5. (tied) Trump
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PRO: In what is probably the stealth success story of 2005,Trump management broke into modeling's big leagues by landing three incredible girls, Lisa Cant, Polina and Hye Park in the center seam of the bluest of the blue chip bookings. Trump's Trinity has crashed the pages of American Vogue, the runways of Marc Jacobs, Prada and Balenciaga and segued into the campaign castings for clients ranging from Versace (Lisa Cant) to Roberto Cavalli (Hye Park). Even better is Trump's new faces cycle which at an all time high for this agency. Girls like MOTW and OTM notable Elena make it clear that the outstanding scouting on the part of Duane Gazi and impeccable booking strategies activated by President Jon Tutolo now makes Trump the contender to watch as the most dynamic new force on the market. What's even more beautiful is that this agency has built its credibility with an amazing degree of dignity and honesty. They deserve every moment of this success.

CON: It's getting mighty crowded in the NY field and the turnover on new girls in the editorial market is reaching a cruel crescendo. The challenge then is to steady Trump's recently flush hand and keep the Lisas and Hyes running at full momentum a year from now. Luckily via The Apprentice TV show, the uber-branding of the Donald Trump empire should mean all those Baby Ambers' in the Mid-West will now know what Trump means. And this is an agency it would not be advised to bet against.

SCOUTING CALL: Signing here gives you the advantage of boutique management, mixed with a savvy that will surprise you coming from an agency this new. The T crew has worked hard to make their mark and they are hungry for the inspiring new talent that could provide that firework. Besides, you might get to meet the legendary Donald.

PRO: Elite is an agency that in its 30 years of existence has processed over 5 million bookings. Obviously a massive array of clients call Elite everyday looking for a wide range of models . As such the prospect of this agency going broke because it is not in the editorial in-club at the current moment, is an unlikely proposition. Elite also boasts one of the single most powerful scouting network on the planet and will not have a problem finding the kind of outstanding new faces, a fact verified by the development of girls like Chiara and Michaela . As one of the two most recognizable brand names in the business Elite has the experience, connections and know how to make you any kind of star you wish to be, editorial or commercial.

CON: There is more than enough commercial bookings on tap to keep the resevoir at an optimum financial level. Security is invaluable, but the question of taking Elite to its maximum brand potential is an inevitable one that still dogs this iconic agency. Somehow it would be so elegant for the agency that pretty much authored the ideal of the supermodel to re-integrate that concept back into their booking spectrum.

SCOUTING CALL: With a network like that and a staff of experienced and competent agents who know how to work the "editorial grid" signing with Elite is a no-brainer. And since nature abhors a void, perhaps you are that next superstar ready to set things right. One never discounts a grand master.

PRO: Next is without question, one of the wealthiest and best managed companies in the business. Not a vanity production but a business with a capital B. With an amazing scouting to management ratio that has yielded contracts for Filipa and Jessica Miller, there is no doubt that Next knows how to break a new campaign star with the best of them. And evolving very beautifully are the newcomers like Solange and Anja Rubik who are moving along that careful, uncompromising path that keeps their image pristine. When it comes to client relationships and alliances, Next Management is very discreet about its leverage but all the more powerful because of it. Faith Kates is one of the toughest negotiators around and with her on your side, you will work and at an impressive day rate.

CON: The Next machine is totally flawless in making that new star. Keeping her has been problematic. The girl rises to the top and some super-cool competition sweeps her away. It doesn't really phase the bottom line of the operation which is swimming in lucrative catalogue capital. But there's a constant struggle with "high image" bookings to counterbalance the big money commercial bookings that keeps Next rolling in cash. Yes, it's a shallow question of image and perception, but alas, fashion still remains a business of thin images and shallow perceptions.

SCOUTING CALL: Any new model scouted by this company should grab the offer. The one-two punch delivered by the Wilkenfeld/Kates team is unmatched in the business.

4. (tied) Ford
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PRO: As the last update of the Top 10 NY Agencies sensed, there has indeed been a major high-editorial resurgence at this legendary agency. The A-list bookings that Cameron, Nataliya and the 2005 Supermodel Of The World Winner, Camilla Finn, have been attracting, show that this wealthy icon can get down and funky with the new editorial kids too. What makes Ford such a powerhouse is a relentless scouting network that allows it to stream coveted new faces to feed the insatiable appetite that characterizes the modeling industry, without straining its cash flow. This is an agency that is not dependent on any one single scouting outlet or relationship for its survival. With stunners like Flavia opening the S/S 06 YSL show and a cool girl like Eloise holding her attraction with the blue chip photographers, it’s only a matter of time and applied management before the Ford faces join that VIP ring of multi-million dollar fashion contracts. What is important for a new model looking at Ford to note is, when MDC conducted a survey of clients concerning the Women's market, they singled out Ford as the most professional, responsive and efficient agency to communicate with in their daily bookings. That fact speaks volumes.

