Which modeling agencies represented Melania Trump during her early career?
Executive summary
Melania Trump began her modeling career in Europe with at least one documented contract in Milan (RVR) and worked in Paris before moving to New York, where she was represented by Paolo Zampolli’s Metropolitan operation in the mid-1990s; she was later listed among models recruited to Donald Trump’s Trump Model Management in 1999 [1] [2] [3] [4]. Public reporting relies on a mix of contemporaneous accounting ledgers, agency recollections and later biographies, and there are gaps and conflicting emphases in the record that merit note [5] [6].
1. Early European representation: RVR in Milan and work in Paris
Multiple profiles and biographical summaries trace Melania’s first professional agency link to Milan’s RVR Reclame: after being discovered as a teenager she signed with a Milan agency in her late teens, which led her to work in Milan and later in Paris through the early 1990s [1] [2] [7]. Those accounts—drawn from later interviews and magazine profiles—describe a common path for Eastern European models of that era: a Milan contract (RVR) followed by stints in Paris as her bookings increased, but they rely on secondary reporting rather than preserved agency contracts publicly released [1] [2].
2. Riccardo Gay and the move toward international representation
Some reporting names Riccardo Gay as an early manager Melania sought out in pursuit of broader opportunities; that meeting, according to summaries of her career, opened doors in Italy and beyond and is presented as a bridge between local discovery and professional European agency representation [1]. These accounts are consistent with industry narratives that credit agency figures in Milan and Paris for placing Eastern European models into international work, though source types vary from curated biographies to retrospective journalism [1].
3. Paolo Zampolli and Metropolitan in New York: the clearest U.S. link
When Melania relocated to New York in 1996, reporting ties her to Paolo Zampolli and an agency group variously described as Metropolitan Models or Metropolitan International Management; contemporaneous Associated Press documents and subsequent summaries show ledgers from Metropolitan covering her bookings in the U.S. in 1996–1997 and identify Zampolli as the agent who brought her to New York [3] [5] [6]. Those AP/PBS stories cite accounting ledgers and interviews with former Metropolitan employees, making this the best-documented strand of her U.S. representation [3] [5].
4. Trump Model Management: a later, public association
Several sources report that Melania was among the first models recruited to Donald Trump’s Trump Model Management—founded in 1999—after its creation; Wikipedia and contemporaneous summaries list her as one of the agency’s roster entries in that year [4] [8]. That association is often cited in profiles because of the political and public interest in Trump-family business links, but it postdates the formative European and early-New York stage of her modeling career and appears to have been a later affiliation rather than the origin of her modeling work [4] [8].
5. Documentary evidence, visa-era ledgers and reporting limits
The most concrete documentary evidence cited in investigative reporting are the Metropolitan ledgers and AP’s examination showing payments for U.S. jobs in mid‑1996 through 1997 tied to Metropolitan International Management, which underscore the Zampolli/Metropolitan connection [5] [3]. Conversely, details about exact contract terms with European agencies, the duration of specific European agency signings, and which Paris firms represented her are assembled from biographies, magazine profiles and later retrospectives rather than a trove of preserved public contracts, leaving some elements of her early agency timeline reconstructed rather than exhaustively documented [1] [2] [7].
6. Alternative perspectives and unresolved questions
Profiles and light-coverage outlets repeat the same agency names—RVR, Riccardo Gay, Paolo Zampolli/Metropolitan, and later Trump Model Management—but differ in emphasis and depth, with tabloids and fan sites filling narrative gaps where primary documents are absent [2] [7]. Investigative pieces focus on the Metropolitan ledgers and visa timing because of their legal and political salience [5] [6], while many biographical sources prioritize the European RVR-to-Paris arc; readers should weigh documentary AP/PBS reporting more heavily for U.S. representation and treat European agency attributions as plausible and widely reported but less exhaustively evidenced in the public record [3] [1].