Friday, June 03, 2005

Ford Model Search is Coming to Ethiopia

Lyndsey McIntyre, the owner of East Africa’s longest established Modeling Agency, Surazuri, is coming to Addis to scout for possible candidates for the worlds most established model search run by Ford Models USA.

This year, Lyndsey has decided to open the opportunity to models from all over the East African region, including Ethiopia. She is very excited about her visit to Addis as she says that she knows that it is home to the continent’s most beautiful women. Her search in Ethiopia is being filmed by German TV station ZDF who are making a documentary about her work.

Lyndsey is possibly the continent’s most famous model scout and has been responsible for the discovery of several of Kenya’s top models, including Eva Ndachi, Tess Njuhi and most recently the International Supermodel Ajuma. Ajuma won a 50,000 $ contract with Ford Models last year after being entered into the competition by Surazuri.

In the past two years Lyndsey’s scouting missions have been featured in many international publications including The New York Times, The Independent, The Observer, The Herald Tribune, Globe and Mail (Canada), The Strait Times (Asia), The Face magazine (UK), Gala Magazine (France), Allegra magazine (Germany) and V Magazine (USA) amongst others.

Ford Models has the most solid reputation in the world, having been established in 1946 by Eileen and Jerry Ford. They launched the careers of stars such as Christy Turlington, Christie Brinkley, Lauren Hutton, Kim Basinger and Jerry Hall. They have been conducting their international model search since the early 1980s and are eager to find more models in Africa. This year, finalists from over 50 countries will compete for a $250,000 contract in the International finals which will be held in January 2006 in New York city.

A few years ago, Eileen and Jerry surrendered the day-to-day control of the agency to their daughter, Katie. Katie Ford will come to Kenya to judge the finals of this year’s East African Search to be held in Nairobi later in the year.

Lyndsey is looking for young women aged 14 to 21 years with a slender build and a minimum height of 5’7”. She appeals to teachers, parents and anyone else who may know of girls who could fit the strict criteria. “Sometimes, the girls themselves have no idea that they have what it takes or are too shy to enter a competition like this, so I am asking if people know of tall, slim girls who are beautiful, striking or interesting looking to nominate them and encourage them to come and see me. We will be arranging prizes for people who bring or send in any girl who makes it to the finals and obviously we will cover all the expenses involved for any finalist traveling to Nairobi. People need to realize that this is not a beauty pageant and education is not necessarily a requirement. This competition is not about girls having a year in the limelight and doing charity work, it is about launching international modeling careers. For parents, they should be reassured by the strict moral guidelines that Ford Models follow and also know that youngsters in the midst of their education will still be able to complete their schooling even if they win the international event.”

The audition date is TOMORROW at The Hilton Hotel between 2.00 and 4.00 pm. Thereafter she can be contacted by email on lynsrob@wananchi.com.

Addis Tribune

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