In Her Words: Vicki Sasso, Modeling Agency Executive, Blazing A New Trail & Making A Comeback
Seasoned agency pro encourages mature models to “Embrace Your Age” and use their experience to their advantage. She is also following her own advice.
I was 26 and divorced with two young boys. I had to figure out what type of work I could do. The reality is that I'm just a people person. I love people. I ended up going into Manhattan, becoming an assistant booker for a modeling agency, and within five years, I was running that woman's company. In 1995, when I was about 30, I had an opportunity to join another agency so I quit the company that I was running. Three months in, the guy spoke to me in such a degrading tone. I needed the job, but I was done. I said to him “You know what I did to the last person that spoke to me that way? I divorced him.”
I quit that job and as I'm walking out of the office, two of the top producers, Tom and Laszlo grab me. They had never seen me stand up for myself that way. “Don’t quit! Come back,” they said and I’m thinking “Oh my gosh what did I do?” I went home. My phone rang. I got calls from Ford and Wilhelmina agencies offering me jobs. Three days later, I went back to the office to pick up some stuff. Tom and Laszlo grab me again and ask me what I’m gonna do. I tell them I'm either working for Ford or Wilhelmina and they say “Why don’t you start your own company?” I said, “I have two kids to raise. I don't have money to start my own agency.” But they don’t give up. “C’mon, open up your own company” they say. “We have the money. We’re backing you,” and they each give me a kiss on my cheek. I opened up Gramercy Models. I had it for 25 years and I was very successful for 21 of those years.
In 2013 my mother passed away. I never thought her death would have affected me in the way it did. My heart broke. I couldn’t focus. My business was suffering. I was depressed and screwing things up. Friends in the industry were pulling me aside and asking what was wrong with me. Then in 2015, my ex-husband passed away. My kids found their father dead in his home. There were feelings of guilt. We had a bitter divorce. There was nothing amicable about it or in the years following the divorce. It was a lot. Even though we were divorced for many years, he was still my children's father. My heart was broken for them as their mother.
I met my husband when I was working in a hair salon around the corner. He came into the salon, and he swept me off my feet. He was very charming. We were engaged in three weeks and married in six months. We had everything — a boat, a house upstate, nannies, clothes flown in from Paris. I went from poor to rich to getting a divorce and selling my designer clothes and all my jewelry. I sold everything so I could raise my kids. Our divorce was bitter, and he said he wanted to make me suffer every day. I went through hell. There was infidelity on his end, but he was always angry at me for leaving.
The sad part is that after all those years of being divorced and angry, we were finally at a point where we almost were friends, and then he died. We both had relationships across the years. I was engaged a couple of times, but I got spooked. His girlfriends hated me. When he died, I went to his house and there was an old picture on his mantle of us with our boys. We were divorced for many, many years. At his funeral, I sat at his casket and talked to him and said “I forgive you for what you put me through.” If it wasn’t for my ex, I wouldn't have Angelo and Andrew. I love my children so much and he left everything to my children.
I kept going with Gramercy and then CoVid hit, and no one was working. No one was booking models. Designers weren’t asking for models. There was nothing to sell. I was used to making thousands of dollars a day and now I was making $250 a week. I didn’t realize what a wonderful life I had until it was all gone. With the pandemic on top of losing my mother and my ex-husband, I was emotionally and mentally done. I just couldn’t keep running the agency.
After closing Gramercy Models, I decided to work for a boutique modeling agency owned by two millennial women. I was in a better headspace, and I figured I’m going to mentor these two women. I have a lot of experience. I was there for three years. I wanted them to succeed, and I wanted to book models. I was motivated. They treated me like I didn’t know the industry.
I kept seeing models walk in and they would say “No, they are too old,” or they are this or that. The model would be 26 years old, and they’d be saying “Too old.” I’m thinking to myself “What do they think of me? That I’m a dinosaur?” Every once and a while we’d get a call from MAC Cosmetics asking if we had anyone 40, 50, or 60 years old. We maybe had one model who would be a fit so we would never get the booking.
