Star Martin, model. Photo courtesy of Star Martin

There is a growing demand for ethnic faces in the modeling industry, and Vancouver’s eclectic culture provides some of the most diverse-looking models sought after by agencies around the world.

“We have a wonderful melting pot here,” says Tricia Romani, 41, owner and agency director of Vancouver-based InspirationALL Talent and Modeling Group. “Through the generations we’re seeing a lot more mixed partnerships and marriages, and we’re getting more and more children coming up that are mixed races.”

As a result, Romani says Vancouver is producing models who are ethnically ambiguous, a very big term in the modeling industry right now.

She says ethnically ambiguous models usually have darker hair and a skin colour that covers a broader spectrum of races and might look “a bit Eurasian, maybe a little Latin, maybe Asian.” However you can’t totally figure out their ethnic background by looking at them, she says.

According to Romani, there are a few reasons ethnic faces are becoming more apparent in advertising and fashion markets. She says many North American commercials are shot in Vancouver, and Americans want to represent their public which is predominantly white, black and Hispanic.

In addition, Romani says technology has simplified the process of sharing pictures of models with top agencies, meaning different faces can easily become part of a catalogue that scouts and clients can demand.

Romani explains that countries around the world are flexing their buying power and wanting brand names. “Advertising campaigns go around the world now, and advertisers want to find models who the global public can identify with. That’s why you see models where you really can’t tell what their background is.”

Roman Young, 38, director at Wilhelmina Models, one of the most prominent modeling agencies in the United States with offices in Los Angeles, Miami and New York, feels that Vancouver is a virtually untapped resource of diverse models compared to other eastern Canadian cities.

“I think Vancouver is still a secret. Other larger agencies haven’t really fully targeted Vancouver as a market to scout, and we actively are.”

Young says Vancouver is a gateway to the East, and when he visits the West Coast he expects to see wonderful mixes and unique blends of people with different perspectives on life.

Young says that it’s his job to spot beauty trends, and advertisers are starting to realize that “beauty is beauty, and beauty sells.” He feels clients are starting to realize the industry doesn’t need to dumb down or use cliché versions of beauty to relate with the public.

Young relates, “When clients ask me to find them the ‘girl next door,’ I always ask them, ‘the girl next door to who?’, Because the girl next door to me was Filipino.”

One of Romani’s models, Vancouver model Star Martin, 18, is Fijian, Caribbean, Nepalese and Sicilian. Martin says she can pass for Nepalese, Latina, Native, and Caribbean, and this ethnic flexibility works in her favour when booking jobs.

It wasn’t always easy to present ethnically diverse models to clients. In fact, Romani started her Vancouver agency six years ago with the specific mandate to showcase diversity.

After working as a model, make-up artist and stylist in the modeling industry for 25 years, Romani believed the industry was focusing solely on Caucasian faces and felt strongly that “beauty has a broader definition.”

When she started her business many people doubted her mandate could work in this image-focused industry.

“I got a lot of ‘good luck with that!’” she says.

Romani had to hustle and push hard to get her message out. She chose Vancouver as a place to settle down and open her agency because she knew the city was home to the right mix of diverse looks, but she admits it was risky making her business work.

She felt two things had to happen to make her business a success: The customer had to want it, and the advertisers had to take a chance on showcasing diverse beauty in models.

Her perseverance has paid off. She runs a thriving business and says her roster is about 70 per cent diverse models and 30 per cent Caucasian or mainstream. Romani says that, by far, the busiest models on her roster are among the 70 per cent, not Caucasian.

“They want it, and they’re buying it,” says Romani.