Teen models, mighty men and private dinners: when Trump hosted Look of the Year | US news

OOn September 1, 1991, a large private yacht sailed to the Statue of Liberty. It was a clear and breezy evening, and from the upper deck of the Spirit of New York, a golden sunset could be seen sparkling over the Manhattan skyline. Downstairs, a party was underway. Dozens of teenage girls in evening dresses and miniskirts, some as young as 14, danced under disco lights. It could have been a high school prom without the crowd of older men surrounding them.

As the evening wore on, some of the men old enough to be daughters of fathers, or even grandfathers, joined them on the dance floor, huddling against the girls. A bald man in a suit wrapped his arms around two young models, peeping into a camera filming the evening: Can you bring beautiful women around me, please?

The party aboard the Spirit of New York was one of the many events Donald Trump, then 45, attended with a group of 58 young aspiring models in September. They had traveled from all over the world to participate in the Elite Look of the Year competition, an annual event that has been taking place since 1983 and was already credited with the careers of Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen and Stephanie Seymour. The issue was a life-changing price: a $ 150,000 contract with Elite Model Management, a global modeling agency then headed by John Casablancas.

Trump was closely involved in the Casablancass competition. In 1991, he was one of the main sponsors, opening the Plaza, his sumptuous castle-style hotel overlooking Central Park, transforming it into the main location and welcoming young models. He was also one of its 10 judges.

In 1992 Trump again hosted the competition. On a similar golden evening in early September of the same year, another group of candidates embarked on the Spirit of New York, chartered for another Elite cruise. Shawna Lee, then 14, from a small town outside of Toronto, was one of the daughters of the boat. She remembers how the candidates were encouraged to scroll down, one by one, and dance for Trump, Casablancas and others. Lee, an introverted teenager who loved to draw but hated school, was in New York for the first time. A woman from the agency was pushing me, she remembers. I told her, I don't see why going down the stairs and dancing in front of these two has anything to do with the fact that I become a model. And she said: No, you look great, take off your blazer and go do it. So I went down the stairs. I didn't dance, I kissed them, turned around and left.

• Top: Trump with his fiancee Marla Maples (left) and a 1991 Look contest candidate

• Bottom: Competitors wait to board the Spirit of New York yacht, September 1992. Photo: Nina Berman / NOOR

Another competitor, who was 15 at the time, also remembers being asked to walk for Trump, Casablancas and other men on the boat in September 1992. She says that an organizer told her that if she refused, she would be excluded from the competition. I knew in my gut that it was not good, she recalls. It wasn't judged or was part of the competition, it was for their entertainment.

While the official elite pamphlet stated that the candidates were between the ages of 14 and 24, everyone the Guardian spoke to, competing in both years, was between the ages of 14 and 19. Some had come to New York with parents or carers; others were alone. Many were far from their families for the first time. For them, the stakes were high and the pressure to impress the judges was great. As Casablancas warned them at the start of the competition, in a scene recorded by television cameras: You will be judged, constantly judged. (In 1991 and 1992, the Elite contest was filmed for a 60-minute glossy TV show, including interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, and was later broadcast on Fox, an early foray into reality TV.) Casablancas was a powerful figure in the industry, and for many of the new generation of potential models, it seemed like an opportunity too good to miss.

Three decades later, a very different picture of competition begins to emerge. In the past six months, the Guardian has spoken to dozens of alumni looking for the year, as well as industry insiders, and got 12 hours of original behind-the-scenes footage. The stories we have heard suggest that Casablancas and some of the men in his orbit used the contest to have sex with vulnerable young models. Some of these allegations amount to sexual harassment, abuse or the exploitation of adolescent girls; others are more precisely described as rape.

