Brad Kroenig

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Brad Kroenig visiting Karl Lagerfeld's One Man Shown exhibition in Berlin (2006).

Brad Kroenig (born April 23, 1979 in St. Louis , Missouri ) is an American model and dressman . He is one of the best-paid male models in the world and is known for his long-term collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld , who has dedicated a photo exhibition and a book to him, among other things.

biography

Training and career as a photo model

Brad Kroenig was born in 1979, the second child of Barb and Mark Burns, in St. Louis, Missouri, in the American Midwest . He grew up in the city of his birth with his older brother Matthew and younger sister Julie. His siblings had worked as child models at a young age, while his mother had attended several fashion shows in her hometown of Tuscola, Illinois . He attended high school in the southern district of Oakville, where he excelled in football and basketball . For example, Kroenig played as a striker for his high school soccer team Oakville Tigers , with whom he reached the quarter-finals of the local high school championships in 1995 and narrowly missed admission to the Eastern Missouri All-State team in the following two years he was called up in 1998.

In his senior year of high school, he scored 19 goals and 13 assists for the soccer team, which earned him an athletic scholarship to the college of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville . In 2000, Kroenig received a soccer scholarship from Florida International University in Miami and played for the university selection. In 2001 a friend convinced him to audition at some Florida model agencies, whereupon he was successfully accepted by the Ford Model Agency . His first job was an advertisement for the lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan , which earned him a wage of 150 US dollars.

Three months later, Kroenig dropped out of school and focused on a career as a photo model. He moved to New York and for the first year on the advice of his agent, grew his hair, lost weight, and prepared a sedcard . Kroenig soon appeared in magazines and catalogs for Maxim and Abercrombie & Fitch and in 2002 promoted the Italian designer label Fendi together with Linda Evangelista . A year later he adorned the cover of Italian Vogue and Loaded Magazine in London , modeled for Armani and stood next to Marcus Schenkenberg , Axel Hermann and Ryan Burns for photographer Leslie Kee , while photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin worked with him Photographed twenty-five other male models for the November issue of V-Man magazine . Also in November, Kroenig appeared in a twelve-page photo series in Harper's Bazaar magazine , in which he was seen with Gisele Bündchen . Just two years after entering the modeling business, he was making $ 30,000 to $ 45,000 per photo shoot and was able to afford to turn down orders.

Lagerfeld's "One Man Shown"

In 2004, Brad Kroenig worked with well-respected photographer Mario Testino for V magazine and V Man and appeared in the spring and summer campaigns of Fendi, Roberto Cavalli , Tommy Hilfiger and Le Chateau while contributing to the fall and winter campaigns Hermès and again at Fendi and Le Chateau. As a result, Kroenig was named number 1 of the most successful male models by the industry service models.com for six months, a website that is used by the fashion industry, female and male models according to factors such as the cooperation with renowned photographers and companies, their earnings and the number rate the photo shoots. A year later, Karl Lagerfeld photographed him for Chanel , who gave him a similar versatility as the Czech photo model and mannequin Eva Herzigová . “He doesn't need a voice. His face and body suffice and allow all changes. He 'dies' as soon as the headlights go out, and what remains is the most normal 'All American Boy' you can imagine and from whom you would never expect all these transformations, ” said Lagerfeld.

Since 2003, Kroenig has had a long-standing collaboration with the German fashion designer and designer, who is also widely regarded as his discoverer, which culminated in the opening of the Berlin exhibition One Man Shown in 2006 . From November 11, 2006 to February 18, 2007, Lagerfeld presented 350 photographs and multimedia installations in the gallery C / O Berlin that showed the blond American who was described by the German daily Die Welt as an "all american boy" with a look between Ben Affleck and James Dean . The classic black and white portraits, which were created over a period of three and a half years and included both fashion and nude photographs , were successfully accepted by the public. The criticism reacted cautiously and partly negatively to Lagerfeld's photographic studies. While Der Spiegel denounced the uniformity of the images and attested that the fashion designer could also sell boredom perfectly, the American star photographer David LaChapelle criticized Lagerfeld as a “dilettante” who had nothing new to add to the history of photography.

In 2007, Lagerfeld Kroenig photographed together with his former muse Claudia Schiffer for the champagne brand Dom Pérignon in his Paris city ​​palace, which was not released until spring / summer 2009. Also in 2007, the book Metamorphoses of an American was published in which Lagerfeld documented Brad Kroenig's path to becoming the world's most sought-after male model. In 2008, Kroenig appeared in the Chanel short film The Silent Film , while Lagerfeld continued to model him as a model for advertising shoots for Fendi (Fall / Winter 2008), Chanel (Fall / Winter 2010) or photo series in Harper's Bazaar (October 2010) and the Pirelli calendar 2011 (as Zeus) used.

With an estimated annual income of 1 million US dollars (approx. 760,225 euros ) from photo shoots and fashion shows, Brad Kroenig has long been considered the most sought-after and best-paid male model in the world. According to a Forbes study published in May 2008, the Canadian Taylor Fuchs, who is eight years younger than him, has replaced him from this status. At the beginning of January 2011, the industry service models.com ranked him fifth of the ten Icons Men , behind the leading Mark Vanderloo , the Canadian Gabriel Aubry , the US-American Tyson Ballou and Nacho Figueras .

The 1.85 meter tall Kroenig has worked for all the major fashion shows and fashion designers, including Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren , Tommy Hilfiger , Fendi, Perry Ellis , Roberto Cavalli and Wolfgang Joop ; However, his level of awareness is higher in Europe than in his home country. The American plans to continue working as a photo model and dressman until the age of 35 or 40 and, after retiring from the modeling business, to work as a real estate agent. He already owns several properties valued at over $ 2 million, including an apartment in Miami. Kroenig trains his body daily and adheres to a protein diet. In 2008, Kroenig became the father of a son who is Karl Lagerfeld's godchild. Father and son appeared together for Chanel on the catwalk in 2011. Kroenig lives with his wife and child in New York and a house in Vermont that Lagerfeld left to him.

literature

  • Karl Lagerfeld: Metamorphoses of an American: A Cycle of Youth 2003-2008 . Steidl, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-86521-522-2 .

Web links

Commons : Brad Kroenig  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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  4. Lyons, Joe: County Makes Mark On All-State Team . In: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) January 2, 1997, St. Charles, p. 5.
  5. ^ Lyons, Joe: Eastern Missouri High School Group Picks All-State Teams, Honors Coaches . In: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), Jan. 12, 1998, West Post, p. 6.
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  20. Goldstein, Patrick: Claudia Schiffer travels through the centuries for champagne . In: Berliner Morgenpost , July 17, 2007, edition 192/2007, p. 26.
  21. Lagerfeld exhibition “One Man Shown” is extended , ddp Basic Service, January 4, 2007, 2:28 PM GMT.
  22. The world can be cruel to the very, very sweaty . In: Riverfront Times (St. Louis, Missouri) February 21, 2007, News, Columns.
  23. ^ Art calendar: Audi R8 through the eyes of a Karl Lagerfeld . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , May 19, 2007, Auto - Motor - Verkehr, p. 16.
  24. Streib, Lauren: The World's Most Successful Male Models at forbes.com, May 7, 2008 (accessed August 25, 2008).
  25. Biography at models.com (English; accessed January 9, 2011).
  26. a b Kaiser, Alfons: "There is no discussion with me" . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 13, 2011, No. 10, p. 54.
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  28. Maydell, Brita von: "Being alone is my greatest luxury" . In: Bunte, February 24, 2011, No. 9, p. 500x.