CON: It's happened before, this surge of ultra-cool high editorial beauties, in those days when Karen Elson, Maggie Rizer and Erin O'Connor ruled the Ford roost. But whatever the circumstances that led these girls and others of their caliber to bolt, the Ford team will have to invest in a bond with these major new breaking faces that makes the girls feel like no other option could be better. They have the money, the wisdom and the power to achieve exactly that.

SCOUTING CALL: It is Ford, at the end of the day. It is one of the three most lucrative agencies in the industry and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Whatever the fluctuations and change, exits and entrances, this is one management company that you can safely bank on to remain a pillar of stability in a very unstable business.

3. (tied) Marilyn
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Caroline Trentini

PRO: Right this second, what is compelling about Marilyn is the way they have polished two girls in particular, Lily Donaldson and Caroline Trentini all the way to American Vogue, Burberry, Dolce and Valentino. At the same time they have managed to guide a respectable share of coveted newcomers like Alyssa and Irina through the maze of show and editorial bookings for them too as girls brimming with promise. What this proves is that the scouting and management team at Marilyn is as adept at bulding high impact editorial models as any other in NY. They know the ground rules, elegantly maintain their relationships and conduct business with an integrity which is very welcome in this business.

CON: Most agencies in NY use the presence of a charismatic agent to anchor the aesthetic of the agency. Marilyn, though it is flagshipped by the legendary Marilyn Gauthier from which the agency derives its name has dispersed its visibility across to a team of bookers. It’s an intelligent and decent strategy but it makes the aura of the agency a little dimmer than most of the super-star shops it competes with. That said, the Paris office remains powerful and lucrative. If they stay the current course and attract two or three major names then this could represent a major shift in the NY power agency alignment.

PRO: Almost overnight, 1 Management has developed a glamour quotient that many veterans would kill for. Not only has agency President Scott Lipps lured the likes of Naomi Campbell and Angela Lindvall to his camp, he has devoted a lot of energy and ingenuity to diversifying and reinforcing their careers. At the same time, 2005 saw the biggest in-house development of new faces since the agency's inception with Claudia and Tatiana entering the editorial VIP club even as sizzling newcomer Izabel cinched a Victoria's Secret deal. That is a very shrewd move, giving 1 Management room for significant business expansion into the full service game as it matures into being a fixture. There is a focus and drive here that indicates that this company will be a major force to be reckoned with in the next two years.

CON: The superstar divas and established faces who have flocked to the agency require full time attention (as well they should, given the scale of the checks they bring in). It’s clearly going to be a challenge to accomodate the needs of a Naomi, Rie, Angela, Marta, Anne and Lydia Hearst as well as Helena and Fernanda, the two most recent additions. That said, 1 realizes that in today's market, it’s the hot new face that is going to keep an agency's aura of "now-ness" going and as long as the edges stay crisp, the money makers will keep this shop in very lucrative business.

SCOUTING CALL: President Scott Lipps is the single hungriest and most ambitious agent in NY right this second. Since 1 is a young boutique, the girl best suited to sign here is a model with a game plan for major level stardom. If you have that fire, then you will have an agency willing to match you step for step in your quest for world domination.

Iselin / Photo: Paul Rowland

PRO: If Women Management founder and current Supreme overseer, Paul Rowland never touches another model for the rest of his life, the fact of the matter is he does not have to prove himself to the modeling industry for the duration of that existence. He has established- yet one more time- that when it comes to taking a girl from scratch (in this case Heather Bratton) and imaging her for the blue chip spectrum of clients, he is simply the best in the business at this faculty. His imaging might sometimes be peculiar. It may not be so necessarily classic and it is not comfortably bourgeois, but for fashion to be interesting, then it needs a vision that is instinctive to the cultural moment at hand. The proof? MDC's current Top 50 Models is dominated at the time of this writing by Women/Supreme Mgmt with the most models (numerically speaking). This is a feat all the more formidable, given that Women/Supreme does not boast a booking board of hundreds and executed this increase on the axis of a recently developed scouting network. This is a system that is now neck and neck with IMG (an institution with breathtakingly deep pockets) as the primary supplier of coveted new faces. For an agency that for years banked on the well-worn marketability of a familiar gaggle of supermodels to adjust to a new model market (where demand for new faces has gone near irrational) is a testament to the hard work and practicality of its current team. True, the old days may have been more fun, but the very definition of fashion is change and Women/Supreme has clearly changed with the times.

