Winning V magazine and Ford Models’ annual model search is kind of like getting picked for prom queen — except you take home a professional contract instead of a plastic crown, and Gia Coppola art directs your yearbook picture.
That’s the case for 17-year-old Kate Olthoff, a high-school senior in Fishers, Ind., and 21-year-old Elise Agee, from Chicago, who were just named the 2016 champions. Plucked from a large digital pool of beautiful faces, the Midwestern blondes are getting an auspicious start: They’ve been signed to power agency Ford and will appear in V’s upcoming summer issue in a spread conceived by Coppola and renowned costumer Arianne Phillips.
Past contest winners have gone on to walk for the likes of Fendi, Marc Jacobs and Chanel, and have graced the covers of CR Fashion Book and Harper’s Bazaar. In other words, Olthoff and Agee have significantly better chances of becoming “America’s Next Top Model” than anyone who’s ever appeared on that show.
Check out the soon-to-be stars in action in the videos below.
