In Conversation
The Founding Myth
A candid conversation with co-founder Elias Thorne on the chaotic early days of the agency, the things they got spectacularly wrong, and why he still hates the word "brand".
We met Elias on a Wednesday afternoon in the original VLT office, the same room he and his partner turned into their first casting space with two folding chairs and a borrowed Hasselblad. He made the coffee himself.
VLT
What did VLT look like in the very first year?
Honestly? It looked like an absolute disaster. We had no money, no reputation, and a list of twelve people we believed in completely. We operated out of this tiny apartment near Place du Palais-Royal, not the Vendôme yet, that came much later. We shared a phone line with a dry cleaner downstairs. There were weeks where I genuinely thought: this is it, we're done. And then something would happen, a booking, a connection, a chance, and we'd keep going.
VLT
Was there a single moment where it clicked and you knew this was going to work?
There was a shoot, third or fourth month in, where one of our girls, Camille, walked into a room of editors and absolutely changed the temperature of that room. You could feel it. That thing you can't manufacture or explain. The photographer stopped what he was doing and just looked at her. I remember thinking: we just have to find more people like that and get out of their way.
VLT
What did you get badly wrong early on?
We thought we knew what beautiful looked like. Which is the most embarrassing thing I can say, in retrospect. We were passing on people who were extraordinary because they didn't fit this image in our heads. It took us about two years, and watching those people succeed elsewhere, to understand that we were looking for something we couldn't even articulate yet. Once we stopped trying to define it in advance, everything changed.
VLT
The agency is known for a kind of restraint, no splashy marketing, very little social media presence. Was that a strategy or just how things happened?
It was how we were. We didn't have money for marketing, so we put everything into the work. The people. The relationships. And then at some point it became a philosophy, if the work is right, it talks. We still believe that. It makes our agents nervous sometimes, but it's the thing that distinguishes us. We will never be the loudest voice in the room.
VLT
What do you actually look for in a new face? If you had to put it into words.
Something that makes time slow down. That's the only honest answer I have. When you're watching someone and the clock in your head just stops, that's it. Everything else is secondary. The measurements, the walk, the look, those things matter, of course. But none of it replaces that quality. And it's not always what you expect. I've been surprised more times than I can count.