The runways are about to explode into action as the ‘fashion season’ comes sashaying around once again. And the ‘IT’ girls of the modelling game are bracing for a season of ritual mayhem and madness. But keep your eyes open for the rising stars of the ramp who’ve also been making their highly-visible presence felt as they juggle dates shooting for the biggest brands in town. Combining oomph and selling power are names like Tamara Moss, Sanea Sheikh, Garima Parnami, Diva Dhawan, Mallika Haydon and Anchal Oberoi.

They’re all almost embarrassingly youthful — in their early 20s or about to step into their 20s — yet they’ve already spent a couple of years in the industry and you can see them in ‘select’ places, posing for sizzling calendars, turning into brand ambassadors and waltzing across the screen in commercials.

Take a cue from the hectic life of Moss. She flies from Mumbai to Delhi at least four times a month. And Parnami has to cancel four assignments on a day if she’s feeling under the weather.

If there’s any time that is ripe for them, it’s now. Says fashion photographer Vishesh Verma: “Recession means that people are willing to experiment with new faces (to cut costs). The old order will melt away. It’s quite the best thing to happen to the new.”

So here’s some of the young out there who like to walk the walk and pose the pose.

Garima Parnami has been on a high ever since she graced the covers of Vogue and Marie Claire

GARIMA PARNAMI
Stands tall at: 5’9’’
Trump card: Cover girl for fashion magazines Vogue and Marie Claire
Assignments bagged: Satya Paul, Puja Arya, Ashish Soni, Lacoste and the Taj Calendar 2009.

She’s a girl on the go. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi about her when she looks out from the cover of Marie Claire. Maybe it’s the dusky good looks or it could be the fact that she brings a global and yet ethnic touch to the picture, draped in a sequinned sari that is contrasted strikingly enough with a white sports jacket. Whatever it is, she definitely has fashion aficionados giving her rave reviews.

“Modelling has given me a voice,” says Parnami. “And a craving for shoes and bags and dresses too — colourful and flowy dresses.”

Having walked at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW) a few times, Parnami began her career three years ago when she attended the FTV model awards in Greece. The Delhi-based Miss India 2006 finalist was the first Indian model to represent her country in the awards and reach the finals too. Soon she was shooting in Paris and doing fashion features satiating the world’s curiosity about India.

Next on her agenda is going international. Adds Parnami: “Let’s put it this way, I am working towards it.”

All of 20, Tamara Moss is one of the most photographed new faces in the industry

TAMARA MOSS
Stands tall at: 5’ 9-1/2’’
You remember her best: For her waif-thin good looks.

Moss is just 20 years old, but you see her almost everywhere — gracing must-have calendars for the Taj Group and Kingfisher, looking pretty in a Lakmé ad on the telly or turning brand ambassador for clothes brand, Chemistry.

“I do a lot of editorials (for magazines) however I am choosy about campaigns as the conceptual quality is still improving. I have been working with Bharat Sikka of late, which has been really fulfiling. As for upcoming campaigns, soon you shall see. Shhh!” she says conspiratorially.

Moss made her debut on the WLIFW ramp in 2007 and in the truest sense, never looked back. Now she has shifted base from Bangalore to Mumbai, which she emphatically insists is ‘really the only place to be’ for her work. “International work takes time and patience, which luckily I have plenty of, and yes, my bookers at IMG Models send me work constantly,” says the model.

PHOTO COURTESY: M-MAGAZINE Pix by Tarun Vishwa

For Moss, the profession happened to her in Bangalore when she was asked to meet model co-ordinator Anila Anand. “She proceeded to take a few crummy ‘polas’ (aka Polaroids: basic images of an aspiring model, no make-up, natural hair, et al) of me which she then sent around. It took many shoots and lots of flexibility to get into it as I really had no clue what modelling was all about — so I interpreted it my own way which seemed to work,” notes Moss, whose parents — a Dutch mother and an Indian father — are into the social service sector.

The lady, who definitely isn’t an airhead, likes to pursue her interests in reading, writing, languages, art, acting, child psychology and social service, not to miss out on interacting with quirky characters — yes, she’s living life to the fullest. “If my career enables me to do that then yes, I am living the good life. Time will surely tell where my work will lead.”

Sanea Sheikh first walked the ramp modelling Valentino gowns

SANEA SHEIKH
Stands tall at: 6’1’’
Trump card: Diet Pepsi, Vogue, Le Officiel, MAC, Swarovski, L’Oreal, Moschino, Tarun Tahiliani and Satya Paul.

