Eastern Iowans making it in modeling world

CEDAR RAPIDS - Eastern Iowa natives Alanna Arrington, Hazel Crew and Jay Wright are in demand right now in the high-stakes modeling world, and they owe a fellow Eastern Iowa native for much of that success.

All three were discovered by Mother Model Management, a scouting agency headed by Mary Clarke and her husband, Jeff, that is based in Missouri.

Mary Clarke, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, graduated from LaSalle High School in 1979 and took fashion merchandising classes at Kirkwood Community College. She started out doing fashion shows at Westdale Mall, and appeared on Cox cable and KCRG-TV9 over the years.

'I started getting requests for shows and little things. It just kept growing,” Clarke said of her modeling agency.

In 1997, Clarke discovered Ashton Kutcher at the Airliner in Iowa City, and convinced him to enter the Fresh Face of Iowa modeling contest, which he won. That same year, she met her husband, who is from Missouri. In 2001, they moved their agency to suburban St. Louis.

'When we first moved I thought, ‘would we do as well as we did in Iowa?' But we found great people there.”

Among the models the Clarkes discovered in St. Louis was Karlie Kloss, whom they found at a benefit fashion show in 2005 and has reached 'supermodel” status.

The Clarkes still come to Iowa five or six times a year, and Mary Clarke said they continue to find great talent here.

That includes Arrington, Crew and Wright, all fairly recent discoveries.

Arrington, 17, who is from Cedar Rapids, isn't even out of high school yet. She's still a junior, and takes classes at Washington High School as well as online when she isn't modeling.

Arrington was discovered via an open call at Kliks Photography in Cedar Rapids when she was 14, but said she had been interested in modeling since she was 12 or 13, and was keeping track of her height.

'I would pray that I would grow an inch overnight and I ended up growing four,” she said, adding she's 5 foot 10 now. Hitting the runway wasn't something Crew ever thought about, though, while attending City High School in Iowa City.

'I thought I was going to be a professional basketball player, and then ok, I'm going to the Olympics in track,” Crew said.

Running might not have led to the Olympics, but it did lead to modeling. Crew was noticed by a friend of Clarke's at a cross-country meet, who surreptitiously snapped a photo. Clarke then contacted Crew on Instagram in November 2014.

Wright, from Iowa City, was the most recent discovery. She came to an open call last April at Buzz Salon, and by September, Clarke said she was in New York taking part in Fashion Week.

Wright now has modeled for such high fashion labels as Marc Jacobs and Jil Sander in New York, Paris and Milan. Crew walked in Paris for Chloe. And Arrington has modeled for Nordstrom and American Apparel.

All three said modeling is hard work, and very different from the world depicted on shows such as 'America's Next Top Model.” But they also said they hope to find continued success in the industry.

'I don't want to think about the future too much because I don't want to jinx it. What's happening right now is already blowing my mind,” Crew said. 'I really like what I'm doing though so I think that I'm going to stick with it for a while.”

Do you want to model?

Mother Model Management will hold an open model call at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Double Tree in downtown Cedar Rapids. For more information go to www.mothermodelmanagement.com or https://www.facebook.com/mothermodel/