• Top left: John Casablancas with Naomi Campbell, who co-presented the look of the year 1991 finale. Photograph: Bettina Cirone / The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images

• Top right and bottom: Trump with Casablancas, at the Trumps Plaza hotel in New York, location of the Look awards of the year 1991. Photo: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

No such allegation has been made against Trump, who was dating at the time with Marla Maples, the woman who in 1993 became his second wife. But his strong involvement in the competition raises questions for the president. Did he know that Casablancas and others slept with competitors? Why would a man in his forties, whose main activity was property development, want to organize a beauty contest for teenage girls?

Journalists have traveled almost every corner of the 45th president's life, but his friendship with Casablancas and his involvement in Look of the Year in 1991 and 1992 have been largely overlooked. Yet the competition is more than a footnote in the story of Donald Trump. Over time, this will prove to be the foundation of his pivot to reality TV. He even married a former candidate with the look of the year: the current first lady, Melania Trump, narrowly missed a trip to New York in 1992, after finishing second in the Slovenian heat.

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WWhen John Casablancas arrived in New York in 1977, at the age of 35, he quickly caused a sensation. Marks the snatcher to poach the models of his rivals for his agency Elite Model Management, he has acquired a reputation as a ruthless operator. Handsome and charismatic, son of a former model Balenciaga and a wealthy Spanish banker, he formed the agency that became Elite in Paris in the late twenties. A few years after moving to New York, Casablancas generated millions of dollars in revenue each year and ushered in the model age. Glamorous friends flocked to Elite parties at trendy clubs like Studio 54.

It is not known how Casablancas first met Trump, but, according to several old models who met him in the 1980s, the businessman has become a regular at his parties. With the opening of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1983 and the acquisition of the Mar-a-Lago complex in Florida in 1985, Trump had acquired the reputation of a high-flying playboy in its own right. In 1987, he published The Art Of The Deal, and a wave of publicity followed. It sits at the top of a $ 3 billion empire, the Washington Post has proclaimed, and appears to have a Midas twist.

It was perhaps not surprising that Trump, a New York celebrity who loved going out with beautiful women, came to know the city's best-known model agent. Trump was good at public relations and it was something that John liked, says Jeremie Roux, who now runs System, a modeling agency that he co-founded with Casablancas in 2009. Good or bad press was good for Trump.

Patty Owen, a cover star of Elle and Cosmopolitan, remembers seeing Trump at Elite parties as early as 1982. He would still be at the bar. This is where he would stay and this is where all the new models would end up, she said. Whenever I saw him, I always said to myself: why should John invite him? Barbara Pilling, also then an Elite model, told us that Trump had asked her to have dinner in the summer of 1989 during an industry night. She remembers that Trump asked how old she was. I said 17 years old and he said: It's just that you're not too old, not too young.

• Top: Stacy Wilkes on the spirit of New York in 1991, with this year's winner, Ingrid Seynhaeve. Photography: Nina Berman / NOOR

• Bottom: Shawna Lee (second from right) with other contestants in the Look contest of 1992

Speaking to the Guardian, four former Elite models say that in the late 1980s or early 1990s, when they were teenagers, the agency asked them to attend private dinners with Trump, Casablancas and sometimes other men. One of them was Shayna Love, an Australian model who was 16 years old when she first came to New York in the summer of 1991. Recalling a dinner she attended , she now says: He was billed as our modeling duty at the agency. It was not an invitation. It was like, you have to go do that. She says that the dinner she attended, which was attended by 10 or 15 models, was served at a long table in a private space of an upscale restaurant. I was at one end with John, and Trump was at the other end surrounded by the other girls.

In the spring of 1991, Trump and Casablancas entered into a trade agreement. Trump would sponsor the Look of the Years finale and welcome the contestants to the Plaza, which would serve as headquarters. At the time, Trump was facing significant financial pressures and was on the verge of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but that didn't seem to deter him. In the new unearthed video of Look of the Year 1991, Trump makes a series of appearances alongside Casablancas, whom he describes as my friend John. At one point, Casablancas reveals how he and Trump concluded their business partnership. I had prepared a long meeting with Donald Trump to explain to him why it was going to be a big success, Casablancas told the crowd. In fact, I hadn't finished my third sentence and he said: I love the idea. Let's do it.

