A long simmering rivalry between Jamaica’s two best known modeling agencies – both of which have put scores of beautiful young Jamaican and Caribbean women onto the fashion runways of the world – has exploded into an unseemly war of words.

Kingsley Cooper, executive chairman of Pulse and Deiwght Peters, president and CEO of Saint International had managed to keep their bitter feelings for each other below the radar for many years but recent claims made by both agencies in separate stories in the Jamaica Observer have proven to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Earlier this year and last Monday, the newspaper ran feature articles on both agencies in which their principals provided information on the success of their male and female models whom they reported to be burning up the runways of London, Paris, Milan and New York. They continue a trend set by the 36-year-old Pulse whose model Althea Laing blazed a historic trail for her Jamaican and Caribbean sisters by making the cover of the prestigious Essence magazine.

Cooper’s claims in the Pulse feature angered Peters who did stints for Pulse as a choreographer before founding Saint International 15 years ago and has since sent some of the most successful models to the world markets. He fired off complaints to the Observer which in turn asked Cooper to respond, resulting in a sharp exchange of biting claims and counterclaims.

“I am actually quite disappointed that you (Observer) could have allowed Kingsley Cooper to bamboozle you with such rubbish about the Calvin Klein and other startling fashion misinformation. What is particularly sad about the tone of the article (“Pulsating!” which appeared on October 12) is that Saint achievements are concocted and that what Kingsley Cooper claims to be true is the fact…It is not the first he has done this,” Peters lashed out.

“I have no interest in being a part of a ‘tracing’ match,” Cooper hit back. “I just felt that the long, systematic and outrageous distortions perpetrated by Saint over the years had gone too far and was unfair to persons who blazed the trail and who were the true history-makers.”

Peters was especially incensed by a claim by Pulse that one of its most famous models, Lois Samuels, was “Jamaica and the Caribbean’s Calvin Klein history-maker”, which contradicted an earlier claim by the Saint CEO that that honour belonged to Saint’s Tami Williams, currently one of the biggest faces out of Jamaica. He insisted that Tami appeared for the Calvin Klein Collections, the jewel in the Calvin Klein crown, against the lesser Calvin Klein CK-1 fragance brand for which Lois Samuels posed 20 years before.

Suggesting that Cooper is no saint, Peters said: “No one is trying to steal anyone’s thunder. We do love Lois and respect her for her perseverance (read her book to get the true story)…It is pathetic that Kingsley Cooper, after 35 years, does not know the difference between Calvin Klein Collections and the Calvin Klein CK-1 brand,” added Peters.

“After 35 years, Cooper should have known and hopefully understood that there are several lines under the Calvin Klein brand. In fact, Saint Model Nakeisha Robinson appeared for the CK-1 Fragrance campaign circa 2005. The Calvin Klein Collection as their website defined it – is the most prestigious of them all.

“The reality is Tami’s overwhelming success has Eclipsed Kingsley’s 35 years and he is trying all his might to lay claim to what doesn’t exist. Lois Samuels has never shot for the Calvin Klein Collections. No black model since Iman has shot for the campaign. For the 35-year ‘veteran’ to say because Lois wore clothes in the campaign then it means that she also appeared for the Collections is embarassing at best!”

He sought supporting information from New York-based Elite Model Management agency’s Jon Llani who wrote:

“To put their argument to rest, Calvin Klein has many departments. What makes the collections department unique is that it is the highest price point, image and representation of the brand. All other brands of CK are diffusion lines and rest on the image created by the ‘Collections’ line. Calvin Klein has not used a Jamaican model ever for this line before Ms Tami Williams. Further, Calvin Klein has not used a black model or model of colour for this line since Miss Iman in the 1980’s. Tami has achieved a historic victory in that sense.”

In response, Cooper told the Observer: “Deiwght’s partner at Elite in NY – which represents the model in question and would naturally want to support him – can try to split hairs all he wants, but Lois was the first Calvin Klein campaign girl from the Caribbean. However amazing he says the campaign may be that his girl just got, he cannot claim that she is the first because this is just not a fact. Lois Samuels’ Calvin Klein campaign was not only for the CK-1 fragrance (which is still Calvin Klein). It was also for Calvin Klein clothing (including underwear).

“You can only be first once and Lois deserves her due and respect, something Peters should be happy to give. However, as Peters got his start here at Pulse – when I hired him out of UWI to be our choreographer, and after working for us for years, he started his agency by poaching our models – he is unlikely to give respect,” the Pulse chairman charged. “In any event, the NY agent is probably unaware of Lois and is only responding to what Peters told him, as this campaign was over 20 years ago.”

