Face the new beauties

Forget Agyness Deyn for a minute: there are three new faces who are being introduced as the new Winter face.

Jourdan Dunn, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Eden Clark are all posing for the November issue of British Vogue.

"The three young models on the cover of this issue have been chosen specifically to showcase different types of good looks, possibly even beauty, in the autumn of 2008," writes editor Alexandra Shulman, for Vogue.com.

They have all kept their personal style while posing for the issue: Jourdan Dunn as the face of young cool black beauty, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley displaying a classic budding sexiness, and Eden Clark, a strong but fragile tomboy look.

The girls are striking, but I find their features a little too cool. It is always the same high cheekbones and full lips.

They have an undeniable fashion appeal, but their faces are not radically different. Jourdan Dunn has a street beauty look, that appeals to most, but I doubt she will revolutionise fashion photography.

Eden Clark however does have a particular face and piercing gaze that might well shoot her ahead of the rest.

Precisely because she does not look like anyone else. She is not beautiful in an obvious way, but she will make you turn your head more than twice if you pass her in the street.

Beauty versus prettiness: what makes a new fashion face

Beauty is a very elusive thing.

Earlier today I was looking at some photos from the Australian fashion week. I was rather surprised to see how the models have very different features from the ones I am used to see on the catwalks.

I know beauty is constantly changing, especially in fashion: agents spot a new girl or a new look every three months.

It was the case with Twiggy, Naomi Campbell, Gemma Ward or Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (one of the new faces of the late noughties year).

Faces change because newness sells.

But I also think there is something more to it. The girls that start the trends have a characteristic: they have presence. That's what makes fashion photography so vibrant.

Beauty is the opposite of prettiness. It has nothing to do with fashion. On the contrary, someone like Angelina Jolie or Christy Turlington still turns heads when she is wearing a dirty old tee-shirt and no makeup.

It's a fascinating (and unfair!) gift. That's why, it's worth looking back twice at someone who caught your attention. Beauty is like a collectible you can store in your memory. A bit like an uncanny landscape.