The Making of a Surfer-model

It was October 2002 in Paris, a Chanel runway show like any other — until the finale, when a model tottered out in spectator stilettos and a knit swim dress, carrying a logo surfboard under one arm.

You'd think the person who identified this look and exported it to the world would have a corner office on Madison Avenue. But Cindy Kauanui works above a surf shop in the La Jolla section of San Diego, where her modelling agency has grown from a West Coast pipsqueak into a national trendsetter in the US.

Ocean goddesses

Jet Set is the source for clean-faced, sun-kissed and surf-toned ocean goddesses, who work with elite photographers such as Bruce Weber and Dewey Nicks, and appear in ad campaigns for high-fashion designers such as Roberto Cavalli and Versace, and popular brands including Roxy and Guess.

Kauanui made her first big discovery, Lelani Bishop, in 1989 before she had an agency. She wasn't in the fashion business at the time, just out surfing on the North Shore of Kauai.

"There were two girls on their towels on the shoreline, and a big wave got them, and I noticed her.'' Kauanui took photographs, sent them to Weber, and next thing she knew, Bishop had nabbed Banana Republic and Tommy Hilfiger campaigns.

Perfect breed

Then there is Filly Gaines, the 5-foot-10, athletic-looking blonde she signed two years ago. "I found her at a hair salon,'' Kauanui says. "I had to ask the stylist to run after her, because I had foil in my hair. Her name is perfect, because she's just like a thoroughbred.''

"In an era when many fashion models are thin, edgy and a bit removed from the reality of the average reader, Cindy has been a major player in bringing back natural beauty,'' says Sara Foley-Anderson, model bookings director at Self magazine.

Kauanui's style is the antithesis of the hard-charging head of a successful agency. Easygoing and casual, in that Hawaiian kind of way, she is so friendly with employees and models, she feels more like a cool mum than a boss. She's also aggressive, analytical and competitive, and will do things such as call producer Brian Grazer directly and
insist he meet one of her models (which is how Sanoe Lake got castin Blue Crush). The only thing she is a tyrant about is weight, but not in the way most agency heads are.
drop the skinny ones.

"She will drop a girl if she loses too much weight, or put her on hold,'' says model Lake. "If a girl has no muscle, she may photograph well, but she doesn't look good.''

Kauanui's first experience in the modelling industry was in the early 1980s at age 19, when she worked as a desk clerk at an agency in Honolulu. Before long, she was modelling, in advertising campaigns for Coca-Cola (with Bill Cosby), Florida Orange Juice and Rainbow Jeans of Canada.

Then, after opening her own agency, while backstage at a Roberto Cavalli show in Milan, Kauanui had a vision.

"All the girls were so thin, over 50 per cent were struggling with eating disorders. I decided I didn't want to go to work and promote this anymore,'' she said. "I wanted to create the surfermodel instead of the supermodel.''

New concept

The concept was a new one. "I was made fun of by everyone in the industry. Nobody had any idea that surfing was going to be so big.'' Her timing couldn't have been better. Surfwear labels such as Quiksilver and Billabong began exploding beyond their niche to become some of the biggest sportswear brands in the world.

"It still gives me a kick. Here's a lifestyle I have loved since I was a little girl, and never once did I think it could go mainstream,'' she said. "We created something, and now you see models on the runways in Paris with surfboards.''

The surfer models

Jet Set is about as far away from the New York fashion establishment as it gets, and so are its models. No chain-smoking waifs from powerhouse agencies, Jet Set's models are muscled and weathered by sun and sea.

Kauanui knows the look when she sees it — at the beach, the mall, even the local Denny's. When she finds it, she signs the person on the spot. There was the blond tornado running circles around her mother at Pottery Barn who became the cotton-top toddler in a straw hat in the Ralph Lauren Kids ads. The unknown blond surfer girl with bow lips who followed in the footsteps of Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton, becoming the sultry Guess model. And the surfer from Kauai with an unusual combination of Hawaiian, Japanese and English heritage, who went on to star in the film Blue Crush.

Jet Set Modelling agency

Jet Set represents more than 300 adults and 300 kids, including teenagers, children and infants as young as two weeks old, who help bring the beach lifestyle to magazines and high-profile advertising campaigns.

Cindy Kauanui expects Jet Set's 2006 revenue to be in the $5 million (Dh18 million) range. But her models earn as much as their New York counterparts — $2,500 (Dh9,175) and up per day for catalogue work and $5,000 to $10,000 (Dh18,350 to Dh36,700) a day for advertising.