Mariana Verkerk

Mariana Verkerk was born and raised in Schiedam, a town just outside Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She started working at the age of 16 for an American Shipping Company. At the age of 20, she ran into a fashion journalist who convinced her to go to New York City to start a modeling career.

Shortly after arriving in New York City, she met with different agencies. All of them rejected her, telling her she was too old - at that time she was already 21. Mariana went back to the Netherlands, though she had fallen in love with New York. Therefore, a few months later she decided to pack her bags and head for the Big Apple again. Without having an agency a young designer asked her to walk the runway for him and from that moment on her career went fast.

Modeling

From the moment she walked her first fashion show, her career developed vigorously, especially after signing with Elite Model Management. During her time at the agency, she worked with other supermodels, such as Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Tyra Banks.

As a model, Mariana travelled all over the world to walk fashion shows for i.a.: Michael Kors, Nicole Miller, Thierry Mugler, Carolina Herrera, Bill Blass, Victoria's Secret, Bogner, Maidenform, Escada, Gloria Vanderbilt, Paloma Picasso, Halston, Zang Toi, Akris and Anne Cole.

Mariana has appeared on the cover and inside pages of i.a.: Elle magazine, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Paper magazine and Forbes.

Coaching

During her modelling career, Mariana was represented by Elite Model Management. In 1983 Elite Model Management started Elite Model Look, an annual fashion model event to discover female fashion models. Elite asked Mariana to coach the new fashion talents on the runway.

While her modelling career continued, Mariana was presented with the opportunity to become the runway coach for Model Search America (nowadays Mogull Talent), which at the time was one of the largest and most respected scouting companies in the US. For ten years Mariana traveled across the country, attending conventions, giving motivational speeches along with her runway sessions. Over the years she taught tens of thousands of people how to walk the runway.

Television

In 2005 Mariana was asked to become the runway coach and a jury member for Scandinavia’s Next Top Model. Afterwards, Norway’s Next Top Model, Benelux Next Top Model and Hollands Next Top Model followed. As for Holland Next Top Model, she had been a judge for five seasons and consequently became a television personality in The Netherlands. During that time, she also appeared in other Dutch programs as Atlas and ‘Jouw vrouw/Mijn vrouw VIPS’.

Her role as a judge and coach in Hollands Next Top Model made Mariana the ‘Queen of the Catwalk’ in The Netherlands. She received hundreds of messages a day from boys and girls who wanted to become a model. This is how the idea of The Model Convention was born in 2008. The Model Convention brings agencies as Women, Wilhelmina, Ford Models USA, Donna Models Tokyo, Storm London and many more together in Amsterdam. Undiscovered talents who are dreaming of becoming real models can attend the event with the opportunity to be scouted by one of the agencies. The Model Convention takes place once a year at the ‘Huishoudbeurs’.

Since 2009, Mariana regularly produces and choreographs fashion shows all over the world. Her contribution across the globe includes China-, New York-, Los Angeles- and Amsterdam- Fashion week. Besides fashion shows, she started in 2012 with producing commercials for brands as McDonald's, FBTO, Rabobank and Marie Stella Maris. Furthermore, Mariana was responsible for the U.S. production of Matt Simons’ music video: Catch and release.