It started with a dream. It led to two shows this week at New York Fashion Week.
Maranda Vanelli, a Batavia High School Class of 2021 graduate, started an Instagram account when she was 15 and got scouted by an agent in Austin, Texas.
“The reason I started the Instagram was because my mom had a dream about it,” Maranda said. “She envisioned all of this pretty much. She envisioned I would get scouted through it, she would take pictures of me and we would start it as a modeling page.”
When she was 16, Maranda came to New York City with her agent and mother for a few days in the summer. There she signed with an agency called Fusion Models. While finishing high school, she did do a few castings but didn’t really book anything.
“Then a few days after I graduated, I came out to the city to do some castings. I ended up booking a job for (designer) Dennis Basso,” she said. “From there I ended up in a model house. I’ve been working ever since.”
This is despite Maranda suffering from postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and multiple other chronic illnesses since she was a child. POTS is a condition that affects blood flow. It involves the autonomic nervous system, which automatically controls and regulates vital bodily functions, and sympathetic nervous system, which activates the fight or flight response.
As a child, Maranda missed all of school from middle to high school because of POTS, requiring a lot of home schooling.
“There is hope for people with chronic illnesses and diseases (to become a model). They can overcome it,” she said, adding while she still does have the chronic illness she is medicated for it now.
Maranda’s daily routine is going to different castings where she meets a variety of designers and clients. When she started working, there were long days where she modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, Macy’s, DKNY, Steve Madden. Recently, she did the Claudia Li and Greedilous by Tilda shows at New York Fashion Week.
New York Fashion Week is a bi-annual event – in February and September of each year – of runway shows and presentations that run over the course of seven to nine days. The events are used to highlight designers’ fashion collections for the next fashion season to buyers, the press and the general public.
Li’s released her fall winter 2022 ready-to-wear collection on Feb. 16 during a show titled “Once upon a time…” The collection was described as an homage to Li’s Chinese heritage, drawing inspiration from films by director Zhang Yi Mo and memories of ancient Chinese bedtime stories that Li’s Grandma told her as a child, according to the blog Fashion Week Online.
Claudia Li | Fall Winter 2022/2023 | Full Fashion Show in High Definition. (Widescreen – Exclusive Video/1080p – New York Fashion Week) #Claudiali #FW22 #NYFW
The Greedilous by Tilda collection, titled “Flowers on Venus,” was unveiled Feb. 14. The boundary-pushing show from Seoul-based fashion label Greedilous represented a collaboration between the label and LG AI Research’s latest artificial intelligence, Tilda, wrote Fashion Week Online.
Greedilous fuses technology with eco-friendly fashion by using upcycled materials. The line is known for “its use of unique prints and pattern designs atop sleek silhouettes, representing an individuality that captures a youthful and rebellious spirit,” write Fashion Week Online.
Noted Fashion 360 Magazine: “The Flowers on Venus Collection has an eclectic vibe that most could never pull off. Some of the looks are tropical and cheery with loose, flowy fabrics. Others have a more edgy feel with tapered leather and metallic zippers.”
Booking fashion shows can have models going to up to 30 castings the week before the show. Maranda said.
“Pretty much I get an e-mail the night before around 6 p.m. from my agent telling me what jobs I have for the next day. Then I just go to the job in the morning, I’ll take the subway or get a Lyft,” Maranda said. “They’ll prep me, do my hair and make-up, and I pretty much shoot all day.”
Like a lot of models, Maranda started doing e-commerce, which shows customers what a piece of clothing looks like on. She started working with NET-A-PORTER, which does a lot of designer clothes. While her face wasn’t even in it, she said she was so excited to start booking work. It was a two-hour commute every day because it was in New Jersey. Eventually she started to book more jobs in New York City and those had her face in it, such as Macy’s.
While Maranda hasn’t gotten jobs in foreign countries yet, she is on option for a job in Columbia. She’s also been meeting with agencies in Europe. Maranda has already signed in Greece and hopefully will sign in Milan, Paris and London.
“I love (modeling),” Maranda said. “I love the way I can connect. Just every person on set and every person I meet at these castings and other models, they’re all so different. Everyone here is from different places.”
For people who are also interested in becoming a model, Maranda said to be your natural self; don’t try to change yourself.
She said rejection is completely normal. A lot of designers and casting directors are looking for a very specific look, and if you don’t have that look don’t take it personally — you might get it next season.
