Midterms are here and as much as I’m dreading this difficult week, I’m anticipating my grades. Doing well in your courses makes Spring Break a lot more enjoyable. While everybody is getting ready to travel and relax during this much needed break, I’ll be heading to Los Angeles for work under my New York agency.

Stephanie Matthews, a Los Angeles-based photographer, will be shooting me and three other models for an editorial spec for Essence and Arise magazine. I was beaming after I got the message from my agent about this opportunity. Anytime I get the chance to shoot with an established photographer who has shot covers and editorials for multiple magazines, I know it’s going to end up good.

Stephanie contacted me shortly after my agent did to let me know how excited she is to work with me. It’s always nice to work with people who are excited to work with you! During my stay in LA, I will possibly be meeting with a few agencies and clients that work with my San Francisco agency. Who knows? Maybe I’ll sign with an agency in LA or better yet – maybe the shoots I am doing will end up in those magazines!

Either way I know I’m going to bring it!

P.S. My images are in from a shoot I did with Rus Anson. I really like them!

Written by: Erin Leeper

Click here to read more of “The Model Life of Erin”

Mocha Bride magazine has finally hit the shelves and has already sold out in two Walgreens stores! I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was on the cover. This is my very first magazine cover and I’m excited that things are headed in the right direction. It’s a little strange to see my picture on the front, but I am very grateful.

Besides the magazine, modeling in the Bay Area has been pretty slow. I recently talked to my agent about reaching out to other markets during slow times. We are in the process of looking into signing with an agency in South Africa and possibly spending some time there. This would be an amazing experience. To finally stay a month or more in a country I’ve longed to visit. This would also be a great way for me to build my book with published work and come back to the States with more experience and a bit of an edge. The opportunity couldn’t be more on time!

Written by: Erin Leeper

Click here to read more of “The Model Life of Erin”

The first week of school has been difficult. I don’t know if it’s the long break that made it hard or if my classes are just challenging. I was booked twice this week to model for an Illustration class. Holding those 10 minute poses really worked my legs, but I thought it was cool to see these fashion designers in the making.

Before I signed with Passport Models in San Francisco, I decided to work on gaining representation in New York. The city is a fashion capital and it is a key market for me. While I was in undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati, I went to New York to sign with an agency during Fashion Week. I ended up signing with a small boutique agency and I walked in three shows during my short stay. It was the best experience in my life! After the small agency closed down and I began to focus more on finishing my degree, I started to forget about modeling and move on with my career in Communications.

But today is a whole new day! I’m happy to say that I officially signed with The Mattison Agency in NYC. Signing with this agency means a lot to me. Although, I will be missing out on this seasons shows, my booker (from The Mattison Agency) and I are planning accordingly for next season’s shows. I am also going to be submitted for editorial opportunities for Essence magazine. Being featured in this magazine has been one of my goals since I was a little girl.

One more thing – I finally got my compcards from Passport Models. There the coolest comcards you’ll ever see. They’re like little passports!

Written by: Erin Leeper

Click here to read more of “The Model Life of Erin”

The spring semester has started!

Winter break was nice and long – and I’m ready to work hard and search for an internship. There are a lot of decisions I have to make in the next couple of months. I’m not sure what type of internship I want; whether it would be a position assisting a buyer or maybe for a fashion magazine. Writing this blog and researching job descriptions on fashion editing has sparked my interest in an editing career. I like to write and I absolutely love styling. Is it possible to find an internship that has the best of both worlds?

Besides looking for a way to gain more experience in my studies, I need to start getting my mind prepared to put my academic and career goals before the m modeling goals. I think that this switch will be good for me. At least it will help me get my mind off of waiting for modeling jobs that I may or may not get. I am finally in a position to let my portfolio, networking and appearance book my jobs.

This past week was very busy. I had an editorial spec shoot for submission to Chaos Magazine and I am hoping they pick up the images. The editorial I shot for Mocha Bride magazine should be available in the next week or so. The magazine will be sold at the major retail giants Target, Borders and Barnes & Noble!

I also received images back from a look book shoot I did for Deen + Gray, an accessories line by Kade Stuart. She makes chic scarves and hats by hand in beautiful rich colors. I absolutely adore every single piece!

Written by: Erin Leeper

Click here to read more of “The Model Life of Erin”

Two more weeks until the spring semester starts and my books have been purchased. I had to decline a couple shoots for the month of February because I want to make sure I get familiar with my courses before I get back to shooting and casting. It has always been helpful to understand the expectations of my classes before handling additional tasks.

This past week, I decided to give my head a rest and take out my weave. It’s been a couple months since I’ve seen my natural hair and I miss it. My regular “model look” is long hair with bangs and I believe that models should be able to possess multiple looks and morph into different characters – just like actors.

I love it when I see the same model with different hairstyles. It just shows the strength in their face and their ability to pull off any look. That is where I want to be. However, it has been pretty difficult to achieve this because of the standards of different agencies and clients. It’s also difficult when working with hairstylists that are unfamiliar with African American hair.

Erin’s hairstylist Delisha Duncan tackles her ‘do

So why is it that some agencies/clients prefer you with just one hairstyle over another? It seems as though models of a different race have the ability to do so much more. Read more…

2010 is off to an amazing start. The winter break has been very productive .

The lift in the school work has allowed me to be able to schedule more shoots to build my portfolio, but I still had some last minute school business to take care of over the break. I signed up for my classes and was able to get into exactly what I wanted: Fashion Marketing & Promotion and Trend Analysis & Product Development. I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can and hopefully applying it in the near future. Even though I am only taking two classes for spring semester, the workload will be plenty – especially since business tends to pick up for models as the weather gets warmer.

