‘America’s Next Top Model’ partners with Italian Vogue for new season

The lineup of guest judges on the new season of “America’s Next Top Model” may not mean much to the average viewer.

But in the fashion world, Patrick Demarchelier and Matthew Rolston need no introduction. And fashionistas know why the sought-after photographers decided to climb aboard the reality modeling competition in its 15th cycle, which premieres Sept. 8.

Two words: Italian Vogue.

The magazine, considered the most prestigious fashion publication in the world, has partnered with the CW show for the first time. Its powerful editor, Franca Sozzani, will appear on the program as a judge, and the winner will be featured in a six- to eight-page spread in the magazine early next year, as well as in an additional spread and cover of its May 2011 supplement, Beauty in Vogue.

That has given a reenergizing jolt to the program, whose past winners were featured on the covers of Marie Claire, Jane, Elle and most recently, Seventeen.

“We’ve always been a very mainstream show … a hidden secret or guilty secret of the fashion world,” said executive producer Ken Mok. “No one confesses out loud to watching it. But the second we went out and told the world that Italian Vogue was going to be the prize … that completely opened the doors, carte blanche, to any and everybody we wanted.”

“All of a sudden it’s not ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ ” added creator, host and executive producer Tyra Banks, switching to an upper crust accent. “ ‘It’s “America’s Next Top Modelle,” dahling.’ It’s totally elevating it with the fashion industry.”

Designers Diane von Furstenberg, Zac Posen and Roberto Cavalli serve as judges this season. IMG (which recently struck a new deal with Banks to represent her once again) came aboard as the modeling agency that will sign the winner, replacing Wilhelmina Models. And the contestants spent part of the show in the fashion hub of Milan, where they visited design houses such as Versace.

It remains to be seen how the dose of high fashion will affect the fortunes of “Top Model,” which averaged 3.3 million viewers last season, down from its peak of 5 million in 2004, when the show aired on the now-defunct UPN. As of now, the CW has committed to only one more cycle of the program after this one.

“Nothing we did is going to turn off people who are already fans, but for people who are maybe a little snobby or fashion insiders, there’s going to be more,” said executive producer Laura Fuest. “For the girl in the Midwest who goes to the mall, it’s still the same show you love.”

When Banks created “America’s Next Top Model” eight years ago, the supermodel-turned-television host said she purposefully set out to make a reality competition aimed at commercial modeling, not haute couture. “In the beginning I felt like I didn’t want to be too high fashion,” Banks said. “I wanted to bring this world that is mysterious and intimidating and exclusive, I wanted to make it more palatable for an everyday American girl.”

That approach, however, often seemed discordant with the show’s pledge to produce the country’s “top model.” Although Mok said a dozen past competitors now have successful professional modeling careers, they have not become household names like Banks. With the show’s new emphasis on high fashion, however, the winner could be immediately launched into the industry’s top echelon.

Banks said she believes her viewers are hungering to learn more about that world, noting that she frequently reads comments from young fans imitating terms such as “edgy” and “fierce” that she uses on the show, and describing their efforts to re-create the exotic poses of high fashion models.

So when Sozzani called earlier this year to ask Banks if she would contribute to Italian Vogue’s new website Banks seized the opportunity and proposed a collaboration between the magazine and the show.

The partnership appealed to the editor, who is hoping to draw young American women to the new website, which is in Italian and English. Sozzani was already familiar with “Top Model,” which she said is very popular in Italy.

“Usually the people who look at these kinds of programs, they are quite young, and so maybe now they’ll feel interested in who should be on the cover of Vogue,” Sozzani said.

The higher stakes created an extra layer of frisson in the already drama-filled show. Banks, who got her start in high fashion before gaining wider fame as a commercial model for such brands as Victoria’s Secret, said she spent more time with the contestants this cycle acting as a “den big sister.”

Viewers may find the group quirkier than past competitors: Because she had the imprimatur of the industry’s top players, Banks said she felt liberated to select more unconventional women.

“That’s why I started the show to begin with, to expand the definition of beauty, to show girls that you don’t have to have cookie-cutter specific features to be considered beautiful,” she said. “I had one person that was visiting the set was like, ‘Wow, this is an interesting bunch,’ with their eyebrows raised. I was like, ‘What are you trying to say, my girls are funny-looking? Thank you!’ ”

(A promo featuring one contestant, a startlingly skinny 6-foot-2-inch woman, already caused a stir because Banks appeared to be endorsing her look. In a post on her website Banks apologized for the clip, which she had not approved, and said it was misleadingly edited.)

Sozzani described the contestant who won this season as “special,” though she admitted the process of judging the models took some getting used to.

“It’s very strange because usually I see the book or talk to the photographer and they show me their photos,” the editor said. “When they’re in front of you, it’s different because it’s an emotional approach for the girls. They cry. So it’s more difficult.”

Nevertheless, she said she is interested in continuing the partnership between the show and Italian Vogue for the next cycle. “I think it’s good for the magazine because it shows the final moment when you succeed in your dream to become a model,” Sozzani said.

Buoyed from their experience this season, producers are now strategizing about other big names they can lure in for the next go-round. Topping their list: iconic fashion photographer Stephen Meisel, perhaps best known for the images he took of Madonna for her book “Sex.”

“We feel [by] upping the brand that we’ve kind of reset the show,” Mok said. “It’s given us a new lease on life.”

matea.gold@latimes.com