Trump now denies being friends with Casablancas. Representatives of the presidents have told the Guardian that they deny it in the strongest terms possible. Trump, they said, barely knew him, spent very little time with him, and knew very little about him.

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STacy Wilkes had never been like the New York Plaza when she arrived at the Trumps Hotel with another competitor in September 1991. At 16, she lived in Louisville, Kentucky, with her mother , who was struggling to make ends meet. The teenager organized garage sales and mowed the lawns to earn extra money. I was so excited to be in a hotel, she says. To move from a poor Kentucky neighborhood to a place like this, I felt like the little kid of Home Alone. She remembers not being out of place in a hotel where everything was gold.

The teenager had been selected as part of a sprawling international search, overseen by Casablancas, for new faces. Many competitors had participated in feeder competitions after winning regional heats, or being spotted in shopping malls and hotel lobbies or, in one case, on the beach. Casablancas visited local Wilkes mall to host elite tracking event a year earlier, when she was 15 years old. Her local agent sent her to meet her, telling her what to wear and how to act. She says: I was told to put my hair in front of my face and then, like, to scream and look at it.

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A year later, Wilkes was among those met at the airport by a fray of photographers, and took a super welcome model into the limousines. It was pretty good, she recalls. The candidates gathered under crystal chandeliers in the Plaza to meet Casablancas. He told them that they would be judged several days before a gala evening, when the winner was crowned. The girls metamorphosed and attended photocalls, donning spandex for an exercise routine in front of the Plaza. Backstage footage shows Casablancas informing potential models that attention would be paid not only to appearance, but to the way you are, your attitude, your personality, your sense of cooperation.

• Above, from left to right: John Casablancas, photographer Patrick Demarchelier and Grald Marie, head of the Elites Paris office and Look judge of the year 1991. Photography: FameFlynet.uk.com

• Below: Donald Trump with candidates for the Look competition of 1991, the year he was a judge

At 16, Wilkes was one of the oldest candidates in Look of the Year. Fox's 1992 documentary reported that the average age was 15, and film interviews clearly show the youth of many candidates. Standing before the judges for the key swimsuit tour, aspiring models are invited to speak for themselves. I sing and love animals, said a girl nervously. Another said to the judges: I like big dogs and chocolate. Later, during a photo shoot, a photographer asks a 15-year-old girl to show more her cleavage by pulling her bra lower. More, he said. More. More.

In 1991, there were a total of 10 judges, including eight men, including Trump, Casablancas, the famous magician David Copperfield and the president of the European division of the elites, Grald Marie. For the swimwear tour, judges including Trump and Casablancas sat at a table in one of the lavish halls of Plazas, noting the teenage models. I felt so uncomfortable standing there in my swimsuit, Wilkes remembers. She says that at one stage of the competition, the judges said that she should lose weight: it was as if they were ganging up on me.

The candidate who came third in 1991 was Kate Dillon, then 17 years old. Dillon, who has become a more successful plus size model, says that many of her competitors came from very poor places. I came from a family who could afford it, so it was something fun to do for a week out of school but many of these girls were desperate. She remembers various after-hours events during the five-day competition. It was very clear that there were opportunities to go out and party with Donald, she said. Applicants have been led to believe that if you were nice to certain people, good things would happen to you, and I think that's why the girls were going out.

Backstage footage seen by the Guardian shows brief snippets of the future president mingling with Look of the Year models. During an evening reception, he seems to play the role of host, moving royally in the rooms decorated with Plazas in suit and tie, talking to VIP guests and competitors. How do Canadian applicants? he asks, before moving on to a handful of future Canadian models and introducing himself. At another time, he was on the upper deck of the Spirit of New York as the boat prepared to leave. Dressed in a puffy cream blazer, a pink open-necked shirt and an oversized baseball cap, Trump smiles as he poses for photos and chats with several girls. One tells her that she is finishing her studies.

