CAA Fashion Taps Herve Bougon to Build Global Business
CAA Fashion has tapped modeling industry vet Herve Bougon to help build its global business.
Christian Carino launched the fashion division of the entertainment powerhouse Creative Artists Agency in 2020, with an eye toward elevating models to the realm of Hollywood talent in pay and brand-building capabilities. The division has inked a number of high-profile signings of models, personalities and stylists, including Indya Moore, Winnie Harlow, Claudia Schiffer, Maye Musk, Kate Upton, Lourdes Leon, Georgia May Jagger, Sir John, Carlos Nazario, Geron McKinley and more.
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Bougon and his Paris-based consulting firm will work with Carino to expand the agency’s fashion network and capabilities internationally, in addition to signing and representing models.
“Herve is among the most accomplished modeling agents in the world and, equally important, he has a conscience to match,” Carino said in a statement. “Beyond representing the world’s most iconic models, he was the architect of Europe’s preeminent modeling network and he built a prestigious commercial business in the luxury market. Herve will help fuel the growth of our business and continue to push forward our mission to make the business more equitable and more protective.”
Bougon has been in the business four decades, beginning at Success Models, where he established Success Men during the 1990s supermodel era, before cofounding Vision Models. He served as the managing director of IMG Europe, leading the agency in London and Paris, and opened IMG Models in Milan. Bougon followed that with the creation of The Lab, a fashion consultancy that works with luxury brands helping identify and sign ambassadors, create campaigns and collaborations.
“I am excited to join forces with CAA. They have been like family to me for more than a decade, as we have worked together to sign a great number of their clients as European luxury brand ambassadors,” said Bougon. “I have tremendous respect for the agency’s intentions to better diversify the artistic and fashion communities and am proud to work closely with my friend Christian and the team to help expand CAA’s global fashion business.”
Carino has made it his mission to change the fashion industry. In addition to offering a more generous commission structure to CAA Fashion talent, he’s wrapped in a message of diversity and self-empowerment as part of his vision.
“We started with the idea that we could leverage our influence as an agency to make things better for women in the fashion business who have been historically underrepresented and undervalued. But we realized we also had an opportunity to celebrate all races, genders, LGBTQ and even those with disabilities….This isn’t a celebration of inclusion for the sake of, it’s with an eye on making everyone the powerful business people they deserve to be,” Carino told WWD last year.
It’s not the first strategic partnership he has forged; CAA Fashion and KCD revealed they were joining forces in August 2020 to create synergies in fashion, entertainment and pop culture, including new business development and events.
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