For South African-born model agent Liz Bell, moving agency headquarters from Gastown to The Shipyards District feels a bit like a homecoming.
The internationally renowned entrepreneur, who worked as a successful model before opening Lizbell Agency in 1992, has called Lions Bay home for as long as she’s lived in Canada. Her business, though, has always been based on the other side of the Burrard Inlet, in Yaletown and then Gastown.
But the increased activity on the North Shore has caught Bell’s attention in recent years.
“I drove around and saw (The Shipyards) area and thought ‘this is so much what the Meatpacking District was like in New York back in the day. And now it’s becoming gentrified and beautiful but it still has that gritty edge,” she says over the phone from the agency headquarters which opened at 370 Esplanade East in March 2018.
The agency’s new double-storey offices, which Bell acquired and then tapped into her drafting experience to custom-design, boasts a mezzanine area, a photography studio, a lounge, meeting spaces and a large terrace overlooking the railway line.
“We have an amazing view and all this light (which is so important) because we take pictures of models all day long,” Bell explains.
From this revamped new space Bell and her team of four staff will continue to manage their roster of approximately 200 models, including children, youth, men and women, many of whom Bell has nurtured from their pre-teen years to become international sensations.
One such model is West Vancouver’s Kate Bock, a Sports Illustrated fixture (with a 15-year and counting career) whom Bell discovered at the West Vancouver Community Centre when Bock was just 12.
There’s also Natalie Ludwig of West Vancouver who has walked the runway for such designers as Saint Laurent, Tommy Hilfiger and Dolce & Gabbana, and has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and the August 2018 issue of Elle Canada.
Rachel Roberts has been featured in such publications as Marie Claire, Vogue and Elle, as well as Biotherm and Nivea campaigns, and Janice Alida, the darling of fashion designer Anna Sui has been seen in Elle, Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, to name just a few.
Though many of the models Bell scouts and develops eventually relocate to work in the world’s fashion capitals of London, New York, Milan and Paris, Bell says many are kept busy working on campaigns right here in the Lower Mainland.
“Vancouver isn’t the fashion capital of the world but we are the largest clothing manufacturing centre in Canada,” she says.
Locally based brands with whom Lizbell’s models have worked include Herschel, Arc’teryx, MEC, Aritzia, Lululemon Athletica, Oak + Fort and Pyrrah.
Interestingly, after years in the modelling world, many of Bell’s models end up working for the agency’s clients in marketing or in buying capacities.
“A number of my models work at Aritzia now, or work at Herschel and are setting up RYU stores, things like that. It’s so amazing to see the transition and know that you’ve given them a helping hand along the way. … They’re like my children,” Bell says.
Bell also has biological children, two sons. While they have both pursued careers outside of modelling (the youngest is a medic with the Canadian Armed Forces and the eldest just completed a masters degree in automotive design in Milan), Bell says her eldest picks up the odd modelling gig locally while working on design projects.
In her years as a model agent Bell has become known for her talent for spotting the next new super star face. And since Bell is based on the North Shore it makes sense that many of the models she discovers are from West Vancouver and North Vancouver.
“This is where I’m scouting; this is where I know people. So much of the industry is all about reputation and recommendations,” she explains.
In addition to representing models, Lizbell Agency manages a roster of talented hair and makeup artists, stylists and set deck artists.
The agency facilitates photographers wanting to gain experience shooting the agency’s models, and holds open casting calls for prospective models every Wednesday.
In her 26 years as an agent in the business Bell has witnessed the impact the internet has had on the fashion and modelling industry.
“When I started the agency I would take a Polaroid picture of the model and then I’d mail it to an agency in New York,” she says.
“Then (the client would fly to Vancouver) and they’d meet and you’d have a casting and then you’d send (the model) off months later … Recently, I took a picture of a girl (I scouted) and posted it on Instagram and before I knew it all the big casting directors were messaging me saying: ‘Who is she? Can we have her right away?’ That’s how fast it is now.”
And while Bell says the Age of Instagram has caused the industry to become more fickle and models more disposable in a sense, Bell says social media is a great networking tool which she has used to scout new talent, and which she says contributes to the exciting, fast-paced and ever-changing nature of the industry.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” Bell says.
Those interested in pursuing representation with Lizbell agency can send submissions via lizbellagency.com or attend open calls which take place on Wednesdays at agency headquarters from 2 to 3 p.m.
