Savannah Sawyer
Assistant Features Editor
Milan, Paris and New York are the fashion capitals of the world. Murray, Ky., wouldn’t normally make the top 100 but Hannah Jarvis, senior from Owensboro, Ky., is working single handedly to change just that.
Jarvis, who has been modeling since June, is taking part in a modeling competition for a spread or cover in Herscene Magazine’s April Derby Edition. The winner is determined by how many Likes they receive for her photo posted on the Herscene Facebook page.
“It’s a Louisville based magazine and it’s fashion and just stuff for women basically,” Jarvis said of the magazine.
The fashion industry is far from recognizing Murray, Ky., as a fashion capital but Louisville is well on its way, making the task of being taken seriously as a model a more difficult feat for Jarvis.
“Murray is impossible but Louisville is expanding and trying to bring fashion,” Jarvis said. “I think they’re planning their first fashion week in October of next year. No one cares about it here. Louisville is pretty much the smallest big city that’s fashion minded.”
Being relatively new to the modeling industry, this is Jarvis’ first experience in a modeling competition.
“I did not know it was going to be a competition,” she said. “I went for an audition and found out about it online. My mom had found it because she was on their website and had seen pictures. But this is my first competition. I’ve gone for auditions but they’ve pretty much been pass or fail.”
Jarvis wasn’t always set on becoming a model, feeling that it wasn’t for her.
“People have told me since I was in high school that you have the height and you have the body for a model,” she said. “I guess I knew that I was what people were looking for in my head but I just never did it because I didn’t feel like the timing was right.” Jarvis, who is studying social work, is now open to the idea to pursue modeling as a career and said she would put social work on the back burner if need be.
“Modeling is something I would like to do,” she said. “I really enjoy doing it and I know that this is kind of your peak season being early 20s to do it and I know that I will always be able to do social work. Modeling gives you a platform and I would love to have a humanitarian type platform because not a lot of models do and I would love to branch out into that sector.”
If Jarvis could choose any modeling company to work for it would be the Ford Modeling Agency.
“I’ve always wanted to work for Ford,” Jarvis said. “I know that Ford has a lot of emphasis on European models and I think that would be awesome because they work with a ton of awesome designers and photographers.”
Some may know that it takes confidence to become a model but according to Jarvis, some don’t know just how much it involves.
“They did a mock interview for the Derby, and they asked what’s the most important thing for a model to have and I said confidence to them because if you don’t think that you can do it, you won’t end up doing it,” Jarvis said. “I think that people think you just have to be pretty to be a model or you have to be thin or you have to have the perfect size or you have to be tall, which none of that is true if you don’t have confidence; you have to have confidence.”
Modeling isn’t just about looking pretty in front of the camera or on a runway. It’s about having to know the best angles and be willing to work with the photographer to capture the best image, Jarvis said.
“I don’t think a lot of people know how much you have to work with the photographer and be willing to take suggestions because you can have the best pose in the world but if that’s not what the photographer wants, you have to change it,” she said.
In today’s world there is a lot of pressure on women especially to have the “model type” body, but that’s not always realistic. Jarvis said what is portrayed in the media is not necessarily healthy.
“I don’t like that the media puts certain pressure to be a certain size because healthy is many different sizes,” Jarvis said. “I want people to realize that there are many different sizes of models. If you live a healthy lifestyle, you’ll have your healthy body to show to people.”