The mother-daughter duo reflect on the state of fashion and how modelling has changed.
NEW YORK, United States — Anna Cleveland was a newborn when she arrived on the set of her first photo shoot, four-years-old when she walked her first runway show and just 13 when she starred in her first French Vogue editorial. But it wasn’t until she walked Giles Deacon’s Autumn/Winter 2015 runway show that the industry truly saw her as something other than a decedent of iconic face Pat Cleveland, one of the first African American stars of the modelling world who worked with Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino and Halston, among others.
Since that February 2015 show, Anna Cleveland has become a campaign star — landing Vionnet, Bottega Veneta and Maiyet — and scored two covers of Italian Vogue, with plenty of choice runway jobs along the way. The mother-daughter duo has also appeared together in campaigns for Lanvin and, most recently, Marc Jacobs.
Like Pat, Anna brings a sense of theatre and performance to her work. It’s a rare quality in a model of her generation, many of who prefer to save their outbursts of emotion or flamboyance for social media. She is often called upon by designers to add something extra to the task at hand, whether that means a twirl at the end of the catwalk or, in the case of Jeremy Scott’s Autumn/Winter 2016 show for Moschino, voguing down the runway as smoke floated off of her dress.
But the younger Cleveland is quick to say that she is a very different model than her mother, and that she has faced a different set of challenges despite (and sometimes because of) the privilege that comes with her pedigree.
Anna and Pat, the latter of whose memoir Walking With Muses will be released in the US in June 2016, sat down with BoF to discuss the current state of the fashion industry and the changing dynamics of modelling.
Get the full story on BUSINESS OF FASHION
