>> It's fifteen days until fashion week and Cato van Ee is still in Bentveld, Holland with her family. Her mom is worried about Cato becoming too famous, her dad promises homemade pizza if she'll come home to visit, and her boyfriend is nervous about her leaving — as for drugs, he thinks Cato would "probably, never ever do that." This second episode of Model.Live is entirely Cato-centric; Next Friday, it's all about Madeline Kragh leaving for New York.
>> Officially, Vogue and IMG's 14-part reality series Model.Live launches tomorrow on Vogue.TV, but we've got the first episode right here, right now. You're introduced to the three stars — new face Austria Alcantara, much buzzed-about Cato van Ee, and Agyness Deyn look-alike Madeline Kragh — and learn what they're up against: Austria speaks English as a second language, Madeline has never done a major show season, and Cato has never done a full show season, since she was exclusive to Miu Miu and Prada for Fall 2008.
Every Friday beginning on Aug. 22, a new eight-minute episode will launch following Cato, Madeline, and Austria through the four fashion weeks, and in the in-betweens, each girl will be posting videos, text messages, blogs, and photos to their Bebo pages daily.
»Amber Valletta, her son and husband get LOLVogued [Jezebel]
»This morning's Barneys warehouse sale: Not as crazy or marked-down as in the past [Racked]
»Mary-Kate Olsen is obsessed with Diane von Furstenberg [Page Six Magazine]
»Sean Avery's Gap ad overlooks Vogue headquarters [Fashionista]
»Victoria Bartlett commissioned Lizzie Fortunato jewelry for her Spring 2009 VPL collection [The Pipeline]
»Cato Van Ee shot a commercial for D&G with Mario Testino last week [Dazed Digital]
»A "loose size 2" seems to be the modeling size of choice right now [The Cut]
>> BLOWING THE COVER —Vogue's online reality show Model.Live is debuting in just under a week, but one of the stars is already making waves: Cato Van Ee, who has recently shown up in editorials for Dazed & Confused and Vogue China, popped up today on the September 2008 cover of Dazed & Confused alongside Anna Gushina, Kori Richardson, and Pernille Moeller. [Of the Minute]
>> Two years ago, Anna Wintour told WWD she turned down involvement in Project Runway because "Vogue is not in the business of making entertainment out of the struggles of new designers." Last month when asked about the possibility of a Vogue reality series, she still seemed unconvinced, but was less straight with an opinion.
Now we know why — just as Elle is gearing up to debut its reality show Stylista on The CW this Fall, Vogue announced today that it is producing a reality series of its own with IMG. Instead of showing on the small screen like Stylista, Model.Live will be web-based, debuting August 19 on Vogue.TV with syndication on Hulu. The 12 eight-minute episodes of Model.Live follow three models from IMG's Development board: 16-year-old Austria Alcantara from the Dominican Republic, 20-year-old American Madeline Kragh, and 19-year-old Dutch model Cato van Ee, who had Prada and Miu Miu runway exclusives for Fall 2008.
The show, which Vogue Publishing Director Tom Florio promises to be "not reality at all, just amateurs live," follows the three models through casting calls, runways, and airports for all four fashion weeks. Underage behavior like smoking or drinking will likely be censored if it comes up while taping, but depression or unhealthy eating habits will be "met head-on."
Let's hope this is good — it cost $3 million to make, or about $31,000 a minute.
*image: source