Peters strenuously denied he was ever on staff at Pulse or poached models from the agency. He said that he went to work for a bank right after university and did event management and choreography for Pulse on the side. He started out by managing a group called Piano before going into fashion modeling,” he said.

“Peters can get as agitated as he wishes but the facts are there. The information is irrefutable and the fact that Lois was the first to have done this and, in fact, did this work several years ago, we will simply not allow him to have a revisionist position on the matter.

Respect is due and he should find a way to give it,” Cooper insisted.

Reacting to other claims in the Pulse article, Peters challenged Cooper to say which of his Pulse models had been on any prominent runway during the fashion weeks in the fast five seasons. He suggested that powerhouse Models.com HOT LIST “today names only Saint models Kai Newman and Tami Williams as Jamaican models. This means they are the only recognisable models of the day”.

“I challenge Mr Cooper to show me the Pulse models who have appeared on Vogue cover apart from Lois Samuels on the German cover shared with two other models…not Vogue inserts which the ignorant may consider to be Vogue cover. The pathetic attempt by Cooper to denigrate the achievement of Saint Models in American Vogue is laughable and desperate at best. For those who understand international fashion, American Vogue is the jewel in the Conde Nast Crown.

“When a model appears regularly – even in one-girl-only editorials – it is beyond exceptional and automatically catapults the girl’s status to ‘Vogue-girl’. He needs to show which of his models have made appearances in American Vogue five times. In fact, he should also respond to the question which two of his models have appeared together in an editorial in American Vogue.

“Nadine Willis was not the first black Gucci campaign model. Kiara Kubuku was the first one. I am sure Cooper may have missed that point. It is tragic that after 35 years, this is the kind of distorted and incorrect information Cooper can try to highlight to save face of a ‘flat-lined pulse’, ” Peters suggested.

“My only interest is that clarity be brought to the fact that Tami Williams was the first Caribbean model to appear for the ultra-prestigious Calvin Klein Collections Campaign. I am not interested in any of Kingsley’s tirades and misinformation or any war of words.

Over the years, despite the best efforts by that same Cooper to use his ‘connections’ to spread propaganda, we are still here and rocking!

“I am not here to re-write history. History does that on its own as we are pleasantly witnessing today with Tami Williams. Saint continues to break records in giving young Jamaicans the opportunities so many need and deserve. We are not interested in redundant viewpoints. From my days at the bank I learnt that certain conflicts are dysfunctional and prove unprogressive. Our eyes are set on the prize: Success for our models and Jamaican pride,” Peters declared.

For his part, Cooper responded: “I gave no dates as to when our models did any particular fashion week assignments. However, it is a fact that our models have done multiples of the runway assignments than all the other models from the Caribbean combined, have done, in the major markets, for major brands, at the fashion weeks over the years. There are listings online from the major runway websites indicating same. Again, the facts and records speak for themselves.

“Hot today, cold tomorrow – being on a ‘hot list’ which is one of many lists that change daily, does not make a model the only recognisable talent at any particular point in time. When a model becomes number one or enters the top 10 or top 20 of the main Models.com list, then that is really worth talking about. I doubt Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner (who is probably the hottest model in the world at this time), or our own Jeneil Williams, are currently on Models.com’s hot list, but are they not recognisable? I would think more so than the ladies from Saint!

“After signing so many models to top agencies around the world for so long, I will not be drawn by any suggestion that we are not telling the truth about our new faces in the major markets. In the current cases, we don’t even have to say ‘wait and see’, as Francine James is already hitting the high notes (including Vogue) after only a few months in the marketplace. Again, the facts and records speak for themselves.

“In addition to Lois Samuels, who is a multi Vogue covergirl, Jeneil Williams was on the cover of Vogue last year. she and Sedene Blake have also been on the cover of Vogue Beauty. No Saint model has been on any of those Vogue covers. One never knows, it could happen one day, but until then…

“Pulse models have appeared in American Vogue including Jeneil Williams and Jaunel McKenzie who under Pulse Management, appeared several times in American Vogue. As important as American Vogue is, French Vogue and Italian Vogue are just as important. Pulse models have appeared in almost every edition of Vogue whether Italian, French, American, German, Japanese, Russian or any of several other editions. Sedene Blake and Jeneil Williams appeared together in Russian Vogue twice.

“I will research Kiara Kubuku and Gucci. It was a settled position by all her agents, at the time she did it, that Nadine was the first black model to lead a global Gucci campaign. I will comment further once I have done my research.

“Pulse ‘flatlined’? We’ll see,” said Cooper.

“Suffice it to say that if we have ever been wrong in any particular, it has been a result of genuine error, which could easily happen over the course of 36 years. We have been right many, many more times than we may have been wrong, if in fact we have been wrong at all. Our accomplishments are so many and several that there is no need to fabricate.”