8 Male Models to Watch This Season

Ahead of the men’s shows (which start Friday in London), T and the casting director Arianna Pradarelli highlight some of the runway’s most intriguing new faces.

Simon Martini

20, Germany

Photo

The Munich-raised and Weimar-based Martini will take a break from his architecture courses for his inaugural round of shows. “I actually lived in Paris and London,” he mentions. “Now I’m going back there for a totally different reason and these big cities are probably going to show me totally different points of view. As a total newcomer, he can’t cite any memorable experiences thus far, “but it’s already exciting enough to wonder how it’s going to be,” he says.

Represented by

Tomorrow Is Another Day

.

Alton Mason

19, Ariz.

Photo

The model and accomplished dancer, now Los Angeles-based, has walked a handful of hip runways — among them Yeezy, VFiles and Telfar for fall/winter 2016 and

Eckhaus Latta

and Libertine for spring/summer 2017. And he can claim an experience that most in the biz merely dream of: “Meeting Naomi Campbell, but actually having the opportunity to sit down and discuss the industry with her,” he recalls. This season, in particular, promises to be a big one for Mason. And if he weren’t modeling, he says he would be “acting, singing, and/or enlightening the youth on metaphysics, existentialism and the expansion of thepineal gland

.”

Represented by

M Management

.

Lukas Marschall

18, Germany

Photo

Marschall walked in Gosha Rubchinskiy’s spring/summer runway 2016 as a one-off — and whiled away the last men’s wear season as an in-house model at Stephan Schneider’s Paris showroom (when

not watching soccer

). But he’ll make his official debut at the forthcoming fashion weeks. If he weren’t modeling, the Berlin resident says he would want to start his university studies or travel, possibly to Africa to work with children.

Represented by

New Madison Paris

.

Jonny Brown

22, Jamaica

Photo

Brown debuted at Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 2017 men’s wear show and rounded out the season with turns for Paul Smith, Acne, Kolor, Christian Dada and Office General; he also popped up on Burberry’s See Now, Buy Now runway last September. He likes to pass the time backstage “meeting new people in the fashion world and getting to know more about the brand I’m working for,” he says, and hopes one day to parlay his modeling career into acting.

Represented by

Premium Models

.

Kaito Defoort

17, Belgium

Photo

Defoort has an editorial under his belt (he was photographed by Pierre Debusschere for 032c magazine), though he hasn’t set foot on a runway, yet. Chalk up his absence to his multiple interests: he

produces music

, D.J.s, writes short movie vignettes and plays basketball. “I’m at the age when I’m wondering why people tell me I have to make a choice between the so many things I want to do in this lifetime,” he says. “Why not do them all at the same time?”

Represented by

Rebel Management

.

Oliver Houlby

20, Denmark

Photo

On the brink of his inaugural runway season, Houlby is un-Googleable — for now, at least. That’s likely to change after he walks as an exclusive at a to-be-revealed show in Milan this month. He notes that he is happy to be himself and unafraid to be different. “In my spare time, my friends and I freestyle rap and make funny rap songs about our lives,” he says. “I’m a bad skateboarder, but I like it. I also have a big interest in outer space, the planets and stars.”

Represented by

New Madison Paris

.

Christopher Einla

21, Estonia

Photo

Einla is already something of a Louis Vuitton darling. He made his modeling debut at the house’s spring/summer 2017 men’s wear show in Paris (“it was so impressive — there was an unforgettable atmosphere that can’t been described in words”) and then posed for Vuitton’s pre-spring 2017 look book. “Insects are one of the most enigmatic living creatures,” the biology buff says. “If I weren’t modeling, I would be a nature photographer or find my place in the cinema industry behind the scenes.”

Represented by

16Men

.

William Allen

19, Sweden

Photo

Following a few small shoots in his home country, Allen opened the fall/winter 2017 Coach 1941 men’s wear show in New York last month — one of his more memorable experiences. He then shot an editorial for the indie magazine 10 Men. Of his next project, he says, “Ooh, that’s a secret,” although he has his backstage routine down pat. He likes to “just cool it, paint, write and visualize colors, rhythms and melodies in my head.”

(New York Times)