Some former competitors remember that he was there while they were dressing for the events. Whenever we changed, it was like Trump would find a reason to go backstage, says Wilkes. A Canadian competitor from 1992 remembers similar incidents. He came and said, Hey girls, are we ready? she says. I remember thinking, what did I get into? Trump denies, in the strongest possible terms, behaving inappropriately with the candidates for the look of the year. Its representatives say that it was unaware of any predatory environment at the time.

Others, however, observed a disturbing side of the competition. Ohad Oman, a young journalist from a Tel Aviv magazine, was sent to cover him in 1991 and 1992. He attended several after-parties and remembers seeing girls drinking alcohol. He remembers a particularly debauched party, saying to the Guardian: I saw girls sitting on guys' laps, and I remember a guy putting his hand on the top of a boy ;a girl. I remember thinking they were younger than me, and I was 17 out of 18. (The legal drinking age is 21 in the United States.)

Other attendees remember that minor models were given alcohol during the competition. Trump officials say he did not provide competitors with alcohol, or encourage models, whether or not they were old enough to drink, drink alcohol # 39; alcohol, pointing out that he does not drink alcohol and does not encourage others to do so.

The final of the 1991 competition was a sparkling gala in a black tie in the Plazas ballroom. Casablancas and model Naomi Campbell presented, while 10 finalists underwent a series of costume changes, crossing a stage decorated with columns of sunflowers. Trump sat in the front row alongside a list of celebrities, his nine-year-old daughter Ivanka perched on his lap.

Ingrid Seynhaeve, an 18-year-old Belgian, was crowned winner. As the evening drew to a close, Seynhaeve was surrounded by photographers. Guests filtered out of the ballroom while a party was taking place in another of the large Plazas halls. In the recently discovered images, a man can be heard off camera, saying, Come on, babes. Lets get alcohol into you.

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IIn the months preceding and following the competitions, Elite sent several of its adolescent models to Milan, New York or Paris on a mission, generally alone. Shawna Lee, the 14-year-old Canadian who felt compelled to play on the Spirit of New York in 1992, had spent the previous summer in Paris, working for Elite. She remembers casting days and festive evenings, especially in the legendary Les Bains Douches nightclub.

After a night of drunkenness at the club, one of the first times she has drunk alcohol, she says that an elite senior executive offered her to go home on his motorcycle. Grald Marie, then in his early forties, was head of the office of Elites Paris, a powerful figure in the fashion industry and judge of Look of the year 1991. Lee agreed the offer. I was like, OK, of course, because I was always relying on anyone to bring me home, she said. But she alleges that, rather than bringing her home, Marie took her to her apartment and told her to come to her room. Lee says she initially refused, asking for information about his wife. She says that Marie replied: Oh no, come and sleep with me in the bed, don't worry, and she gave in. So I don't know, I just went.

Lee says the #MeToo movement encouraged her to talk about what happened next. It was her first sexual experience. I just froze, she says. I really didn't know what to do. Looking back 30 years later, she feels she has been taken advantage of. I just felt really pressured, she said. I was really young and I was manipulated. She told a friend what had happened, and it quickly returned to the agents of the elites. They all knew something had happened, but they played it down, says Lee, who is now 42 and works as a makeup artist in Toronto. We just understood that it was in my interest to get away from it and brush it under the carpet.

The questions regarding the allegations of abuse of Mary on models by teenagers are not new. In 2000, the New York magazine reported that two of the elite's senior executives had begged Casablancas and Marie de stop sleeping with minor models, but had been ignored. (We are men, Marie would have said. We have our needs.) In 2011, model and actress Elite Carr Otis alleged that Marie raped her repeatedly when she was a 17-year-old model. in Paris in the 1980s. Two years ago, another Elite model, Ebba Karlsson, accused Marie of raping her at the age of 21.

