If you have a TikTok account, chances are you’ve encountered Alex Consani. The 21-year-old American model was scouted in 2019, but it wasn’t until videos from her pandemic-created account, @captaincrookes, went viral that she was cast in shows and campaigns for the world’s biggest Houses. Consani’s content is comedically random: in one video with 5.3 million likes and 44 million views, she swirls a water jug containing mint and lemon, and dances in her seat to a Rich Gang song, the caption reading, “When they be giving me the fancy wayer.” In another, she sings “Hands on the knees Angelina Jolie” on a packed New York subway – prompting thousands to demo the sound behind their own videos. A digital footprint that in the past would have scared brands away, appears to be a selling point now: backstage at Marc Jacobs’ recent show dressed as a life-size doll, Consani posted a video viewed by 9.5 million. At Balenciaga, she got 14.8 million. A lo-fi video of her wearing Rick Owens balloon boots was watched over 10 million times. She has the credentials to go with the audience, too: Consani may play online, but when it comes to modelling, she’s laser-focused, with a walk that looks like it’s been practiced to perfection since childhood.

Consani’s breakout marks a turning point in an industry that since the mid-2010s has been almost entirely fronted by what we’ve now come to know as ‘nepo babies’. Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid became the most in-demand faces, with Jenner usurping Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen as the world’s highest-paid model in 2018. The trio was followed by Cindy Crawford’s daughter Kaia Gerber, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’ Lily-Rose Depp, Stephen Baldwin’s Hailey Bieber and Kate Moss’ Lila Moss. Of course, fashion’s love of a famous face – or known last name – is nothing new. In 1975, model Margaux Hemingway, granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, became the first model to sign a $1 million contract with a beauty brand, and on an episode of America’s Next Top Model, the 60s British supermodel Twiggy explained she was the country’s first working-class model – before her, most were royals, aristocrats, and children of socialites.

Before this latest influx, breakout supermodels, like Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, were scouted on the streets, and later, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show propelled the likes of Bündchen, Karlie Kloss, Adriana Lima, and Miranda Kerr to household names. America’s Next Top Model – and its franchises – was another guaranteed way for new faces to find an audience. But since the rise of social media, and a fight to sit at the top of a saturated algorithm in an attention economy, a sure-fire way for brands to stand out during a runway season is by casting a face people know. According to Launchmetrics, when either of the Hadid sisters walks a show, they can generate up to 45 per cent of the event’s entire media impact value (also known as MIV, which analyses the monetary value of a brand or individual’s posts, interactions and articles to measure its impact). Whereas other respected, but less ‘famous’ models only represent up to two per cent. For a brand, these results cannot be ignored. As everyone fights for visibility, stunts such as Coperni’s Spring Summer 23 viral spray-on dress finale, wherein the House covered Bella Hadid’s naked body in a substance that hardened into a dress, generated $26.3M in MIV – nine times more than its finale the season prior. This resulted in a significant sales increase and Coperni gaining 300,000 followers overnight. Kendall Jenner, meanwhile, is dragged with “go girl, give us nothing” at every turn for her apparent lack of passion or skill for the job. But despite the hate, the 28-year-old is still cast, because negative engagement is still engagement.

Consani’s nepo baby palette cleanser isn’t to say the children of the rich and famous are out of work – Phoebe Philo’s daughter, Maya Wigram, was chosen to close Daniel Lee’s Burberry Autumn Winter 24 show as her runway debut, despite being cast alongside Naomi Campbell, Agyness Deyn and Lily Donaldson. Scarlet Stallone, daughter of Sylvester Stallone, recently walked for Tommy Hilfiger during New York Fashion Week. Iris Law, daughter of Jude Law and Sadie Frost, is the current face of Burberry, and Eve Jobs, daughter of Steve, made her debut at Louis Vuitton. Rather, it’s no longer enough to rely on having a famous last name to pique – and keep – the public’s interest. (How many of the above made a splash, really?)

As we move away from the algorithmic sameness of Instagram and to TikTok, an app that thrives on candid, authentic, and silly content, consumers are looking for something more. A model that has recently succeeded here is Amelia Gray Hamlin, daughter of Lisa Rinna of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and 2024’s Model of the Year due to her goth-like looks, striking, angular features, and dead-eyed stare. Gray’s unique style and aesthetic, rather than her parent’s public profile, caught people’s attention. What’s even more alluring is personality. Surgery has made beauty more attainable than ever, resulting in fatigue with everyone looking the same, and an accelerated trend cycle has everything once cool going mainstream. For respite, people have split off into subcultures, finding lesser-known people they connect to, whose content is engaging. Nara Blue Smith’s TikTok account, filled with videos of the model cooking meals for her husband and children, propelled the model’s career to being shot for Interview Magazine and paid to create content for Marc Jacobs. Gabbriette similarly found an audience through her cooking videos, before her relationship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy cemented her chronically online It-model status.

This sentiment is echoed throughout the culture at large. Instead of releasing an album with the normal press run cycle, Charli XCX tapped into the internet in the same way, using social media to show up at fans’ album release parties and announce surprise DJ sets, and casting a slew of famous women (including Consani and Gabbriette) in her 360 music video, resulting in ‘Brat summer’ being adopted as 2024’s biggest trend. As The Face put it in an article describing what makes a successful pop star today, “We’re in the lore era now”: people are interested in artists, and public figures – models, actors, athletes – when there’s something to them: whether it be a randomness or authenticity to their online presence, a hobby others can adopt, or a way they can feel parasocially connected through relationships or even one’s style (Bella Hadid’s vintage Depop shopping was a big drawcard for Gen Z). The supers themselves aren’t immune to the need to engage, either. In June, Naomi Campbell appeared on the London tube girl, Sabrina Bahsoon’s, account, singing to – what else? – 360 by Charli XCX.

For those who execute their jobs well, having social media sometimes eclipse the role of talent can be frustrating. Models at the top of their game, such as Vittoria Ceretti, Imaan Hammam, Adut Akech, and Mona Tougaard will still be paid and featured less than a new famous face, despite their experience. It seems the only way forward is if the next wave of models can capture and keep the public’s attention, match their popularity, and become viable mainstream stars on their own. But when you don’t naturally have the candour of Consani (or, in music terms, Charli XCX), the task can feel daunting – and results don’t translate. And, as The Supers documentary showcased, there’s a fine line models walk when it comes to being celebrities in their own right and distracting from the purpose of their jobs: selling product. When Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Cindy Crawford’s fame began overshadowing the clothes at the height of their fame, brands went back to casting nameless faces.

For the time being, the formula appears to be fun, games and social media personalities off the runway, and serious coat hangers while on: the Freedom lip-syncing playfulness of the 90s supers so far gone many of the comments on CHANEL’s recent runway video of Amelia Gray were asking whether models were told to look that moody. As someone commented online on a video of Consani, “She’s such a weirdo on social media but when it’s time to work, she don’t play.”