What is the secret to a supermodel’s success? Long legs? Cheekbones? In fact, it might just be a short hair cut.
A bevy of close-cropped models are storming the runways this fashion month including Ruth Bell, Edie Campbell and Binx Walton, all of whom started out with flowing locks but hit the big time upon losing their length. Industry tradition dictates that budding models should keep their hair long in the hope of booking more jobs, yet today’s breakout catwalk stars have bucked the trend, picked up the shears, and seen their career soar.
Take Ruth Bell for example. The buzziest new face with a buzz cut to match, she’s walked in 15 shows this season including Gucci, Versace, and Isabel Marant, and has just been rubber-stamped with Cool with a capital C by landing herself the Saint Laurent cruise 2016 campaign.
Bell’s recognition came after hair stylist Paul Hanlon cropped her hair for an Alexander McQueen campaign shot by David Sims, yet her first forays into fashion were with long straight locks as part of a twosome with twin sister May (who has kept the longer look).
Speaking to Elle.com, Bell said she thought it might actually work against her, career-wise. “I thought I'd shave my head for McQueen, and it would be a really cool thing that I could say I did once. And that would be it. I didn't expect it to make me a bigger model. Now, it feels like I have this great responsibility on my shoulders [because I have a bigger profile].”
Equally, it took a mullet to catapult Edie Campbell to catwalk success. Previously in possession of a honey blonde mane of which her horse Dolly would be envious, Campbell’s success came when Guido Palau chopped it off in favour of a choppy black mullet. According to the New York Times, Palau’s masterful mullet came about on request from Steven Meisel for a US Vogue story on punk. Palau said “[Edie] took on the look right away,” he said, “and it became a part of her. She made it feel current. I hadn’t seen it for a long time.” Following the cut, Edie promptly landed the Marc Jacobs, Jil Sander, Lanvin and Alexander McQueen AW13 campaigns and has been forging ahead ever since, winning Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2013, and featuring heavily on the SS16 runways.
Binx Walton is another model of the moment whose rise to prominence coincided with her shorter hair. Upon the request of her LA agent, the Tennessee native nipped down to iconic salon Trim in Nashville for her part-shaved crop and the rest is history. Speaking about her career-defining cut with i-D, Walton said “I was on Models.com the next day, and shortly afterwards I was off to New York with an option for a Marc Jacobs exclusive!" Her profile has gone from strength to strength, walking a staggering 43 shows for AW14, shooting high profile campaigns for Chanel, Celine and Balmain and even collaborating on a sneaker line with Superga.
Short hair as a recipe for success isn’t just a fleeting fad, however. It’s played a part in the fame of the big model names of yesteryear too.
The career of Agyness Deyn - one of the definitive faces of the mid noughties - skyrocketed when she acquired her white blonde crop. Hair stylist Sam McKnight created her platinum pixie cut for a Mario Testino shoot in 2006, sparking a fashion frenzy, as many headlines as Kendall and Cara do today, and a wave of copy-cuts, according to the Daily Mail. i-D magazine even dedicated an entire issue with six different covers to the Lancashire-born model at the peak of her acclaim in 2008.
You can’t talk about short hair without mentioning one of the original supers, Linda Evangelista. The iconic model grabbed the limelight with her signature pixie haircut, created on a Vogue shoot with Peter Lindbergh in 1988, courtesy of stylist Julien d’Ys. Evangelista would go on to tell Vogue that her shoot rate “quadrupled” following that famous crop, with the added bonus of setting off a chain reaction of hair transformations, switching from black to blonde to red and back again. The runway veteran is still in high demand, recently becoming the face of Moschino’s new fragrance.
The jury’s still out on whether the hair stays short once you’ve made it to the top. For Ruth Bell, who’s still on the up and up, it’s a firm no: “Hell no [I’m not growing it back]. I don't miss the hair. I don't want it ever again.” Despite her boyfriend’s initial horror, Edie Campbell too has stuck with her mullet, although she’s gone back to her original golden blonde.
On the other hand, Binx has grown out her shaved sections and now has a more traditional bob. It hasn’t hurt her career prospects, however, as she appeared on 37 catwalks at the most recent round of shows. Agyness Deyn let her crop grow out as she disappeared from the spotlight, escaping the modelling circuit for an acting career in New York in 2009, suggesting a correlation between modelling mojo and hair length. She did return to the catwalk with long mousey brown hair for Saint Laurent SS16 so it's possible short hair isn’t essential once you’ve made a big enough splash,and that’s certainly true for Linda Evangelista, whose hair is now just past her shoulders.
So what is it about short hair that is so linked to success? At first glance, long hair is more versatile, meaning a model’s look can be altered easily from shoot to shoot: ideal for a runway rookie looking to make a name for herself. However, a short style still signals a bold move away from the industry standard, and can set a new face head and shoulders above the rest.
The model industry is highly competitive with a seemingly eternal supply of fresh young faces in search of a big money campaign. Casting agents are also broadening their search for the next big thing by using social media and street casting, which makes a bold haircut a savvy step for standing out from the crowd.
On top of that, a shorter style is often visual shorthand for ‘cool’, attracting edgier clients and more exciting opportunities. By electing to crop, these models show they’re risk-takers; a quality much desired by big brands when they’re casting for their shows.
Coco Chanel famously said that “a woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life,” but perhaps for models, it’s “the more you take off, the more your career takes off”?
