John Casablancas Ubach

John Casablancas (December 12, 1942 – July 20, 2013) was an American modeling agent and scout who founded Elite Model Management. He is credited with "inventing the supermodel". He was also the father of the Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas.

At age 42, while married to model Jeanette Christiansen, Casablancas began dating a 14-year-old girl, Stephanie Seymour. At age 50, Casablancas married his third wife, 17-year-old Aline Mendonça de Carvalho Wermelinger. In 2002, Casablancas was accused of sexual assault of a minor in a lawsuit by a former model.

Casablancas was friends with future U.S. president Donald Trump, representing Trump's daughter Ivanka when she became a fashion model at age 15. After he died in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 2013 at age 70, The Guardian published an obituary stating, "Casablancas was frank about his personal preference for girls of only just legal age – 'child women'." In 2020, The Guardian reported that he was connected to Jeffrey Epstein. According to a 2019 lawsuit, Casablancas sent a 15-year-old female model to meet a photographer later identified as Epstein, who sexually assaulted her.

Early life John Casablancas was born in Manhattan, New York City, on December 12, 1942. His parents had left Spain during the 1930s to escape the Spanish Civil War, He had previously run the Paris-based agency Model Agency Elysée 3, which he founded in 1969. Clients of Elite included Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Andie MacDowell and Claudia Schiffer. Casablancas is credited with "inventing the supermodel." He was also criticized for his habit of engaging in sexual activity with young and underage clients.

During the years that Casablancas ran the operations, Elite grossed over $100 million in annual model bookings. A sales director sued for unfair dismissal and was awarded $4.3 million. In 2003, the Los Angeles County Superior Court dismissed a case of sexual abuse brought against Casablancas by a former Look of the Year contestant because he was not a resident of California.

At the age of 40, Casablancas began dating 14-year-old Stephanie Seymour while he was married to model Jeanette Christiansen. In 1993, the 50-year-old Casablancas married his third wife, 17-year-old Aline Mendonça de Carvalho Wermelinger, winner of Elite Model Look 1992 in Brazil, who he had met as a schoolgirl. Wermelinger was close in age to Casablancas's children, who were 22 and 14 at the time. The couple had three children: John Jr., Fernando Augusto, and Nina.

In 2002, Casablancas was accused of sexual assault of a minor in a lawsuit by a former model.

There are allegations that financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had a connection to Casablancas during the 1990s. According to The Guardian, a lawsuit filed in the United States in 2019, alleged that in 1990 Casablancas sent a teenage model to what was described as her first casting call at a private residence on New York City's Upper East Side, where she was instructed to meet a photographer who was later identified as Epstein.

In 1967, he met Jeanette Christiansen, a Danish model and the 1965 Miss Denmark, as well as the first model Casablancas ever represented. They married in 1979, the year after the birth of their son Julian, who would become lead vocalist of the American bands the Strokes and the Voidz. They divorced in 1983.

Casablancas was friends with Donald Trump, and Elite Model Management represented his daughter Ivanka when she became a fashion model at age 15.

A resident of Miami, Florida, Casablancas died on July 20, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro, where he had been receiving treatment for cancer. He was 70 years old.

Media Casablancas: The Man Who Loved Women. 2016 documentary (81 minutes long) by Hubert Woroniecki.