A young Scot has won a top modelling competition.
Emma Mactaggart (16), who lives near Blairadam, outside Kinross, walked away with the Samsung Diva Elite Model Look 2010, a project to discover, nurture and mentor young model talent.
After a week of mentoring, Emma and the other 11 finalists took to the catwalk at One Mayfair in London before a judging panel that included Toni & Guy’s global creative director Sacha Mascolo Tarbuck, make-up artist Daniel Sandler and Warehouse PR and marketing director Lorraine Pringle.
Emma, who is at boarding school, was chosen as the winner and will receive a modelling contract with Elite London and a trip of a lifetime to the Elite Model Look world final in Shanghai.
The announcement came as something of a shock to the teenager, according to her mother, Barbara, but she was very pleased and surprised.
Emma said, “I can’t believe I have won, it was the best day of my life.”
Barbara added Emma had no thoughts of modelling until she was scouted while at Paddington station in London, adding, “Emma has never done anything like this before.”
She was impressed by the way Elite London looked after the young girls and the emphasis it placed on good health and nutrition.
“As a parent, I was very impressed. Emma is a very healthy eater she does event riding and plays hockey and you can’t do all those things if you are hungry. They had Ian Marber, the Food Doctor, supporting them and they were chaperoned 24/7 and were terribly nice.”
However, Barbara said Emma has no plans to leave school and is expected to go to university. Modelling work would happen during breaks.
“Like anything else, you need to balance everything; if she can do jobs during half-term, then great,” she said.
Barbara said the contest had “snowballed” on the family: father Andrew and Emma’s big sister Molly, who is soon off to study at Cambridge.
“We didn’t expect her to win she didn’t, either, as apparently she was sitting in the back when they announced the winner and wondered why they were calling her name and thought ‘no way!'”
What has pleased the family, who now spend the bulk of their time in the Bahamas, was that Emma was commended not only for her looks, but her personality and attitude.
“I was told Emma was a nice, attractive girl and easy to work with. People don’t want to work with you when you are rude. We wouldn’t tolerate that at home, so the most important thing we heard was that she was nice and easy to work with and I think that comes through on the camera.”
Michelangelo Chiacchio, director of Elite London, said of the project, “In its 27-year history, Elite Model Look has discovered some of fashion’s most enduring faces, and the project continues to launch the careers of the industry’s most in-demand models, including Cindy Crawford, Gisele Bundchen and Linda Evangelista, with every season bringing new Elite Model Look girls to the world’s catwalks and leading international fashion and beauty campaigns.”