Wilhelmina Going Public

Wilhelmina announced this morning that they're going public.

When private companies decide to go public, it usually means that they need to raise some cash, either because they have some nagging debts, or because they just want to have the capital to expand.

We're curious to see what, if anything, comes from this. Wilhelmina hasn't really been relevant in terms of fashion models for a while, at least not in comparison to major players like IMG and Women. Though WIlhelmina helped launch the career of Lauren Hutton, their roster of clients right now is headlined by Fergie, Brandy, and Natasha Bedingfield.

Maybe they're raising money to steal away some of the girls on Model.com's Top 50 - because, as of right now, Wilhelmina is entirely absent.

La Zimmermann, photographed by Mario Sorrenti for the cover of the September issue.

September Vogue Italia story by Steven Meisel

Jerry Ford died on August 24th

Jerry Ford, who founded the Ford Modeling Agency with his wife, Eileen, in 1946, died Sunday at the age of 83 in Morristown, New Jersey. His daughter Katie Ford told the New York Times the cause of death was complications from endocarditis, or inflammation of the heart. Ford is credited with turning modeling into a true profession and establishing the business practices by which it operates today. He introduced a system for collecting fees for models and agents. He also was the first to create contracts for models to exclusively represent certain brands and earn much higher fees. Lauren Hutton signed the first such contract negotiated by Ford with Revlon in 1974. Ford's agency managed the biggest models for decades, including Christie Brinkley, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Brooke Shields. In the book Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross, Ford says, "I’m not from New York. I thought models were the most incredible things in the world.”

Jean Paul Gaultier in Hong Kong

A handful of designers, including Jean Paul Gaultier, Donna Karan and Oscar De La Renta, have been lending their clout this week to an invitation-only luxury fashion event in Hong Kong.

The French maestro presented a collection imbued with the elements of fantasy and playfulness for which he is renowned in front of an audience of shoppers rather than the usual fashion editors.