By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
TRAVERSE CITY -- Samantha Higdon grew up in the small town of East Jordan, light-years away from the world of high fashion.
But a recent photo shoot for a top fashion magazine may help land the blue-eyed brunette in modeling's big time.
Higdon, 19, was selected to appear in this month's issue of Italian Vogue, which features the most stylish and avant-garde fashions by the world's top designers. The shoot was part of an "advertorial" for Fendi, an Italian luxury fashion house.
"It was one of my first jobs, so I was really happy," said Higdon, a Los Angeles-based model and first runner-up in the 2009 Miss East Jordan Scholarship Pageant. "A lot of people say that Italian Vogue is more of a fashion guide for the public fashion industry than American Vogue is, just because American Vogue has gotten very commercialized and Italian Vogue is still the high-fashion, artsy deal."
A 2009 graduate of East Jordan High School, Higdon completed her first college semester before moving to California to pursue a modeling career. She got the Vogue job after signing with Vision Model Management, where she is one of the agency's "new faces."
"My agent called me at 7 in the morning and I had to be there by 8," recalled the long-haired beauty, who was photographed in a black luxury car, wearing tight black pants, a bubble-gum pink shirt and big sunglasses. "I wasn't even up yet."
The shoot took place at a studio warehouse in Santa Monica. Although it didn't pay much, "in the long run it's good for the pocketbook because it will get me more jobs," Higdon said.
The 5-foot-9-inch model began her career at 15 with a summer program at the Barbizon Modeling and Acting Center in Traverse City.
At 16 she was selected to attend the school's Southfield center to train for the prestigious International Model and Talent Convention in Los Angeles, where she received awards in makeup, TV beauty and commercial and fashion print. Arriving back home, she found nearly 30 call-backs from agents and others anxious to hire her.
But her career came to a stand-still a day after the convention when a snowmobile accident took the life of her younger sister, Sarah.
"Everything just kind of dropped and I just put everything on hold," said Higdon, who later enrolled in Michigan Technological University to study environmental science. "Modeling was still on my mind, but coming (to California) wasn't anything I thought about. I wanted to be a biologist."
Then her friend and longtime photographer showed Higdon's pictures to a St. Louis manager who sent the model to the Vision agency in Los Angeles. Now Higdon lives in North Hollywood with two other models, where she attends casting calls and baby-sits for four families to help pay for groceries and gas.
Besides the "Vogue Italia" magazine, she has modeled for jewelers, independent designers and small stores as far away as Canada.
Higdon's mother has mixed feelings.
"I'm hoping she's successful but I'm hoping she goes back to college," said Debbie Drew of East Jordan. "What she's doing is scary. But I'm really proud of her for taking this big jump in life and trying something like this out."
