BABELLE
After gracing catwalks across the globe, being adorned in the finest fabrics, doing her ravishing walk and being the always charming personality she is now a mere breath away from becoming the next Nr.1 super-model. It's a sheer impossibility not to embrace her inimitable sense of style, here is...
When Maas visited New York in 1998, he accidentally 'bumped' into Amanda Lepore at the David LaChapelle's show at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. Maas was fascinated by her looks as the result of many plastic surgery. Her looks were based on the Jessica Rabbit cartoon character (who framed Roger Rabbit) The idea that a person of flesh and blood transforms herself into a cartoon character led to the idea of a cartoon who has the ambition to become a person of flesh and blood and lives her life in our world.
Years later a careless sketch (a cartoonstyle fashion illustration entitled 'Baboes') was noticed by friend and editor Maurits Brands. He introduced Baboes to LINK-magazine where she starred her first publication. The plan to let Baboes appear in a trendreport twice a year is where her virtual life and model-career starts.
A spontaneous introduction of the first Baboes artworks to Hallmark in the Netherlands, led to the release of the first Baboes-diary, an international style guide was designed and her name was changed to 'Babelle'.
The concept that she escaped the cartoonworld to start a model-career in our 'real' life led to an impressive portfolio of images that are a combination of photography and drawing.
Through the years Babelle became more and more alive. She was asked to give interviews, she featured magazines all around the world, joined the London fashionweek in 2008, had her own stationary line in Brazil ( twice! ) and encouraged young fashion talents to expose their designs and join Babellissimo, her online talentscouting.
BABELLE history
Babelle is the World’s first Toonmodel created by the Dutch artist Roland Maas. The concept 'toonmodel’ comes from 'cartoon model', a virtual character which can be booked as it was a real flesh and blood model. With the launch of Babelle, the term 'toonmodel' was mentioned for the first time.
2001 - The first Babelle sketch appeared in 2001 and drew the attention of an editor of the Dutch fashionmagazine LINK. That’s where Babelles career started.
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2002 - LINK magazine booked Babelle which became her first editorial. From that time on Babelle became the face for their
trendeditorials twice a year until 2009.
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2004 - Hallmark launched the first Babelle diary for 2005. Originally Babelle was named 'Baboes' in the Netherlands. Since that time a licence programm has been
developed. Later that year her name 'Baboes' was changed to 'Babelle'.
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2005 - Babelle became more and more famous. The toonmodel concept drew the attention of both girly magazines and high profile fashion/design magazines. Both wanted to know all about this unique creature.
2007 - An interview which appeared in an appendix for several Dutch newspapers led to an online Babelle design contest. Participants had to design an outfit for Babelle. A month later the Talentscouting became a permanent monthly section of her site, the idea to start a platform for young fashion talents was born.
2008 - While appreciated by young talents, Babelle became more alive when the progressive Belgian fashion designer Romy Smits asked Babelle to model for her exclusive creations. Babelle presented Romy’s design in a short movie, launched at the London Fashion Week. Later the film was published in the Future Tence section at Nick Knight' s Showstudio.com
2008 - Babelle was booked to star the Reyberg brochure for their 2009 swimwear collection
2009 - Babelle's first notebook-line by Jandaia was released in Brazil.
2010 - The second Back-to-school line Brazil became reality and Babellissimo, the official online talentscouting was released online in October.
2011 - While Babelle became more and more popular and many young fans discovered Babellissimo, the Babelle license required a lot of attention and commercial (& technical) developments to compeat with the market. Maas fell his role as creative and performing artist was gradually changed to moneymaking and visionary businessman.
2012 - The lack of an assisting - matching and congenial - business agent has ultimately led to the enevitable and sore decision to release Babelle. Finally Maas had choosen to work in his studio and do what he can do best: creating art.
Besides an extensive and impressive Babelle portfolio there is
still a lot of inspiration to revitalize the original Babelle concept as virtual model.
2021 - A research team at the University of Hamburg, led by Judith Brachem and Lucas Stübbe investigating virtual clothing from an art historical perspective, declare Babelle the first virtual fashion influencer. Babelle is presented during the accompanying exhibition virtuelles Beiwerk