Marie did not respond to an official letter from the Guardian, but in a brief telephone call stressed that he had never sexually assaulted any model and denied the specific allegations made against him Spoken. It is absurd, I do not know this person, he said. Such claims become too easy to make. Frankly, it hurts.

Other men closely involved in Look of the Year during this period have been charged with sexual misconduct by former competitors. Some allegations are contained in legal proceedings filed decades ago; others were shared for the first time with the Guardian. The newspaper decided not to publish some of these allegations, at the request of the women involved.

An allegation has already made public the concerns of David Copperfield, a partner at Casablancas and Trump, who tried Look of the Year in 1988 and 1991, and who once went out with another top model Elite, Claudia Schiffer. Two years ago, as the #MeToo movement spilled over into the entertainment industry, it was the subject of allegations by Brittney Lewis, a 17-year-old candidate for Look of the Year 1988, held in Japan. According to his story, published on The Wrap entertainment news site, Copperfield invited her to a show in California after returning home to Utah. Lewis alleged that she saw Copperfield pouring something in her glass and then erased herself, but said that she had blurred memories of him sexually assaulting her. hotel room. Copperfield said on Twitter at the time that he had been falsely accused in the past and that he was now facing another storm. He added: Please for the good of all, do not rush to judgment. In response to Guardians' questions about the alleged assault, their officials said the allegations were false and seriously defamatory.

Several of the 1991 candidates remember that Copperfield behaved in a way that now seems inappropriate to them. Stacy Wilkes says that Copperfield called the hotel room she shared with another 15-year-old competitor, inviting the other girl into her room. Another remembers translating a phone call from Copperfield into Spanish to invite a teenager to go to his hotel room. Aimee Bendio, who was a 14-year-old look-alike candidate in 1991, says that Copperfield and her assistant contacted her several times at her family home after she entered the contest, checking how my career was going. She says the magician invited her to her shows, offering to send her a limousine, but she refused.

• Top: magician David Copperfield on the Spirit of New York in 1991, the year he was a judge

• Bottom: Copperfield with ex-girlfriend Claudia Schiffer. Photography: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Maya Rubin, a 16-year-old candidate in 1991, says that Copperfield approached her on the Spirit of New York. I told her I was from Israel, she remembers. He told me that his mother still wanted him to marry a Jewish girl. Months later, she says, the magician sent her a Christmas card. Copperfield categorically denies behaving inappropriately with competitors at any time.

In the early 1990s, Look of the Year candidates who won modeling contracts with Elite were introduced to a brand new financial advisory firm, Star Capital Management. It was chaired by a partner from Casablancas, David Weil. Based in the offices of Elites Manhattan and official sponsor of Look of the Year, Weils announced its services as part of the 1991 competition program with a photo of a little girl dressed in clothes and jewelry for adults, alongside the marketing line: just like you, you were not just another pretty face.

The following year, Star Capital Management dealt with millions of dollars earned by the Elite models. The company quickly caught the eye of federal officials, who later accused Weil and his business partner of stealing at least $ 1.2 million from their customers. In 1998, Weil pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. He also pleaded guilty to the statutory rape of a 15-year-old model he met at Look of the Year in 1992.

Weil was sentenced to three weekends in prison and had to register as a sex offender for 10 years. Mark Lawless, a New York lawyer who filed a civil fraud case against Star Capital Management on behalf of the 1991 look winner of the year Ingrid Seynhaeve and others, said that when he inspected his office, he found an adjoining room. He remembers that one of the office drawers contained bullets and condoms. Weil declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.

