Supreme, a sister agency to Women Management and founded by Paul Rowland, opened in January 2000. Supreme is devoted to the development of rising stars and dedicated to the vision of eclectic beauty. The agency feeds the fashion industry with future trends and stars.

 PRO: As the modeling industry shifts into becoming something a little bit less creative and a lot more corporate, the stunning success of Paul Rowland’s Supreme is a testament to the power of his vision. Importantly, that success is not only aesthetic, it is also financial and that proves there is still a vast market for difference in fashion. Rowland’s imaging might sometimes be peculiar. It may not be so necessarily classic and it is not comfortably bourgeois, but for fashion to be interesting, then it needs a vision that is instinctive to the cultural moment at hand.

The feeling of NY in the the Zeros is encapsulated here at Supreme and that is a vital achievement. There are clients like Marc Jacobs or Prada or Balenciaga that essentially define the model look for their respective market and that is to be expected, but it is Supreme alone among all the NY agencies that has a branded look and taste-point for all its models.

From graphic design, to office decor, to staffing, to show packaging, Supreme stands for something: something cool, something directional, something personal and something that is about an emotional response to the idea of beauty which ultimately is what fashion should be about. Otherwise we would all be living in a catalogue universe. The girl that gets handpicked for Supreme should consider herself rare, unusual and very very privileged.

CON: It’s that old canard…”not commercial” that surfaces around the idea of Supreme, but this agency never alleged it was for everybody. If you want to be that glossy pretty catalogue queen, this might not be your best destination. But Supreme has its client pool and that client pool includes some very lucrative bookings.That means if you want to walk that demanding Marc-Calvin-Prada-Jil Sander-Balenciaga-Vuitton line then an alliance with Supreme will have you in front and center with those clients.

In addition, for a certain kind of Supreme girl there is also the bonus option of access to the Women power board. It’s a dream deal, maximum cool at Supreme with a built in Tunnel to wider market at Women. If this killer strategy is maintained, the future is Women/Supreme.

SCOUTING CALL: The fact is now established that a mother agency looking to give their girl the spin of ultimate cool in NY is going to get major dividends at Supreme/ Women.

Before those dividends were slanted in a haute editorial direction. Now that super-cool girl finds herself nestling in big money contract offers and lucrative bookings at the best rates. It’s a brave new business model, no? The power-fusion at Women is a bold new experiment, and if the walls hold, signals that the future is indeed Women/Supreme.