Elite Model Look Caribbean Jamaica launched last week

Garfene Grandison, Sunday Gleaner Writer

"With proper research and development, the next beauty could come from Jamaica to represent the face of fashion."

These were the words of Derrick Lewis, founder/director of ISLANDpeople, the Trinidad-based company that has the Elite Model Look franchise here in the Caribbean.

He was speaking at the launch of the Elite Model Look Caribbean, the model-search competition sanctioned by Elite Model Management. Gisele Bundchen, one of the world's leading supermodels was discovered at the Elite Model Look competition in 1993. Come October, young women from Jamaica will have an opportunity to be the world's next leading supermodel.

Elite Model Management has been doing a regional casting since August 23. The casting ends October 23 in Haiti.

John Pierre Begon, vice-president, Elite International, in his address, said, "Elite wants to bring more global fashion physique to the Caribbean market. The Caribbean is a beautiful place where we discover more and more beautiful girls, so we decided to come with a regional show," Begon explained.

'No politics'

The vice-president reassured those in attendance that there was "no politics" involved, adding that "we pick models with potential".

The details of the way the casting is done were revealed to an audience of specially invited guests, fashion icons, Caribbean media personnel and other industry professionals at the Spanish Court Hotel last Thursday.

The project will scout nine Caribbean territories, including Trinidad, St Vincent, Barbados, St Lucia, Haiti and Jamaica, and select 22 girls to participate in the regional finale on November 12 in Trinidad and Tobago.

The top-three finalists from the selection will receive an all-expense paid trip to participate in the Elite Model Look World Finals on December 6 in China. They will compete for US$325,000 in modelling contracts with Elite Model Management. The casting criteria require that the participants are female in the age range 14 to 22 with a minimum height of five feet, eight inches.

The evening's event was hosted by Miss Universe first-runner up, Yendi Phillipps, and saw patrons turning out from as early as 7 p.m. In attendance were Kay Osbourne, Deiwght Peters, Keneea Linton-George, Juliet Dyke, Kingsley Cooper and many others.

Caribbean franchise holder, Derrick Lewis, revealed in a release: "Elite is excited about finding another top model with an exciting look from the Caribbean."

For further information, you can contact Elite at elitemodellookcaribbeanja@gmail.com or visit the Elite Model Look Caribbean Jamaica fan page on Facebook.