One day, this beautiful model walks in. She’s a beautiful curve model — black, with curly silver hair. She’s 65 years old and a working model. She’s stunning. For me she was a breath of fresh air. She's the Silver Fox. My boss was so rude to her. She didn’t even come out and say hello. She said, “Vicki, we don’t have anything for her. ”
So I said “I’m going to book her,” I got in touch with this fashion designer, Batsheva, who I had booked young models with in the past and I asked her, “Do you want an extraordinary looking older woman?” I’m grabbing the model’s pictures from Instagram and DMing her and I got the booking for New York Fashion Week. I jumped out of my seat, I was so excited! She signed with me for the week. She’s my Burlington Coat Factory model too. We had such a connection because we’re more mature. Since the day we met, she’s been my muse.
I'd already been down this road with people trying to make me feel irrelevant. I sat down with my boss and said “Listen the next time you talk to me like this, I’m going to do to you what I did to the last person that spoke to me this way.” I stuck with them for three years. I was still being treated with disrespect and it was not flowing to Vicki anymore.
It was February when I quit. Within two weeks, on March 1, 2024, I opened up Seasoned Models. When I booked Gwendolyn DeVoe for New York Fashion Week 2023, ABC Nightline got wind of it. They interviewed me about Seasoned Models. Things have just started to blow up. I don't even have a website yet, but I have my office in the city. I’ve always had an assistant; I’ve been the boss all my life. Everyone’s always yessed me to death. This is different. I’m a startup.
I like to say “Silver is sexy. Embrace your age. I want to see wrinkles.” I had one of the Seasoned Models tell me that when she was younger, she was told not to say her age. I said “We’re not hiding ages.” Our models are experienced models who are beautiful for their age. We don’t just represent normal people who happen to be beautiful. I have models that are 40, 50, 60, and even 70 who are 5’11 and can walk a runway. They’re hot! Most model agencies represent young models, and they have direct board with 30, 40, 50, and up. My company is all direct board models. I have models from 30 years old to almost 80 years old. Now my goal is to do Fashion Week again this year. I’m going to push. I signed about 30 models. I’m still building it up and I will never give up because this is my baby. I just love this industry so much.
If you could go back and give advice to your 25-year-old self, what would you say?
I wish I was a bit smarter financially. I would tell her to save more. Invest. I was never taught that. It’s funny: my children are in finance and do very well. They are good with money and investing. So to 25 year old Vicki I would say “Be smarter with the money you earn.”
Belle Curve Stories is about women living their lives with grit, grace, and growth. What do those three words mean to you?
Grit is rolling up your sleeves and knowing what you need to do to survive and make things right. I went from growing up very poor to marrying a very wealthy older man and then getting divorced and being poor again. I already knew how to be poor. My mother raised five kids by herself. We're talking five kids in three rooms. The girls had the bedroom. The boys had the living room sofa sleeper. We were on welfare. We didn't realize it because my mother was such a good mother. That was my life. I was blessed even though we grew up poor and we didn't have money. Still to this day my brothers and sisters and I call each other every day. We’re very close and that’s been a real blessing for all of us.
When you go from poor to rich to poor, it changes you. At 30 years old, I became so successful with Gramercy Models that I bought my partners out in two years. I owned the whole company myself for 23 years. I didn't run it down to the ground. I just didn’t make good financial decisions about my business and then there was nothing left to it. I had to start all over again.
Grace makes me think of my godmother. Her name was Grace, and she was a huge influence on my life. Grace is a beautiful thing. Grace is politeness, good manners, forgiveness. Forgiving my ex-husband was showing grace.
Growth is everything that I've experienced in life. Having forgiveness is growth. I'm still working on it. This weekend, I'm going to sound therapy with my son for the weekend. I'm going to drive for four hours upstate somewhere. I'm doing that to clear my mind and to clear my negative energy. That's very important. All the negative experiences are a part of life that gets you to a certain point, but you don't want to carry it with you forever.
Vicki Sasso, 59, founder, Seasoned Models, is bringing more than 30 years of experience in the modeling business to this new venture. Previously the owner of Gramercy Models, a traditional agency, Vicki is now specializing in representing mature, experienced models through her new agency. She has hit the ground running, encouraging her models to “Embrace Your Age” and promoting the idea that “Silver is Sexy.” Her industry and the media is sitting up and taking notice. Vicki raised two sons as a single mother. They are now adults with their own families and she is now also a proud grandmother. Seasoned Models is her new baby, and she’s committed to its growth. Follow Seasoned Models @seasonedmodelsnyc.
