida over a year ago and Victoria decided to give modeling another chance. She met with Susan at Alexa and hasn’t looked back.

Shorts by Easy Money Bra by Wacoal Vest by Adrienne Landau

Leigh Songer:I was born and raised in southeast Virginia. All

through high school I was very athletic, playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, and running track. I

have always had the desire to be a model although I was taught to get an education first. I graduated from

Windsor High School and continued to get a higher education at Shenandoah University. I graduated

from Shenandoah University in 2007 with my Masters in Science of Occupational Therapy. I

started my career in Southeast Virginia for a year and moved to Florida to continue my job

and began my journey into modeling. I am currently residing in Tampa, Florida where I am

ecstatic to work with Alexa Modeling.

Dress by La Femme

Keren Ericksen Macklin:As a young girl I would pour through magazines and catalogs with hopes of one day becoming a model. At age 21 a college professor and friend encouraged me to pursue modeling. His daughter, Jennie Pickens was a supermodel and he would tell me how I looked a lot like her. He suggested I visit Alexa, where Jennie started. I went and met Susan who connected me with a photographer and I began working shortly thereafter. Today I live in Sarasota with my husband and son and enjoy shooting photography and modeling.

Dress by Craig Signer

Jessica Myslikowski:Originally from Greece Jessica immigrated to the United States as a child. She is 23 years old and currently lives in Florida. She began modeling when she decided to send in her application to the Miss Polish-American beauty pageant. To her surprise she won the title Miss Polish-American 2008. One of Jessica’s winning prizes was a trip to Poland to represent the United States in the national 2008 Miss Poland contest. While competing in Poland, Jessica was still enrolled as a full time student at the University of Florida. She recently graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. Jessica is currently pursuing a career as a Physician Assistant and models through Alexa.

Jacket, Shirt & Pants by St John

Irina Vishneva:I always dreamed of becoming a model when I was a little girl back in Russia. My dream really came true when I moved to the U.S. I was approached by a stranger who asked if I had an interest in modeling. That’s how everything started. I attended Fox Models International showcase in December 2009 and was offered contracts by Factor, Chicago and Wilhelmina, Miami. The only thing lacking was a warm personal approach and caring that models could only get from smaller boutique agencies. So I was very lucky to become a part of the Alexa Models family. Now I always feel included and taken care of. Susan and Tim have always been very helpful. No issue is too small. Susan is a great source of valuable knowledge and inspiration for me. To sum it up, I’d like to say that I believe everyone should pursue his or her dream and never give up even if it gets very hard. The reward is priceless; you meet great people along the way, become a stronger person and gain a lot of confidence about yourself and your future.

Shirt by Vince | Skirt by Theory

for talent, she began to submit model candidates to Elite in New York City. Soon Elite was making trips to Tampa to meet with Susan. “I thought that was pretty cool.”

Discussions with the Casablancas center’s owner about establishing an agency were not well received, so Susan bought the school and launched her own agency. As the agency began to take off, running it and the school became too much. So two years after buying the school she sold it and focused on Alexa Model and Talent Management Agency, named after her daughter.

Twenty three years later Alexa is still one of the most respected names in the business. “I have always had a

good eye for talent. We do a lot of placement in New York. Over the course of the years we’ve developed many new faces.”

Inquiring about some of her faces Susan picks out some comp cards and begins. “Jennie Pickens is now with MC2, she was third runner up in Eileen Ford’s Super Model World in 1993. Kim Ulmer was huge for us, working Asia in Tokyo and Thailand. Becky Bosworth went with her and did very well too. Nivia also was a big star in Asia. Katie Holliday (this issue), she was 13 when we started with her. She’s worked a lot, Greece and many other locations, lives in New York. She’s the face of Clairol on many of their boxes. Jennifer Long began at age 17. She’s done Germany and South Africa, lives in New York too. Maxwell, he’s doing well. The IZOD cologne campaign, Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch. Kimberly’s now with APM in New York working the Söfft campaign and Jockey. Then

there’s Bailey. She’s also working with APM and recently did a large Clairol campaign. Scarlett Benchley. I love her. I knew her mother when she was pregnant with her. She’s a little booker doing all the mags and Nintendo. I could go on for quite some time.”

Pausing and reflecting for a moment she brings up the name Brandy Quinones. “We found Brandy living on the street in Tampa. She was only 14 years old. We made her into a model and introduced her to Jean Luc Brunelle. Next thing you know she takes off in Miami and immediately ends up in Paris. Everyone wanted her; Vogue, Elle, CHANEL, Karl Lagerfeld. She was

in the money. Upon returning to New York she became someone who had every model disease known. Brandy was her own worst enemy. At that point she had no respect for the client and her reputation went downhill. Nobody could control her. I don’t know what happened to her. She could have had it all.”

Asking what makes a good model Susan doesn’t hesitate “I look for bone structure. You need cheek bones. Eyes, they need to be wide apart. They photograph better than eyes that are close together. Nice hair. Nice skin. You need to have a thinner body type. Long legs are an asset. Even a shorter girl with long legs works.”

What gets the agency’s attention and lands jobs? Good photography. Walking to her desk Susan returns with a file of before and after photos. “You need to have great pictures to get noticed. Pictures are a must.” Taking a moment she finds

Maxwell’s before and after photos. “Look at these. The most beautiful person in the world will not make it with the wrong photography. Clearly photography makes all the difference in the world whether you get a job or not. Not all photographers are fashion photographers. You need to seek one out like Giovanni Lunardi. He knows how to get the best out of people and has the track record to prove it.”

In the fashion world there are three types of modeling; commercial, editorial and runway. “Commercial is where the money is. It’s harder these days to land big campaigns as clients are using actresses and actors instead of models. Editorial is

a bigger market but you don’t make any money. You get your picture in a magazine mainly for the exposure. Runway, that’s very different. The girls are not typically super gorgeous. The designers don’t want the model taking away from the garment, so they tend to be nondescript.”

Working in an industry where faces are everything and beauty only skin deep, Susan is a breath of fresh air.

“I love to hang out with the models. We’ve been friends for so long it’s like family. Even with some of our clients too. I’ve known them a long time. You need to treat people the way you want to be treated.”

“I’m a people person. It’s a people business.”

Alexa Model & Talent Management Agency 4100 W Kennedy Blvd, Suite 228 Tampa, FL 33609 (813) 289.8020 www.alexamodels.com

I had a $5 million contract. It was signed, executed. It went away.

Continued from page 29

Wardrobe courtesy of Saks Fifth Avenue

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