Face finder visits N.Z.

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 25

Face finder visits N.Z.

GLEN PERKINSON

MANY WOULD envy the jet-setting lifestyle and some would describe the job as a dream but to fashion face-seeker Billy Ford it is just work. Mr Ford spends his working week jetting to locations in search of “the perfect face” to meet today’s fashion trends. Discreet about his age — it is about 30 — the unmarried Mr Ford says this job is harder than his previous occupation. Before beginning work for his mother Eileen Ford, he piloted a private Lear jet for a wealthy American businessman. Unlike the busy schedule he maintains today the life as a pilot was relaxing — “fly somewhere, wait around in the sun and then fly back again.” Mr Ford was in New Zealand to judge the recent Revlon Face of the 80s — a beauty quest with a difference. The contest’s objective is to select women with the potential to reach the top in the modelling world. At seeking out that perfect

face Mr Ford is an expert. In fact he signed his first model at the tender age of six for his mother, whose New York based Ford agency is one of the world’s most elite. The story goes Mrs Ford was in a high-powered meeting with magazine editors and fashion designers. There was no one in her office to answer the telephone. Billy got the job. To cut a long story short he managed to sign a model for a photographic session the next week. Apparently his mother approved. What makes one beautiful woman stand out from the others? “It changes all the time,” he says. “In the United States we’re getting away from the •all-American look’.” Instead of the cliched look of long straight blond hair and blue-eyes, more exotic and European-looking women are sought. “It really is all dictated by the fashion designer — it’s what they look for, not us.” What the model agent looks for are full lips and a wellstructured face. “But noses are not as ridgidly dictated these days. A few years ago a nose had to be straight and

fine. Today a cute, turned-up nose is okay.” Although he searches world-wide for such women he is still at a loss to explain why designers decree a certain look. He admires the women emerging in the modelling world from New Zealand — some, such as the well-known Auckland model, Rachel Hunter, are making a big impact in the New York modelling scene. Others are likely to follow. Two Christchurch models, Janette Williams and Rachel Millar, of Pieter’s Agency are New York bound. The standard is easily as good — “if not better” — as the rest of the world, he says. Billy is just one of four Fords working at the agency. He is helped by his brother and sister. His judging of the Face of the 80s quest was no accident. The winner receives as part of her prize a trip to New York and a contract worth $250,000 with the Ford agency. • The winner was EmmaJane Ritchie of Auckland who was on the September cover of “Press Fashion.”