What we do keep forgetting about is that the fashion industry as a whole has changed. Before, the model appeal and the model demand searched for those exquisitely beautiful girls to the simple eye that wowed everyone from the first moment. It's not that the wow-factor is gone but many girls that make it big are a new type of beauty. The type of girl who doesn't really get noticed at first hand yet with the help of some cool designs, intriguing scenery and maybe some edgy make-up effects, they transform into a new type of being. Goes to show you that there's more than only one type of beauty and that beauty as itself is endless.

Long intro? Perhaps but there is a key point to this. Girls with the previously desired look might be overlooked at times and maybe even seen as commercial models yet some of them manage to make the cut. Such is the case of the one and only Joan Smalls @ IMG NY. We first noticed Joan some couple of seasons ago for Ports 1961 and those cheekbones intrigued us. As each season has passed by we have gotten more and more drawn in as she walked for Oscar de la Renta, Issey Miyake, Vivienne Westwood and Hussein Chalayan. That quite distinctive face could have not been forgotten easily. As she grew more and more she was noticed by powerhouse, IMG who obviously snatched her up from her previous agency and will hopefully give her a good name in the future. We already see her as a Ralph Lauren girl, a cK Jeans girl and someday maybe a Victoria's Secret Angel.

We have in a way been waiting to showcase Joan for quite sometime but it's not before today when we got hold of these minimalistic and wonderful shots by James Mahon that we got around to it. In the olden supermodel day, a model had to deal with her model life in the city as well as the beach as posing for Sports Illustrated or generally in swimwear was a lot more common. Well, we see these two shoots as a play on that same feeling. The daily yet almost mysterious feeling of the city and the liberating feeling at the beach. James Mahon clearly pulls out the best in Joan as we get to see a next-door girl with that unique quality and face structure. You can relate to each and every shot at the same time that they all hold such unobtainable feeling.

Sometimes, it's not about the extravagant set or the lavish designs. Some shots simply just are. The relaxed posing is what makes Joan appealing to the public yet it's that unique face structure that makes her bookable. It's right here that the term on the title comes to play. Like I mentioned, everyone talks about the return of the supermodel.Well, as many designs come into reinvention and many trends come back decade after decade, should this be any different? Is Joan Smalls one of the reinventions of the supermodel? We think so. Joan Smalls, you're on our radar.