Four years after Weils' conviction in 2002, Casablancas faced his own series of charges before the civil courts. A former look candidate of the year, known only as Jane Doe 44, filed a complaint accusing him of having sexually abused her repeatedly, from the age of 15. L'abus a commencé, selon le procès, à Look of the Year 1988 au Japon, où Casablancas a dit à Doe qu'il tombait amoureux d'elle. À la fin de la compétition, le procès indique, les candidats ont bu et fait la fête tard dans la soirée et Casablancas a dit à l'adolescent de venir dans sa chambre d'hôtel. Là, Casablancas a abusé sexuellement de la fille plusieurs fois au cours de la soirée. Les sévices se seraient poursuivis l'année suivante; lorsque la fille est tombée enceinte, Casablancas lui a dit qu'elle allait se faire avorter. L'avortement aurait été organisé et payé par Elite. Casablancas avait 46 ans à l'époque.

• John Casablancas avec sa troisième épouse, Aline Wermelinger, en 1995; ils se sont rencontrés alors qu'elle était candidate au look de l'année 1992. Photographie: La collection d'images LIFE via Getty Images

Le procès alléguait également que Casablancas se livrait à un schéma de séduction, d'exploitation sexuelle et / ou de maltraitance des filles mineures, y compris des filles aussi jeunes que 14 ou 15 ans. Mais en 2003, la cour supérieure de Los Angeles a rejeté les plaintes contre lui parce qu'il ne résidait pas en Californie, où elle avait été déposée. À l'époque, un avocat de Casablancas a déclaré que les allégations étaient sans fondement.

Des représentants de Trumps ont déclaré au Guardian qu'il nie dans les termes les plus forts possibles avoir connaissance à l'époque que Casablancas aurait eu des relations sexuelles avec des candidats à Look of the Year, y compris ceux qui n'avaient pas l'âge de consentement, ou que Casablancas aurait permis à d'autres de exploiter ou abuser des modèles adolescents.

Mais l'intérêt sexuel de Casablancas pour les adolescentes était antérieur à cette période. Son mariage avec sa deuxième épouse, la mannequin danoise Jeanette Christiansen, a pris fin en 1983 quand il est apparu qu'il avait une liaison avec une mannequin de 15 ans, Stephanie Seymour. Casablancas, qui était alors au début de la quarantaine, a décrit plus tard Seymour comme une femme-enfant. Il a rencontré sa troisième femme, la mannequin brésilienne Aline Wermelinger, en 1992, alors qu'elle était candidate au look de l'année au Trumps Plaza. Ils se sont mariés l'année suivante; Casablancas avait 51 ans et elle avait 17 ans.

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Bu son propre compte, Donald Trump a fait la connaissance du financier Jeffrey Epstein à la fin des années 80. Il est très amusant d'être avec, a déclaré Trump au magazine New York en 2002. On dit même qu'il aime autant les belles femmes que moi, et beaucoup d'entre elles sont plus jeunes. Après qu'Epstein ait été accusé de trafic sexuel de filles mineures l'année dernière, le président a pris ses distances, disant aux journalistes qu'il connaissait le financier comme tout le monde à Palm Beach le connaissait, mais qu'il ne lui avait pas parlé depuis 15 ans. Je n'étais pas fan de lui, je peux vous le dire, a-t-il dit. Les représentants de Trumps ont déclaré au Guardian qu'il avait expulsé M. Epstein de Mar-a-Lago pour avoir agi de manière inappropriée envers le personnel.

Des photographies de Trump avec Epstein, qui possédait une maison près de Mar-a-Lago, ont été largement diffusées à la suite de l'arrestation des financiers l'année dernière. Une attention renouvelée a également été accordée à une déposition de Virginia Roberts Giuffre, qui a déclaré qu'elle avait été approchée pour la première fois par l'amie d'Epsteins, la mondaine britannique Ghislaine Maxwell, alors qu'elle travaillait comme préposée au spa à Mar-a-Lago en 1999.

Il apparaît également qu'Epstein avait une connexion Casablancas au cours des années 1990. Selon un procès intenté aux États-Unis il y a trois mois, en 1990, Casablancas a envoyé un mannequin adolescent pour son premier casting dans une adresse résidentielle de l'Upper East Side à New York, pour rencontrer un photographe qui, en fait, était Epstein. Le procès indique qu'Epstein a ordonné à la jeune fille de 15 ans de se déshabiller avant de prendre des photos d'elle, de la pousser contre un mur et de l'agresser sexuellement.