CON: The one glaring omission at Women has always been the lack of those lucrative cosmetic, fragrance and multi-season designer contracts assembled around the newly minted editorial superstars. The Estee Lauders, Victoria's Secrets and Maybellines seemed to have been happy with the crisp corporate-speak that IMG has seemed to master and corporate-speak, clearly has never been a very sexy proposition for Women. Interestingly enough with the surprise ascension of Chris Gay as partner and CEO at Women, it is that very omission that is now being addressed. The impressive Victoria Secret contract Mr.Gay landed on the behalf of Selita Ebanks is the kind of feat that telegraphs the fact that Women is now adept at pulling in the big bucks. Nor should we neglect the sustained contract for Ralph Lauren held by Valentina. Women/Supreme obviously have the cool girls. The challenge is to continue to make them more marketable, more coveted, more emblematic that any other girls in the trade.

SCOUTING CALL: The fact is now established that a mother agency looking to give their girl the spin of ultimate cool in NY is going to get major dividends at Women. What happens after the girl has been primped, polished and packaged is now literally the challenge at hand. Given the signals streaming from the early days of Women's new alliances, it does indeed seem that as long as the centre holds, lucrative times are ahead. The chess game just got more intriguing.

PRO: DNA is without question the strongest boutique scale operation in NY. If it were up to this management team, perhaps the modeling industry would still be reveling in the heyday of the Supermodel. By not compromising their internal ideals, the DNA team continues to hold together one of the most alluring stable of models in the business. By obsessively nursing their high-end relationships with Conde Nast and a small circle of the industry's most powerful photographers, DNA is every inch as elite, select and successful as they want to be. This is great news for those lucky new models that they take on. A new model scouted by DNA might want to feel privileged at being selected because the track record of Adriana Lima, Natalia Vodionova, Karen Elson and Karolina Kurkova are inspirational indicators of where excellent management can take a girl. The lifetime dream of the Bonnouvriers to host the chicest agency in NY has indeed come true in all its manifestations.

CON: Thinking multi-media, movies, music? This is not the place to pursue the agenda. DNA is a high fashion ship and sails defiantly in that one direction, whatever the industry trends to the contrary. It's a brave decision as all the agencies that graduated to the status of viable brands diversified their boards and in many ways transcended the whims of high fashion. Importantly, high fashion isn't what it used to be (maybe that's why it's high fashion). The hard sell designer campaigns are now beginning to pack as many looks onto as many models, as a double page can permit. With model turn-over hitting this dizzying velocity, DNA has now gone into its most aggressive scouting cycle since 2003 and finds like Snejana and Bette promise to perpetuate the agency's momentum. To put it bluntly, should that drive succeed and this flagship begin to issue the 12-15 models on MDC's Top 50 the way IMG and Women consistently have, then the top slot in the business is DNA's for the taking. Legendary supermodels + impeccable management of established girls + the best roster of new faces on the market? It would be a lethal combination.

SCOUTING CALL: The red hot results speak for themselves. DNA can clearly market a new model to the best of the best. If you see yourself as being an ultra exclusive Vogue girl, a Calvin Klein face or a Versace couture catwalker then this is the NY destination for you.

1. IMG
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PRO: On every platform imaginable, IMG dominates the spectrum of the NY modeling industry. From editorial visibility in the slickest magazines to the bi-annual fashion and cosmetic campaigns to lucrative catalogues, IMG's ambition towards monopoly is manifest. They have the most stars, both editorial and mass market, as well as the New Faces division that has recently posited the best performances via sensations like Daria and Gemma Ward. IMG is a consistent, professional and aggressive operation that works tirelessly for both model and client. This is why IMG stands as the one true blue chip agency in the business.

CON: The ambition is indeed towards monopoly but the recent velocity achieved at DNA effectively blocks that. The big question is, what price IMG is willing to pay for being the top in the game? And for how long will the operation pay that price? Being the best at what they do has made IMG a target and naysayers seem to be plotting night and day to see a breach in this very high wall. Indeed smaller boutiques have been nibbling away at the edges with high profile faces like Tyra Banks and Angela Lindvall going off in different management directions in the past year. But all that has nothing to do with the essential question of which agency is best positioned to take you, a total beginner to the ultimate heights of this industry. On the question of defections, IMG-the monolith of the industry, might have to bite back to keep the invaders at bay.

SCOUTING CALL: When you sign with IMG what you get is a total career assessment. Goals are set and a cohesive plan is put in place to get you to the top of the modeling business, and more importantly, to keep you there. More than at any other agency, "management" in all its implications is engaged to its fullest potential. That makes it the No 1 choice for any aspiring model.