He Manages Super Egos During New York Fashion Week

Akeem Rasool is an agent to Naomi Campbell and other supermodels

- RAY A. SMITH

As a boy in Harlem, Akeem Rasool idolized Naomi Campbell and other 1990s supermodels. He devoured every fashion magazine they appeared in and followed their exploits from the catwalk to Page Six.

When, as a young model agent in 2017, Rasool got to meet Campbell about potentially representing her, he kept his cool. "I was a little star-struck but I immediately put my agent hat on," he said. "I was being more analytical and reserved because I wanted to do my homework and strategize, like I do with any model I take on."

The two have worked together ever since, and Rasool has played a key role in extending 54-year-old Campbell's prominence way beyond the typical fashion model's shelf life. She remains booked and busy, with 2024 highlights including a fashion-line collaboration, the covers of Harper's Bazaar and V magazines, and catwalk struts for Ralph Lauren, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana.

In an industry known for highmaintenance and outsize personalities, Rasool deploys equal amounts of empathy, rationality and sternness as an agent. Those skills have earned him the respect of influential casting directors who select models to star in the buzziest runway shows, ads and magazine spreads. Last fall, Rasool, who is model-thin and stylish, with a shaved head, expressive eyes and a wide smile, was promoted to run the fashion talent-management company Supreme New York, a unit of Elite World Group. It owns top modeling agencies representing star models including Kendall Jenner and Adriana Lima.

New York Fashion Week, which officially began this past Thursday and runs through Tuesday, marks his first American fashion week overseeing an agency.

"I've never had to actually be someone's boss so that's a bit weird," said Rasool, who is 38. "Whether it's they don't have hot water, their kid is sick, that now falls on me to manage. That's a new challenge for me."