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George Houraney, un homme d'affaires dont le concours de beauté American Dream Calendar Girls était organisé dans les casinos de Las Vegas depuis 1978, se souvient d'avoir rencontré Epstein à Mar-a-Lago en janvier 1993. Houraney dit que Trump lui a demandé d'organiser une fête ce mois-ci avec certains des ses finalistes de concours, promettant d'inviter des chefs d'agences de mannequins et des sponsors potentiels pour son concours. Il m'a fait voler toutes ces filles et m'a donné un budget de 30 000 $ pour les billets d'avion et les limousines pour les récupérer à l'aéroport, dit-il. Les filles étaient toutes parées, espérant rencontrer tous ces VIP. Mais après une heure à la fête, dit Houraney, il ne semblait y avoir qu'un seul autre invité: Epstein. J'étais genre, Donald, où sont les gars? Que se passe t-il ici? Et il a dit: Eh bien, c'est ça. Houraney dit qu'il a réalisé que c'était une fête de Jeff Epstein, en gros.

Tout en se méfiant d'Epstein, Houraney tenait à avoir Trump comme partenaire commercial. Un mois plus tôt, en décembre 1992, Trump avait rencontré Houraney et Jill Harth, qui dirigeaient ensemble le concours. Ils cherchaient un nouveau sponsor pour leur concours, qui chaque année a vu des mannequins âgés de 16 à 22 ans s'affronter pour apparaître dans des calendriers muraux portant des bikinis et des maillots de bain tout en posant avec des voitures classiques. Lors d'un dîner dans la salle Plazas Oak, Harth, Houraney et Trump ont discuté du déplacement de la compétition American Dream de Las Vegas vers l'un des casinos Trumps. Il voulait que cela devienne la plus grande, la meilleure chose qu'il puisse faire. Il parlait de la télévision et de retirer tous les contacts, a déclaré Harth plus tard. Finalement, le concours a eu lieu au château de Trump à Atlantic City en novembre 1993, mais pendant un an seulement.

The partnership soured and ended in two lawsuits, but for Trump it was a prelude to a series of more lucrative ventures in the beauty business. In 1996, he secured what the New York Daily News described as his most beautiful deal yet. After months of negotiations, Trump acquired the Miss Universe Organization in a reported $10m deal that handed him control of three large, well-established pageants: Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA. Three years later, he founded Trump Model Management, poaching many staff from Elite.

For Wolfgang Schwarz, a veteran model agent in Austria who worked closely with Casablancas, and met Trump at the Plaza in the early 90s, Trumps decision to establish his own agency was about him wanting his own private source for models. If you have your own agency and youre the owner, you can tell your bookers to make a party, Schwarz says. Its easier than calling 15 agencies in New York. Trumps representatives say he entered the modelling industry because it was a very profitable business opportunity.

• Top: Kate Dillon, in behind-the-scenes footage from the 1991 contest

• Bottom: Casablancas with 1992 Look of the Year winner Mariann Molski, then 14. Photograph: Everett Collection/Alamy

The Miss Universe deal allowed Trump to realise his ambition of turning a pageant into an international televised event. In 1997, he sold a 50% stake in the business to CBS. Five years later, amid a slump in the Miss Universe ratings, Trump brokered a deal with NBC that led to the launch of The Apprentice in 2004.

The move into reality TV positioned Trump as a heavyweight tycoon with a significant media profile. In many ways, it was a natural progression from his involvement in beauty contests and pageants. Where once he had judged young models, whose hopes, rivalries and insecurities became TV storylines in Foxs Look of the Year documentary, now he was ruthlessly separating aspiring business people into winners and losers.

