Meet Kane Parker: The teen runway model taking fashion world by storm
In a tale similar to Kate Moss’ discovery after being spotted at an airport in the 90s, 16-year-old Kane Parker was discovered by an agent and is now walking for big fashion houses.
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Kane Parker may be the image of a Botticelli angel, but the teen model from Murray Bridge with sky’s-the-limit earning potential is staying grounded.
The down-to-earth 16-year-old has spoken exclusively to SA Weekend before he takes off for a three-month stint in Europe, where he’s in high demand.
There’s the very real possibility of a big gig with a huge name who wants to talk, but Kane’s lips are zipped because these things are strictly confidential until they happen.
He does, however, reveal how his modelling career took off – while we’re waiting for his trademark red corkscrew curls to dry so we can do photos.
His sister Mia, 19, is tending to his tresses – fluffing them to speed up the process – but not too much, for fear of frizz.
They and their parents, Lisa and Jason, are also keeping an eye out for the ever elusive Sushi, who we requested be in the photo shoot.
Lisa jokes that she doesn’t get out of her cat bed for less than $5000 a day, half of what supermodel Linda Evangelista famously boasted back in the 1990s.
So far, Sushi has been a no-show.
It’s been a whirlwind few months for the family, which also includes middle child Ryan, 17, who couldn’t make our photo shoot.
In July, Kane made headlines when he walked exclusively for Prada at Milan Fashion Week, a gig that reportedly pays about $1000 per model – per hour.
It was his global runway debut. Arriving home at Adelaide Airport, with his parents in tow, Kane spoke about how he thought his cat, Sushi – who Mia will tell you really belongs to her – had missed him.
Kane said how “surreal” it had been for a kid from “the middle of Woop Woop” to be in a Prada show.
But it was – and Kane is – the real deal. His “mother agent”, Finesse Models Australia director Brigette Mitchell, was immediately inundated with emails asking about her hot new discovery. She has said he has the capacity to write his own cheques down the track, but will most likely start out by earning $2000 a day, which is nice work if you can get it.
And, in another sign that Kane has made it, his face appeared on Prada’s Instagram account, before 34 million followers.
For all appearances he was an overnight sensation, but his launch has been like a secret mission, years in the planning.
Joking on social media ahead of his Prada moment that he might stack it on the runway, Kane stumbled into modelling.
It was in no small way thanks to a mystery woman he calls “the mushroom lady”.
The Parker family hasn’t been able to find her since, but two years ago she helped change the course of Kane’s life.
The then 14-year-old and mum Lisa were strolling through Adelaide Central Market when a woman working at a mushroom stall spotted him.
She told Lisa, “You need to get him into modelling”, adding: “He’s got the look that they are looking for that they can’t find.”
Lisa initially laughed it off. “We have always said to him he’s got that kind of persona.”
But the woman was insistent. “She said, ‘No, I’m actually serious’.”
That was a Friday.
On the Sunday, Lisa emailed photos of Kane, including ones with his signature locks straightened, to a few local agencies.
Next came meetings with two of them, before deciding to sign with Finesse Models Australia.
“The first agent we went to didn’t speak to me at all,” Kane recalls. “They just spoke to my parents and it made me feel a bit ostracised.
“ (Brigette Mitchell) was talking to me … I felt comfortable speaking with her and working with her in the future.”
Based in Adelaide, Mitchell is the starmaker who trained Adut Akech in the art of catwalk and also has supermodels Lily Nova and Akiima on her books. But Mitchell knew it would take a slow burn to make Kane the hot new face.
At 14, he was too young. Young teens should be allowed to be kids. Lisa says that Mitchell basically told them: ‘Look, I’d love to represent you but if you are wanting to do things now, then I can’t obviously do that.’
“Kane wanted to wait,” Lisa says. “She really always put his interests first. It’s an industry in which there’s lots of negativity and exploitation, but we’ve had a really good experience.”
Kane’s slow burn included a turn on the catwalk at a community event, the Glenelg Ice Cream Festival, in early 2023, just days before he turned 15 on January 17. A couple of months later, he walked in his first paid gig, The Black Dress runway show that Mitchell co-produced for the South Australian Fashion Industry Association (SAFIA) at Festival Plaza.
