Model Students: Student Models of the Ivy League

Oscar Fishman, Zelda Adams, Carissa Keng, and Anjeli de Blank are all Ivy League students. The former two go to Columbia, and the latter two to the University of Pennsylvania. These particular students lead a double life, however: beyond stellar academics and varied (but consistent) ambition, these students are all signed models. In conjunction with attending some of the most prestigious universities in the world, these people have also made it their business to look good and wear good-looking clothing. From walking the runway (and doing homework backstage) to being featured on the cover of Vogue Greece to donning garments supplied by a local Texas vintage store, the four have vastly different experiences within the sometimes glamorous, sometimes onerous world of modeling and fashion. For this article, The WALK Magazine interviewed these four and got an inside view of how they look good, study better, and ultimately succeed.

Oscar got involved in modeling in a way that might be off-putting for most - honked at by an errant driver who, upon receiving no response to his prod, goaded him, asking him if he was scared. Of course, Oscar had to prove otherwise - he pivoted and walked towards the driver. Instead of a roadside confrontation, however, the driver proposed modeling to Oscar. To many people, Oscar’s father included, this situation might scream danger – Indeed, Oscar had to spend weeks convincing his father that he wasn’t getting sex trafficked. The rest is, as they say, history. He got his first show several weeks after signing with his agency (Marilyn Model Agency) - Virgil Abloh’s posthumous final show for Louis Vuitton - and has received semi-constant work since then, walking for, among other notable houses and designers, Hermes, Saint Laurent, Gucci, Dries van Noten, and Dior.

*Oscar’s First Look, Louis Vuitton S/S 2022. Courtesy of Office Magazine.*

The job is not always entirely glamorous, Oscar is quick to note - and indeed, every model has made clear the variety of struggles, some unique and some shared, which come with the job. For example, Oscar recently found himself in Paris during midterms week walking YSL - a far cry from the vacation he described fashion week as being (“a three-week vacation with five hundred homies”). Conversely, some models like Zelda find themselves limiting their student lives for the sake of modeling-- though both she and Oscar find themselves corresponding with professors more often than they’d like, sometimes securing excused absences and sometimes simply making the sacrifice for the sake of modeling. Zelda Adams, who Elite Model Agency scouted on TikTok, notes that despite a strong drinking culture at Columbia (a phenomenon which is not unique to Columbia), she has to consistently abstain from participating. Alcohol dries out one’s skin and accelerates aging, after all.

Her self-care routine starts there and virtually ends with a Cetaphil moisturizer. Oscar’s routine is just as scanty - the only chemical supplement to his naturally fortuitous countenance is one unnamed face wash. In contrast, Anjeli, a gifted athlete, has employed a much stricter regimen which includes boxing, a strict diet, and running a distance of at least ten kilometers a day, perhaps symptomatic of the spartan mindset that can develop as a student-athlete. Though she does not play any sports officially for Penn, she spent her years in high school playing Netball, a sport more often seen in countries with historical British influence than anywhere else, which makes sense given that Anjeli went to high school in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, being far from home can throw temporary wrenches in one’s modeling career. In high school, Anjeli found herself balancing athleticism and the occasional toll it takes on the body it takes. At Penn, she had to endure a ten-hour-long photo shoot in stiletto heels with three torn ligaments. Thousands of miles away from Hong Kong, she finds herself without this strain because both former elements of her life are now distant. Carissa is in a similar position - hailing from Texas, she admits that there’s not much she can do to build her portfolio at Penn given that her mother agency (a local agency that represents you in larger markets, like New York) is back home in Texas. She expressed intentions to develop her portfolio further whenever she is back home, but the unfortunate reality is that for the vast majority of the time, she (and Anjeli) are away from home.

*Carissa Keng modeling for a vintage clothing, Courtesy of herself*

Despite these struggles, all of these models love their jobs. Anjeli has a passion for bridal shows, while Zelda loved walking for Gucci’s Love Parade show, a monumental collection that was shown in Hollywood. Particularly, she derived great joy from being able to meet so many people of note, including McCauley Culkin and Phoebe Bridgers. Carissa enjoys the exposure to fashion and clothes which she would normally steer very, very clear of, and Oscar is, as they say, simply in it for the love of the game. Though he was not into fashion before entering the modeling world and remains just as uninvolved, he has developed a passion for modeling, and, as can be judged from his impressive resume, a clear and demonstrated talent.

Despite this talent, he and all of the other models interviewed all agree on one thing: modeling is an ephemeral job, one of which their ambitions all move leagues ahead. This reality may be difficult to face sometimes in the heat of the moment when one struts down a catwalk in $15,000 worth of clothes and ends up at the Boom Boom Room afterward, but Anjeli, Carissa, Oscar, and Zelda are smart and pragmatic. Oscar plans to pursue architecture, and though he has expressed interest in fashion show production, he doesn’t know French, which is apparently a necessity. Zelda, who studies art history at Columbia with a special passion for film (her favorite directors are Wes Anderson and Julia DuCournau) and makes horror films with her family (the Adams family) on the side, likes the idea of transitioning into a creative director position within the fashion world. Anjeli, who studies at Wharton within Penn, is studying Finance and OID (Operations, Information, and Decisions), and though she expressed a desire to pursue finance as a career, she does want to continue with modeling, though factoring in the industry’s capricious nature, she has opted to take full advantage of her Penn education her career aspirations. Carissa is also a student at Wharton, and though she is also studying finance, she is also seeking a concentration in marketing or retail - she wants to maintain her connection to the fashion industry while maintaining a financial focus, eyeing a transition from the modeling side to the corporate side.

Through a variety of successful experiences in the modeling industry, the four model students interviewed can certainly be said to have gained some experience. Consequently, they wanted to provide some potentially useful advice on how to start in the modeling industry so that others might enjoy experiences like their own and, hopefully, make new ones. Oscar admitted that he is still figuring things out, but if anything, his advice comes down to spontaneity and will. To succeed as a model, one must not only be searching (following the right people, such as agents, and swiping up when the algorithm sifts forth opportunities) but also waiting, keeping one’s phone at hand and one’s attention keen, not unlike the superhuman focus and availability demanded by many finance careers, prevalent among Penn students. Zelda’s most important advice is to take lots of digitals (and actively send them to agencies and agents) - being comfortable in front of a camera is the name of the game in modeling, no matter what type you do, so this advice is undoubtedly key. Anjeli has emphasized the importance of taking no’s - in a cutthroat and competitive industry, one inevitably deals with a lot of rejection on a fairly regular basis. According to her, it is determination and persistence that helps prospective models the most in their quest for success. Finally, Carissa provided similar advice to Anjeli. She emphasized that it is especially important to understand the types of no’s one might receive: “People are going to tell you that you’re too tall, too small, too big, too short.” Learning to deal with rejection and set aside one’s understandably damaged ego, to make oneself as outwardly impassive as possible, is integral. Modeling is not for everyone, and it certainly requires quite a bit of luck, but Oscar, Anjeli, Zelda, and Carissa have all achieved great things and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

Featured Image: Enfants Riches Deprimes F/W 19 Backstage, Courtesy of Fucking Young!