Up to 20 years old, minimum height 1.75 m, hips 90 cm… These were some of the common requirements in beauty contests. But the scenario is changing! Proof of this is that the 2024 edition of The Look of The Year, the contest that unveiled Gisele Bündchen in 1994, will no longer have age limits. And it had already abolished body measurements as a prerequisite.
The only detail is that candidates must be at least 16 years old, the minimum age required by law to enter the professional model market.
“I have been working as a modeling agent since the 90s and I remember that women at that time had an expiration date. Around the age of 30, your career in fashion ended. If you had children or got married, that ended too. The market saw the model as someone who had no other commitments than fashion. Being an independent woman in the 90s meant giving up space”, recalls Liliana Gomes, top model manager and director of the competition in Brazil.
“Before becoming an agent, I worked as a model. I remember an international agent saw me when I was 26 and didn’t know whether to take me on for an opportunity in Milan because she thought I was too old. That was the way it was, girls who hadn’t been successful after 25 were lost in the market. Everything was very fixated on a human figure that was almost impossible to be, always within measurements, standards and aesthetics that brought suffering and difficulty,” she added.
Liliana continued her reflection on the evolution of the market and of society itself. “Women today, who are 60 or older, are in the labor market. At 70 they continue to have their careers. They cannot see themselves represented by 20-year-old girls. They need to have an older woman who represents who they are. We live in an era in which people live longer, they do not put themselves in the position of saying “I no longer consume, I am old”. We live in an era in which age is a number but inside each person remains a human being with expectations, desires, who participates in society, fashion, consumption. Women exercise their total freedom and fashion anticipates and reflects the movements of society.
Since the 90s Liliana has been responsible for The Look of The Year, until then carried out by the now defunct Elite agency in Brazil, when she revealed names such as Gisele Bündchen, Isabeli Fontana, Michelle Alves, Raica Oliveira, Ana Beatriz Barros and Carol Ribeiro. The competition has been reprinted and relaunched under the auspices of JOY Model since 2013.
Registration, completely free, has just begun and will be open until October 30 through the website www.thelookoftheyear.com.br. The national final of the event will take place on December 5 in São Paulo.
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
