Three to catch the eye

Chris Landon posing for Vogue. Photo / Supplied

A modelling scout spotted Yasmin Bidois at the Mall. Chris Landon was shopping in Newmarket with his girlfriend.

Six months later, Bidois, 15, is hot at New Zealand Fashion Week where she is modelling nine shows.

A year later, Landon, 20, is living in New York, an up-and-coming model meeting celebrities and competing with the world's most good-looking guys. It's a far cry from the Auckland Rugby Academy and the University of Auckland business school.

Ella Verberne, 16 and in Year 11 at Baradene College, is a sensation at Fashion Week. With 24 shows competing for her Chinese-European looks, she is able to model in 18. "It's going to be quite busy as I have some long days where I will be running from one show to the next and early show starts but that's all part of Fashion Week," she said.

They are just three of a number of young Kiwis taking on the modelling world.

The Fashion Week highlights for Bidois, Year 11 at Mt Albert Grammar School, will be getting her hair and make-up done for each show, then getting out on the catwalk. "The hardest part may be controlling my nerves!"

Bidois and Verberne attracted international offers when they featured on Models.com website where their Maori and Chinese looks struck a chord with a fashion world weary of fair Slavic beauty.

"We are really happy to see clients responding so well to more diverse, less predictable beauties," says Marama Nicholas, general manager, Clyne Model Management.

Landon, a former Auckland Grammar student from Epsom, is on the current cover of Vogue Hommes Japan and "walked" for Dolce & Gabbana at Milan Fashion Week. Do Landon's rugby mates know he's a model?

"Yeah, I ran out of excuses for leaving the country so much. Their first reaction was not good but when they saw the girls I was meeting, they all loved it." And he laughs.