> Africans strut catwalk for world supermodel prize
> 03:31 a.m. Feb 27, 1998 Eastern
>
> By Matthew Bunce
>
> ABIDJAN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Isabelle Moreno, a leggy model from a remote
> town in Ivory Coast, never believed she could step onto the world's
> supermodel catwalks with the likes of Britain's Naomi Campbell and
> America's Iman.
>
> But with designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier increasingly turning their
> attention to African women often overlooked by western-dominated fashion
> houses, a chance to step out of local billboard adverts and into a
> lucrative global career beckons.
>
> She is among 12 finalists chosen from four African regions for the
> finals of the first Face of Africa competition in Victoria Falls,
> Zimbabwe, on Saturday, which South African producers M-Net hope to make
> an annual event.
>
> ``They are looking for a black African supermodel,'' said a West Africa
> region heat organiser at Ocean, an Abidjan division of advertising firm
> Ogilvy and Mather.''They have to be someone who is interesting, not just
> Barbie Doll pretty.''
>
> ADVERTISERS SCRAMBLE TO AFRICA
>
> Moreno, 22, is familiar to any driver in Ivory Coast's capital as the
> face of Nescafe in roadside advertisements.
>
> But many advertisers have until recently been content with transplanting
> campaigns featuring white Europeans or Americans into African markets.
>
> Both fashion houses and advertisers are trying to make up for lost
> ground as Africa's colonial past recedes and the continent finds its own
> post-Cold War look.
>
> ``The current situation of African models receiving less work than their
> blond-and-blue-eyed sisters is totally unacceptable,'' Face of Africa
> organiser Jan Malan told Reuters by telephone from South Africa.
>
> Advertising agencies are scrambling into African markets as competition,
> currency swings and increasing regulation in Europe and Asia make
> Africa's emerging markets more attractive.
>
> ``M-Net intends to provide the opportunity for more young African
> beauties who are currently hidden across the continent to be brought
> into the global limelight,'' it says in information sent to advertisers
> assisting in the search.
>
> The world's largest international modelling agency Elite is offering the
> winner a minimum $150,000 contract over three years. Designers such as
> South African-born Marc Bouwer -- whose creations are worn by stars
> including Toni Braxton -- are lining up with wardrobes of clothes.
>
> Four runners up will go to the International Elite Model Look of the
> Year competition in Nice, France, later this year.
>
> BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF BEHOLDER
>
> The tricky task of finding candidates for Face of Africa has already
> ruffled a few feathers. Beauty for the world's catwalks is not
> necessarily the beauty Africans would choose.
>
> An Africa-wide trawl for models aged between 15 and 25 from four regions
> started a year ago with quarter finals last November selecting 12
> finalists, including four from the West Africa region from Senegal to
> Cameroon.
>
> ``It was a bit of a kick in the teeth saying you've made the wrong
> selection,'' said one Abidjan advertising professional after a
> hastily-assembled panel passed over Miss Ivory Coast as an entrant for
> Face of Africa.
>
> ``Miss Ivory Coast was too small. They are looking for someone along the
> lines of Iman,'' she said after regional finals in Ghana, Egypt, Nairobi
> and Zimbabwe.
>
> Moreno, 1.74 metres (5 feet 8 inches) tall and slim, beat 60 other
> Ivorian candidates for the finals which will be broadcast throughout
> Africa in March by M-Net's pay television station to an estimated 1.1
> million viewers.
>
> She joins Ghana's Sheila Menseh and Nigeria's Patricia Oweagba as West
> Africa's entries for the finals.
>
> ``Nigeria was very interesting,'' says Malan, who conducted a mammoth
> tour of Africa to spot talent at bars, universities and gymnasiums.
> ``About 250 girls turned up. There was a lot of noise and the ones we
> turned down wouldn't leave.
>
> ``I would stop some girls in the street but some just thought I was
> trying to chat them up,'' he said. ``I had a lot of problems with their
> boyfriends until I explained things.''
>
> Face of Africa is taking its catwalk to the pyramids for its 2000 event.
> ``We are looking for exotic locations,'' said Malan.
>
> Next year's event is set to be held in Namibia. Ivory Coast is also a
> candidate.
>
> Moreno, who studied biology for three years in Bordeaux, France, while
> modelling for a marriage fashion house, is phlegmatic about her chances.
>
>
> ``If nothing else I will see a bit of Africa, or at least Zimbabwe,''
> she said before leaving for Victoria Falls.
>
> Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.