New modeling agency shares vision with eye for style

A new modeling agency is bringing the fashion world to Shreveport-Bossier. Founded by Antoine and Chante Hood, CH Models was established in August of last year with a vision for helping and developing models of all kinds.

“My husband and I have always had an interest in fashion,” Chante Hood said. “We used to model together, and we’ve done different campaign ads and things of that nature.”

When looking at forming their own modeling agency, the couple drew on a lot of their own wisdom that came from experiences in the past with the modeling industry.

“When I was modeling, I went to a lot of different casting calls and realized there wasn’t a place for people my height back then,” she said. “I wondered, for the ones not industry standard, where do they go? It opened my eyes to the business side of the industry to develop models that weren’t industry standard, because there are all different types of modeling.”

Those experiences contributed to the vision Chante and Antoine developed as they went about planning and launching CH Models, aiming to fully develop each model to maximize their potential and opportunities.

“We really wanted to focus on helping others get into the industry,” Hood said. “We decided to plug into some of the contacts we had prior, and bring something new to this area and help those who are trying to get their foot in the door.”

One way CH Models develops talent is through a number of different clinics that prepare them for potential jobs.

“Our clinics cover anything from industry knowledge to designers, from posing, walking, teaching them the basics of etiquette and professionalism, up to what’s expected from booking a client job,” Hood said. “It’s teaching them how the industry works, the basic to complex of executing those things.”

The clinics also give students the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned and to show others what they’ve learned.

“It’s all about educating them,” she said.

“We do a lot of hands-on clinics and practices to teach them.”

Those interested in potentially becoming a client of CH Models can go to the agency’s website, www.modelsch.com, and click on the “Submit” button.

Submissions will require stat information such as height and body measurements, and once the team receives that submission, the interested party will be asked to send about three to four photos, including a basic headshot and a full body shot, Hood said.

“Once that information is given to me and my husband, we look over that and see if this is a place for them and determine based on looks and stats which market they could go in,” Hood said. “We determine what we could offer them, and my team reaches out to say if we’re interested in working with them further.”

While Antoine is from Texas and Chante is from Florida, the couple was brought to Shreveport-Bossier through his work at Barksdale Air Force Base.

“We have a client list that varies from clients in this area and obviously outside of the state, and I think our main goal is to build more of a client list here,” she said.

“That’s another thing that attracted me to having it based here, because it is a small town, but I feel like a person can definitely thrive being able to expose people to new ideas; that’s how things grow,” she said. “If I have to be that stepping stone to opening doors for people who want to be in the fashion industry, we love to help people do that.”

CH Models is also currently looking to open its children’s division this summer, Hood said.

We want to have a casting calls for kids 5 and up, so I think this will be an awesome opportunity to get kids involved, really giving them an opportunity while they’re young,” Hood said. “A lot of people have been asking us to do this.”

The agency is also looking forward to some big events this spring, including the Spring Thing style show and luncheon on April 23, and Runway to Success Fashion Week during the week of May 23 with Virginia College.

“It’s a full week of very amazing things going on,” Hood said. “It’s definitely bringing something amazing to the city.”

For more from CH Models, check out their Instagram account, @chmodelagency.

- Sarah Crawford