Next came the Finesse show FROCK: A Celebration of Fashion and Rock, for which Kane was transformed into David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust phase.
It taught him the art of what those in the modelling business call a “static installation”.
“I just kind of sat in the chair and didn’t say anything,” Kane says.
“I couldn’t really walk in the platform shoes, which were about four sizes too small.”
Kane was taking it all in his stride, in his typical laid-back fashion with a touch of laconic larrikinism.
“He would come and stay at my place and I would ask him to pick up after himself and he would say, ‘I’m a model, I don’t have to do that,’” Mia recalls.
Kane adds that at that stage it was “a bit of a joke”.
“It stopped being a joke when I actually went to Korea,” he says.
The three-month stint was an opportunity to gain experience in another country – Kane’s first trip overseas – and decide if the industry was really for him. He loved it, but admits to living on noodles – the two-minute variety – for weeks on end.
“It gave him an opportunity to model lots of different sorts of clothing with different designers, experiment a bit and get comfortable in front of a camera,” Lisa says.
Shooting campaigns for brands including sportswear label Umbro, it was also a stepping stone to Europe.
Planning to study remotely to complete Year 12, Kane says his classmates at Murray Bridge High aren’t fussed by his new-found fame. “They don’t really care, but it’s awesome that they don’t,” he says.
He also has a part-time job at Murray Bridge’s Bridgeport Hotel. “I’ve had a few people recognise me and I don’t really like it because I’m supposed to be working.
Mia knows Kane had better get used to being spotted. Her friends know “how big of a deal it is”.
“He’s working with some of the biggest brands in the world,” Mia says. “I’ve got my friends calling me saying, ‘What have I missed?’ They’re freaking out but I suppose, to his friends, he’s just still Kane.”
Dad Jason agrees his son is unaffected by his new-found fame, adding he has been “pretty blown away” by the reaction at the global company where he works.
“My colleagues from all the different departments around the world have seen what Kane’s been doing,” Jason says.
Lisa is also keen to point out to extended family and friends that the world of modelling isn’t all “limousines and champagne”.
There’s a lot of work behind the scenes before each runway, and rejections at castings.
“I’ve explained to people Kane is like a coat hanger,” she says. “Sometimes they want a wooden one, sometimes they want one with a crochet cover.”
Kane doesn’t get too hung up about that, preferring to see the funny side of his experiences to date which have included several castings for Paris Fashion Week, where he walked for KidSuper and Issey Miyake.
“I lined up for about an hour (at another casting) and I didn’t even get through the door,” he says. “She was like, ‘Oh, sorry, we don’t want tall people, by the way’, but she kept my comp card!”
There was also the woman in charge of deciding which models would make the cut, who sounded like Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.
“She didn’t say much,” Kane says. “(Her people) would look at her and she would nod her head ‘yes’ or (shake it) ‘no’ and that’s just how they did it.”
Cuddling cat Sushi, who has finally come out of hiding, Kane is refreshingly candid about how green he was and still is.
“I don’t know anything about the fashion industry to be honest,” he says. “All of the brands I have walked for in the past, I had no clue who they were.
“When I walked for KidSuper, the owner (Colm Dillane) asked me if I’d ever heard of them before. I’m like, ‘No, not really’ and he seemed a bit sad, but his team was laughing.”
A collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, KidSuper turned out to be Kane’s favourite show.
“The stylist Wisdom Kaye is really huge, everybody knows who he is,” Kane says. “He was really cool to meet in person.”
Alton Mason, who made history as the first black male model to walk for Chanel, also made an impression.
“Talking to him backstage was just so weird because he’s like a normal person,” Kane says. “You look at him on Instagram and doing all these photo shoots … and he’s a really cool, down-to-earth person. I really enjoyed talking to him.”
That said, Kane skipped the show’s afterparty. It was midnight, he was tired, and supermodels need their beauty sleep, right?
“Kane will be doing his thing and I’ll be staying with a relative,” Lisa says of their next European work trip.
London will be their base, while Kane jets around to various fashion weeks.
“I just need to be in the vicinity … as a sort of ground zero to cook a bit more than just noodles for him, wash clothes and things like that.”
If it sounds like something of a pampered existence for the teen with angelic features who’s living the dream, rest assured Kane won’t have his head in the clouds.
As dad Jason says: “I still make him mow the lawns.”
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