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Three decades on from the contests at Trumps Plaza, it is striking to reflect on the diverging fortunes of those who attended. Many of the powerful men Casablancas brought on board to help judge the girls thrived in the years that followed. Grald Marie is now the chairman of a prestigious model agency in Paris, Oui Management. Although Marie told the Guardian he had retired, his LinkedIn page lists his responsibilities at the thriving newcomer agency as scouting for and managing talent. Oui Management did not respond to our request for comment. David Copperfield remains a prominent entertainer, with a current residency at the MGM Grand resort in Las Vegas.

The fortunes of the teenagers who took part have been mixed. Some became successful models, Hollywood actors and TV hosts, while many more lived quieter lives. Ingrid Seynhaeve, the 1991 winner, became a face of Ralph Lauren and Dior, hosted Belgiums Topmodel TV show, and continues to front high-profile campaigns. Other contestants we spoke to include a beautician, a stayathome mother, a makeup artist, a yoga teacher and a bus driver.

In 1992, the crown went to one of Look of the Years youngest contenders: 14-year-old Mariann Molski. Months after her victory, a profile in the Chicago Tribune reported that the sporty high school student was on the brink of a career of a kind that most young women only dream about. While she had some success as a model, it is not clear what happened to her in the years that followed; US public records indicate multiple arrests for probation violations, alcohol offences and prostitution, though there is nothing to say she was ever charged. Molskis current whereabouts are unknown, but she is believed to have been homeless in Arizona.

After years of financial mismanagement, Elite was forced into bankruptcy in 2004. The Elite brand continues to be used by two separate agencies, owned by different corporate entities. One is Creative World Management, which bought the New York division in 2004. It strongly distances itself from the Casablancas-owned firm and era, saying it utterly condemns the kinds of deplorable behaviour alleged to have taken place in the past.

The other inheritor of the brand is Elite World Group, which operates the successor to Look of the Year, a similar global contest for the next top young model, called Elite Model Look. It, too, distances itself from the Casablancas era. We would have no tolerance for the conduct youve described, the company told the Guardian. Empowering our models and protecting their safety is our foremost priority.

John Casablancas retired in Brazil in the early 2000s. He died in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, aged 70, long before the #MeToo movement heralded a new standard of accountability for powerful men accused of exploiting women and girls. He never got to see his old associate Donald Trump ascend to the White House, despite a cascade of allegations about Trumps own treatment of women. Il y a maintenant at least 25 sexual misconduct allegations against the president, ranging from unwanted advances and harassment to serious sexual assaults. More than half relate to models or pageant contestants. Trump denies that he has ever behaved in a predatory or inappropriate fashion with any women or girls.

Speaking to the Guardian 30 years on, several former Look of the Year contestants feel that a #MeToo moment for the modelling world is long overdue. The girls are young and they look at these agents like parental figures, and theyre not, says Shawna Lee. Anything they say goes, whether its Go cut your hair, Go wear this dress. Its too bad that there were not more consequences for these men.

After Look of the Year 1991, Stacy Wilkes returned to Louisville and quit school, despite having told the judges she would finish. I thought that was the reason I lost, she says, so I might as well leave if I want to make it as a model. We were really broke, so I thought Id try and make money for my mom, but it didnt work out. She is content with the path her life took, living in Louisville with her partner and three cats, but adds that women were raising concerns at the time and were ignored: I think models from the 90s tried so hard, over and over, and nobody believed what we had to say.

Kate Dillon, now a businesswoman living in Seattle, remembers the contest as one that exploited womens assets, womens bodies. A lot of these girls were desperate. They thought modelling was about attracting men, which it isnt. There was a climate of opportunism, she says. Theres no doubt that the men were like, Yes, Look of the Year week, lets make sure my schedule is clear to have chicks over to my apartment.

Whats great is that we now have a language, and a precedent of young people saying: No, Im not going to let this continue, Dillon adds. They would never accept being treated the way I was.

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