Kalifornien är mer, mycket mer än IT, Los Angeles, San Francisco, de magnifika bergen, försvarsindustrin och den enorma San Joaquindalen.

Kalifornien är också sol och hav och blonda brunbrända bikiniklädda beach babes och Cindy Kauanui som bor i La Jolla nere i södra Kalifornien marknadsför kaliforniska strandtjejer på den amerikanska modemarknaden. La Jolla uttalas f.ö. ‘La Hoja’ och betyder ‘Juvelen’ på spanska.

Den kaliforniska strandkulturen populariserades i dussintals dåliga surffilmer på 1960-talet som filmades så nära Hollywoodstudiorna som möjligt för att hålla nere budgeten. Sambandet mellan badblondiner och mode är inte självklart men Cindy Kauanui har lyckats där andra har misslyckats och hennes företag Jet Set Agency har idag en unik plats på den amerikanska modemarknaden.

Det bör tilläggas att den där typiska kaliforniska strandkulturen som vi ser i otaliga av Hollywood B-filmer endast existerar nere i södra Kalifornien. Här uppe i San Franciscoområdet kommer havsströmmarna från Alaska och här badar man inte som man gör nere i La Jolla.

Booth Moore skriver om Cindy Kauanui och hennes strandmodeimperium i Los Angeles Times: Gidget Gone Global With surfer girls and guys recruited as models, Cindy Kauanui sold the world on the sun-kissed beach look.

Cindy Kauanui

Jet Set is the source for the clean-faced, sun-kissed and surf-toned ocean goddesses who work with elite photographers such as Bruce Weber and Dewey Nicks, appear in ad campaigns for high fashion designers such as Roberto Cavalli and Versace, and popular brands including Roxy and Guess. Jet Set is about as far away from the New York fashion establishment as it gets, and so are its models. No chain-smoking waifs from powerhouse agencies such as Ford, Elite and IMG. Jet Set’s models are muscled and weathered by sun and sea.

Kauanui knows the look when she sees it — at the beach, the mall, even the local Denny’s. When she finds it, she signs the person on the spot. There was the blond tornado running circles around her mother at Pottery Barn who became the cotton-top toddler in a straw hat in the Ralph Lauren Kids ads. The unknown blond surfer girl with bow lips who followed in the footsteps of Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton, becoming the sultry Guess model. And the surfer from Kauai with an unusual combination of Hawaiian, Japanese and English heritage, who went on to star in the film “Blue Crush.”

For 13 years Kauanui’s vision of Southern California beauty has been smiling back from billboards, glossy magazine pages, TV and movie screens, selling everything from bikinis to Barbie dolls around the world.

‘A great eye for people’

WITH big wave murals and a surfboard for a conference table, Jet Set feels more like a beach clubhouse than an international player in the image-making game. Sure, there are hundreds of toothy head shots on the walls, but there are also plenty of surf stickers. There’s a waiting room where Kauanui takes Polaroids of prospective models, but it’s designed to look like the hull of a ship, with a life preserver.

Not that Kauanui has ever needed one in this business where women are still referred to as girls.

“She was the first one to connect beach culture to the fashion world,” says photographer Bruce Weber, who has been working with Jet Set models from the beginning.