These past few weeks, I have been fortunate enough to work with a few very talented photographers. One in particular is Moja Maat, an Oakland native that has been shooting for over 20 years.

When walking into his loft apartment I immediately noticed that this man did not just shoot fashion, but he adores it. Portraits of African-natives and beautiful dark-skinned goddesses graced his walls and I felt at ease and at home.

Shooting with Moja was a turning point for me. He taught me how to love myself despite what I felt about the injustices of the fashion industry. He inspired me with stories about how African American models took Paris by storm in the ‘60s. We talked about how wonderfully crazy and gorgeous Naomi Campbell is and most importantly,we shot gorgeous images. Some of the images from the shoot will be submitted to Giant Magazine in hopes of landing an editorial.

Written by: Erin Leeper

Click here to read more of “The Model Life of Erin”

Finals are over and done! This week has been extremely challenging, but doesn’t it feel so good that is over? We are going after our dream and for me this is just the beginning of a beautiful career. I had to keep telling myself this as I took my textiles exam. Struggling over a question that was worth ten points, which tested my ability to choose the correct fabrics for 5 different garments, was literally making my brain hurt. Despite the temporary aneurysm, I think that this semester was an overall success. I’m ready for the holidays and will spend some time getting my portfolio ready for summer castings.

In addition to finals, this week I was fortunate enough to be contacted by a good friend and a very talented photographer, Rus Anson. Rus and I have worked together on several projects during the past 2 years and like myself, she is working toward her MFA. She was interested in shooting a compilation of images, inspired by vintage dresses with lots of volume and a background full of white and crème colored props. Rus was able to pull in a spectacular team of artists. Erin Fredrick did the styling and Brittan Wieser and Becca Chewning from the Aveda Institute did the hair and makeup.

This shoot was beyond amazing. I truly do believe that this is a dream team. We were laid back, yet serious about our craft. The best part of the shoot was when Rus told me to destroy the whole set for a video she was doing on the shoot. At first, it seemed like it would be a hard thing to do, because so much time was spent creating it, but I was able to totally dismantle the background and every single prop within moments. My exam stress was completely released!

Written by: Erin Leeper

Click here to read more of “The Model Life of Erin”

This has been one of the most challenging weeks so far. The semester is wrapping up and the final projects are starting. Creating a denim collection for Dynamics in Fashion and writing a final paper for Textiles class might seem like a light load, but when you pair it with a large amount of reading assignments and quizzes the pile gets a little bigger.

Imagine adding on networking, scheduling, casting calls, go-sees, and shoots. It’s hard for me to know how my week is going to end up because I receive last minute castings and bookings from my agent, even when I have shoots already scheduled. Re-working my modeling schedule and making sure I complete all my course work can be very challenging.

Erin (left) with makeup artist, Rebecca Butz

This week I had editorial shoot with the Oakland-based magazine, Mocha Bride Magazine. The great thing about this publication is that it displays images of women of color. This is a great opportunity for me and other ethnic models. There are not that many print opportunities in the Bay Area for ethnic models and being chosen as one of their models for their winter issue is definitely a blessing and a big opportunity. Read more…

This is the second all-nighter I have pulled this week for my Dynamics in Fashion class. Designing a RTW Collection was probably one of the most exciting and challenging projects I have done in my school career. I was able to implement all the inspiration and ideas I have been storing in my mind for the past two years. You can store up a lot of ideas when you are surrounded by garments, designers, stylist and models almost every week.

Finally, it was my turn to show what I would design if I was on the other side. My favorite piece from my collection was the gold organic cotton shirt with the leopard balloon skirt.

I’m not that great at drawing and it’s hard to submit a project. All the other students in the class are born to be fine artists, and I am just someone that just truly appreciates fashion with no art background at all. However, there comes a time when you just have to have faith and know that someone will appreciate your vision. So, I’m hoping that’s what happens.

In addition, to my two sleepless nights. I had a concept shoot with Jae Perez, another Academy of Art University student, who works with a lot of San Francisco-based modeling agencies. This particular shoot, was the first shoot I have ever done with another model. I was a little bit nervous of how it would all play out, but the environment of the shoot was very fun. Jae did an editorial piece involving mannequins and black and cream designer garments. The shoot definitely had the theme of “Ivory and Ebony!” Based on the quality of his photos from his website, these images will end up in my portfolio. Jae knows what agencies want and he delivers.

After, a very busy week I was pleased to receive my images from the Kevin Sinclair shoot I did last week. I was blown away. I feel as though Kevin captured the very best of me and I am excited to see what kind of jobs these images will help me snatch up. Everything is heading in the right direction. I’m very grateful. (More pictures after the jump)

Read more…

What do you get when you have a stylist that lives by the “Make it work” motto, a hair stylist that can create a masterpiece in a minute, a make-up artist that can tell your foundation color at a glance, and a photographer that can truly capture beauty? Give up? Well, you get the set of a Kevin Sinclair shoot, which is what I had the pleasure of participating in last week.

Kevin Sinclair is a New York based photographer that has shot for Marie Claire and Lucire Magazine. His portfolio is full of some of the toughest supermodels in the industry.

It wasn’t a surprise to me that I woke up with an extremely bad stomachache on the morning of the shoot. It was a case of the nerves. There were a million negative thoughts running through my head and these thoughts were a little more critical than the usual. The anticipation of the afternoon shoot seized when I finally entered the penthouse floor of my agency building. I was greeted by an atmosphere of music, creation and best of all, heart-warming smiles. No high-maintenance attitudes or the clichéd ruthless, East Coast behavior – just art and perfection.

Erin gets prepped for her Sinclair shoot

There were two models shooting before I started to get prepped. Looking at their make-up and styling made me even more anxious to shoot. I knew today was going to be a good day. Read more…