Nearly Known

Fashion Week is not just about the clothes, the star-spotting, fantasizing about traipsing around Paris and Milan in femme fatale YSL stilettos...sigh...it's about the models. Seeing the new faces, wondering who'll be back, off-duty style. In other words, hooray for models! Here are some of my favorite not-yet-household-names:

Elsa Sylvan
Elsa Sylvan rocks. The 22 year old Swedish model is one of the truly awesome gals out there right now. For the spring shows, she walked Louis Vuitton, Proenza, Chanel, Rodarte, Celine, McQueen, Chloe...yeah, she had a good season. She has some great brows and killer face structure and is just that perfect combination of doll-like and doe-eyed with odd and ferocious. The result? A total combustion of cool.

Sylvan walking Rodarte and Proenza Schouler's S/S 2010 runways.

Looking amaaaazing in the August issue of Vogue Paris.

Backstage at Zac Posen's fall 2009 show.

All photos courtesy of New York Magazine.

Imogen Morris Clarke
Delicate British Beauty Imogen Morris Clarke is only 17, but her face has already graced the pages of Vogue Italia, Dazed & Confused and W. Her runway resume is not too shabby either - this past month she stomped the stage for the likes of Miu Miu, D&G, Vuitton, McQueen, Prada, Chanel, Giambattista Valli, Chloe, Dries Van Noten, Luella and Erin Fetherston among others. I adore her saucer-sized eyes and 1960s throwback looks - she'd look just as at home in Mary Quant as she does in futuristic Alexander McQueen.

Walking the fall 2009 runway for Pringle of Scotland and Marc Jacob's spring show.

In Vogue Italia, July 2009 and March 2009.

Photos courtesy of New York Magazine.

Tao Okamoto
With her amazing cheekbones and bold cropped cut, Tao Okamoto stands out from the crowd. And in such a good way. From channeling the incomprable Tina Chow for Vogue Paris this past September to sparking comparisons to Peter Pan in i-D, Tao can do it all. And walk with the best of them - this September she did Akris, YSL, Donna Karan, Vuitton, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Dries Van Noten, Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld, Narciso Rodriguez, Gareth Pugh and others. She's even one of Ralph Lauren's new ladies, appearing in one of his fall campaigns looking gorgeous in tweed.

A killingly cool portfolio polaroid and walking for spring 2010 Fendi.

Tantilatingly Tina in Vogue Paris.

At YSL and full of love backstage at Karl Lagerfeld, both S/S 2010.

Photos courtesy of Models.com and Style.com.