At 6’1’’, Sanea Sheikh turns heads. There’s no way you can miss the happy-go-lucky attitude of this Mumbai-based model, who was discovered by choreographer Marc Robinson when he was looking for tall models to wear Valentino gowns at an Italian show in Delhi.

Having been signed up by the Elite Modelling Agency, Sheikh started with the Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) and then moved on to the WLIFW catwalk (she has also done some shows at the Singapore Fashion Week and the Milan Fashion Week).

“I didn’t have to try too hard if you know what I mean. I happened to be tall and thankfully on the leaner side. Modelling was easy pocket money and it gave me confidence like I never had before. I was always referred to as ‘lamppost’ and ‘giraffe’ in school and it was only when I reached here that I realised that being tall is beautiful,” notes Sheikh.

The 22-year-old’s life has pivoted a complete 180 degrees, in every sense of the term, since she landed in the city from the Middle East. Flouncing down the ramp in designerwear is a far cry from her days of being veiled in the burkha and the abaya, from the early age of 10, while growing up in Riyadh and Amman. The modelling bug therefore hit her and hit her hard after she did a few small fashion shows at SNDT College in Mumbai where she was getting a degree in home science.

Sheikh, who was first seen in the first season of Channel V’s Get Gorgeous, says: “I happened to be at the right place at the right time.”

The half-Australian Mallika Haydon made her debut with Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week last year

Mallika Haydon
Stands tall at: 5’11’’
Trump card: Editorial features with Marie Claire, shoots with the likes of Tahiliani and Rohit Bal and fashion shows for hairdressers Toni & Guy and Brazilian designer Jatali.

You could call her the other Haydon girl.

Her younger sibling, Lisa Haydon, made a name for herself soon after stepping under the arclights. Now, the 24-year-old Mallika has been reaping accolades ever since she hit the fashion ramps in Delhi during the WLIFW last September.

Brought up in Mumbai by an Australian mother and an Indian father, who are involved in a charity organisation, modelling for Mallika has been a bit of an on-and-off affair. She made her debut at the age of 19 with a print ad campaign for Jealous Jeans. Soon after she featured in a Pepsi ad commercial on the telly with cricketing legends like Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar.

“Then I moved to Sydney to study but ended up working in the accounting section of a firm,” says Mallika.

This time she has returned for good and seems to have made up her mind about modelling for another four years at least before she takes off to study art overseas. In the meantime, she is keeping herself busy with painting and sketching, apart from taking off to Europe in the summer with girlfriends.

Next on Aanchal Oberoi’s agenda is to blaze down the catwalks in Paris and Milan

AanchalL Oberoi
Stands tall at: 5’7’’
Trump card: Shooting with brands like Adidas Golf collection, W, Titan, Escada and Reebok. And with designers such as Rina Dhaka, Manish Malhotra, Tahiliani, Ranna Gill and Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna of Cue.

She describes herself as the ‘conventional pretty face’. And Oberoi intends to take it all the way to Paris and Milan to experience international runways.

Oberoi was out strolling in the popular Greater Kailash M-block market in Delhi one day when a head booker from Elite handed her a visiting card. There was no looking back after that. She started with professional modelling two years ago and made her debut on the ramp last year at the WLIFW.

Her first brush with the catwalk made her want to give up on it all. That’s when advice from senior model Noyonika Chatterjee came into play as a fresh perspective in her mint new career. Says Oberoi: “The day I was talking about feeling particularly clueless about things, Noyonika pointed out how she had been a part of the industry for 16 years just because she happened to take it seriously. She emphasised, ‘It cannot be something that you just kill time with’.”

Diva Dhawan’s first portfolio was shot when she was just 14

Diva Dhawan
Stands tall at: 5’7’’
Spot her in: The latest Garnier commercial, swinging a Rapunzel-like sheath of hair.

The youngest of the brigade is Diva Dhawan. She turned 19 this January. Born and brought up in New York, she finished graduate school last year even though she made frequent trips to India and signed up here with the Elite Modelling Agency. Her first break came in September 2007 at the WLIFW, where she walked for designers like Payal Jain, Tahiliani and Monisha Jaising.

Her first portfolio was shot when she was just 14, modelling outfits by ace couturiers like Manish Malhotra, Manish Arora and JJ Valaya at fashion shows for charities in New York.

She calls herself a ‘hyper’ child of the ramp — after all she’s young and enjoys what she’s doing. And she banks on having her mother by her side here in India. As she puts it: “For modelling, I switched my life in a different country. Now all that I do is keep reminding myself that things can change one in a matter of a few seconds and that I should stand my ground, never forgetting who I am.”

She adds: “But the idea is to also go back to my hometown to pursue a course at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York.”