THE year 2009 has been what Pulse calls “a remarkable year for Pulse models”, and one of the agency’s brightest new stars has ensured that their extraordinary run of form was maintained through to year-end.

Sedene Blake, who was introduced to the international market in November, has had a dream start to her international career, when she copped four editorials for different editions of industry bible, Vogue magazine, completing the first three within two weeks of her introduction to world modelling.

To be in the revered Vogue at all, is a feat never accomplished for the great mass of successful international stars, but to be in four different editions and to do three of them within two weeks of start up is an amazing accomplishment.

Italian Vogue, American Teen Vogue, Russian Vogue and Vogue Pella have all shot editorials featuring Sedene. She shot her fourth Vogue (the Russian Edition) with agency colleague Jeneil Williams just a couple of days before returning home for the holidays.

Williams herself has had a brilliant year and it was fortuitous for the two Jamaicans, hailing from the same agency both in Jamaica and New York, to score the Russian Vogue booking. Truth be told though, Jeneil has secured some of the more coveted jobs in the modelling market this season. She made history when she was selected as the only Caribbean model to be photographed for the important Black Girls edition of Italian Vogue which was in circulation last year. The exclusive publication became an instant collector’s item and with keen interest and high demands, publishers Conde Nast had to run several reprints.

Poised for worldwide stardom, Jeneil’s career took on another dimension in 2009 with outstanding campaigns, editorials, as well as distinguished runway collections. She is easily the most successful girl from the region in 2009 and one of the top achievers in the world this year. Her client log is extensive and bookings included a L’Oreal campaign, GQ and Teen Vogue editorials, Nordstrom and Macy’s campaigns Narciso Rodriques Look Book and Victoria’s Secret fashion spread. Jeneil also made a massive impact on the runway circuit with over 25 shows in the major fashion cities while opening collections for Diesel and Paul Smith in New York and London respectively.

As Williams created a whirlwind on the world’s catwalks, her colleague Gaye McDonald has been steadily and quietly making her own mark. The exquisitely elegant 5’9″ model counted Lord & Taylor, JCrew, J Mendel, Bloomingdales and Bennetton among her bookings this year. For the collections, she moved through New York, London and Milan for designers Anne Valerie Hash, Prabal Gurung, Organic by John Patrick and took the reins in Milan for Italian, Salvatore Ferragamo. Both McDonald & Williams have their own multiple show pages on style.com, the online home of Vogue.

The girls weren’t the only ones storming the fashion frontiers this year. The Caribbean’s number one male supermodel, Oraine Barrett was busy with cool gigs for some of the industry’s hottest clients. Oraine was once again campaigning for Ralph Lauren’s Polo and footwear giants Timberland in 2009. His most recent engagement took him to Paris where he shot his Iron Man-inspired Pure Metal eyewear campaign. Barrett too was to get in on the Vogue action with a huge editorial for the Japanese edition and he continued to hold his own on the men’s runway arena for Baby Phat, Gilded Edge and Guerlain, among others at New York Fashion Week.

Not to be overshadowed by the more established presence of Williams and Barrett, another of Pulse’s rising stars, Oreintha Russell, made her debut on the London fashion runways with shows for VanP, Sado, Sorg and PPQ. Signed to D1 Models, Oreintha got her big break in 2009 when she booked a L’Oreal campaign for which she flew directly from Jamaica to shoot in Ireland before heading back to London where she is now based.

Agency counterpart Pulse supermodel Nell Robinson, who is also based in London but represented by Select has also had a stellar year. Robinson has been kept busy on both sides of the Atlantic with campaigns and editorials for Charlotte Russe and Cosmopolitan in the US and Next, Agent Provacatuer and Gentlemen’s Quarterly in the UK. ‘The body’, as she has been called by ARENA and other publications for which she has done cover duties in the past, has had jobs that has taken her as far as Australia this year.

A fixture on the international modelling circuit Jaunel McKenzie, who won the Caribbean Model Search in the same year Nell Robinson took the Supermodel of the Caribbean title, has been in high demand in Europe. She recently flew to Paris and London to complete editorials for French Glamour (shot by ace Jamaican photographer Walter Chin) and British Marie Claire. McKenzie has soared to the top of world modelling in the past few years with the coveted number one spot among black girls (Models.com).

She set the standard for all models to follow with record-breaking struts in her first two seasons at the bi-annual quartet of shows. A favourite of designers, McKenzie’s show line-up reads like a fashion A-Z and the numbers have been even more impressive with 36 shows in her first season alone. From Alexander McQueen to Zac Posen, Jaunel blazed a trail on the catwalks for fashion’s finest designers. She has done the Couture, resort as well as both Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter collections with aplomb.

Now, she has got to a point in her career where she can select just a handful of designers she walks for during the collection season. This year she starred on the exclusive Phillip Lim runway which catered to an elite and exclusive fashion set. Shows aside, among Jaunel’s most recent outings are campaigns for make-up powerplayer Sephora and retail giants Macy, top-flight fashion editorials for Red magazine and Cosmopolitan with Caribbean industry colleague and lensman Marc Baptiste.

All Caribbean Model Search (CMS) alumni, the models are a significant tour de force on the high-flying international fashion industry.