TELFAR kicks off its 20th anniversary by introducing New Models, a live, unscripted casting show that sets the stage for the brand’s return to the runway this Juneteenth weekend. Before models hit the catwalk, the audience takes the lead. The one-hour premiere airs Wednesday, June 18 at 8PM ET on a TELFAR TV microsite, and it places casting power directly in the hands of viewers.
The brand frames New Models as more than a search for talent. It acts as an open challenge to the concept of modeling itself. TELFAR doesn’t limit the project to fashion, it pushes the idea of visibility and performance through a lens shaped by its own media platform, TELFARTV. The show creates a space for radical self-expression, movement, and performance, culminating in real-time public voting. Contestants move through a series of challenges before the audience votes live to determine who will walk in TELFAR’s Juneteenth runway event.
TELFAR first launched TELFARTV in 2021 as a way to sidestep traditional media platforms and create its own space for broadcasting, free from control or gatekeeping. TELFARTV operates as public access media, running unscripted content rooted in community and presence. New Models expands that approach by inviting viewers to interact, vote, and watch as a cast of contestants compete not just through physical presentation but through presence, expression, and energy.
This one-hour season runs as a single episode, available exclusively through TELFAR TV. During the stream, viewers can react in real time with emojis, chat with others, and cast votes through prompts that appear at timed intervals. The voting process doesn’t sit in the background, it shapes the outcome of the show and directly influences who takes the runway.
Part casting, part game show, part media experiment, New Models strips the process down and builds it back up through TELFAR’s own system. The format asks a series of direct questions: What is a model? Who decides who gets seen? The answers play out through participation rather than closed-door judgment. TELFAR hands the power of decision-making to the audience.
As the anniversary weekend approaches, New Models functions as both casting and call to action. By making the model selection process open and participatory, TELFAR extends its long-held principles of access and agency. The show doesn’t just showcase who gets to walk, it shows how they get there. And this time, the audience decides.
