Nepo-babies, curvy, non-binary and fabulous: This is modelling now

For Romance Was Born designers Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett, model Elliot Cowen’s status as a “nepo-baby” is the least interesting thing about him. With dramatic eyebrows, androgynous personal style and a pout worthy of cupid, the striking son of supermodel Emma Balfour and photographer Andrew Cowen also ticks the increasingly important diversity box.

Cowen’s unique set of skills were ample qualification to appear in the exuberant Australian label’s Stronger Together collection at Carriageworks on Tuesday evening, alongside a cast proudly promoted by Sales and Plunkett as “all queer”.

Cowen’s journey to the Romance runway came naturally, rather than from parental pushes. “Mum decided to keep the fact that she was a supermodel in the ’90s a secret,” Cowen says. Balfour rose to international fame alongside Kate Moss in the waif era, appearing in campaigns for Versace and on the runway for Chanel.

“Eventually, the genetics just kicked in. On my first job with mum for Harper’s Bazaar, the photographer was surprised that I could face the camera without blinking.”

With eyes wide open Cowen has proceeded to wear high heels in the pages of Vogue Australia, and lipstick on the runway for designer Jordan Gogos. He cemented his position at the bankable forefront of modelling’s shift towards diversity in the latest global campaign for luxury label Bottega Veneta.

“I never expected to get into modelling,” Cowen, 18, says. “I don’t think anyone thinks ‘I’m gorgeous, I should model’ but it all fell into place. I enjoy the creativity and feeling of collaboration and I have always loved fashion.”

Cowen is part of Australian modelling’s new generation, also represented on Romance Was Born’s runway by Milo Hartill, Manahou Mackay, Eloise Humphrys and Christian Wilkins, against the vivid backdrop of artist Paul Yore’s Word Made Flesh installation for World Pride. Yore’s slogans “Nothing to see here,” “I’m not sorry,” and “The truth is out there” found their way onto military jackets, flowing capes and fitted bodysuits through intricate embellishment and bold printing.

“Ultimately, models are the face of the collection,” says Sales. “These days showing diversity is a moral obligation.”