Cassi Van Den Dungen

Early life

Van Den Dungen grew up in the town of Sunbury, in Victoria, Australia. In press interviews, she has described Sunbury as a "ghetto", which caused controversy and frustration among Sunbury residents and the City Council Mayor, Jack Ogilvie, causing him to call her a "very immature, silly little girl".

Australia's Next Top Model

Van Den Dungen gained a spot as one of the thirteen finalists of the fifth cycle of Australia's Next Top Model in 2009. She immediately caused controversy on the show and became the centre of media attention. In spite of all the spotlight, Van Den Dungen started the show very strong, received the best photo for the first week (but she was called second, because fellow contestant Franky received immunity from the elimination), second best photo for the second week, and the third best photo of the third week.

Her string of strong photos eventually stopped in the fourth week, when she was producing her worst photograph so far, and landed her in a bottom-three appearance with fellow contestant Mikarla and Eloise, but Van Den Dungen's very strong portfolio keeps her safe. She improved in the fifth week, producing one of the best photos of the week. In the sixth week, however, Van Den Dungen again produced an uninspiring photo, and placed in the bottom three.

Van Den Dungen stepped up in the seventh and eighth weeks, called out third each time In the ninth week, even though her photo received unanimous criticism, her strong performance at the international destination, London, kept her safe and she took second place. Now in the final three, Van Den Dungen produced one of the best photo ever from the show, but she was criticised for her performance at Fashion Week, and landed in the bottom two alongside fellow contestant Clare Venema, while Tahnee Atkinson safely progressed to the final. Although Venema did a very good job at the Fashion Week, Van Den Dungen's hard work and great portfolio gets the judges' choice and Venema was eliminated, allowing Van Den Dungen to join Atkinson in the final.

In the live finale of the show, Van Den Dungen received the majority of votes from the professionals including Alex Perry, Claudia Navone, Russell James and Priscilla Leighton-Clarke. Van Den Dungen's runway walk had improved and she stated that she was now "thinking of the bigger picture"; however, the voting public awarded Tahnee Atkinson the title of "Australia's Next Top Model".

Career

On 8 July, only one day after the finale of Australia's Next Top Model, it was confirmed that Elite Model Management in New York City and Priscilla's Model Management in Australia offered modelling contracts and immediate representation to Van Den Dungen. However, it was reported on 13 July 2009 that Van Den Dungen turned down a prestigious contract with New York model management company, Elite Model Management as well as Sydney agent Priscilla Leighton Clarke to stay in Sunbury with her boyfriend, Brad Saul. Her father, Jack Van Den Dungen, told reporters that a contract with Elite Model Management, said to be worth $2 million, is sitting on his fax machine waiting to be signed by his daughter.

She is now signed with Work Agency in Sydney. In 2010, Cassi was in agreement to sign with IMG Paris and walk for designers at Paris Fashion Week in March 2010.

Since being back in Australia, Cassi became the face of Portmans shot by Vogue photographer Nicole Bentley and has shot three editorials for Cleo magazine, Madison with photographer Carlotta Moye and one with Oyster magazine with photographer Liz Ham.

In Autumn 2010, Cassi walked at L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival for Akira, Alice McCall, Alistair Trung, Arabella Ramsay, Camilla & Marc, Daniela Orlando, Fleur Wood, House of Baulch, Kylie Hawkes, Lucette, Magdalena Velevska, Michael Angel, Obus, Sass & bide, Scanlon and Theodore, Tina Kalivas, Toni Maticevski and Yeojin Bae. She also walked at Australian Fashion Week for Ellery, Dion Lee, Romance Was Born and Manning Cartell. Soon after, she modelled for Nneka's 'Concrete Jungle' Winter 2010 collection.

In June 2010, Van Den Dungen was the face of Myer as one of the young faces for their upcoming spring/summer campaign. In October 2010, she appeared in an editorial for issue #36 of Russh magazine and was featured in Ellery’s Spring/Summer 2010/2011 campaign, Horreurscope.

In February 2013, Cassi travelled to Europe to walk in London Fashion Week, where she booked the highly talked-about and exclusive Giles Deacon show. A week later in March, she was in Paris where she walked the Fall 2013 Miu Miu show, one of the most coveted runway slots a model can have. That same month, Van Den Dungen appeared in a 16-page editorial for Australian Vogue. In September, Van Den Dungen walked as an exclusive for Calvin Klein Collection at New York Fashion Week. The next month, Cassi covered Japanese fashion magazine SPUR.

In April 2014, Van Den Dungen's thin body caused controversy. Designer Alex Perry, whose show she walked in and who had previously supported her early career, said that "he recoiled" from the images of Van Den Dungen and described casting her in his show as "a serious lapse of judgment". After walking for Honor at Spring/Summer 2015 New York Fashion Week and for Anya Hindmarch and Antonio Berardi at the SS15 London Fashion Week, Van Den Dungen was shown on the cover of Elle Argentina, following an earlier editorial in the March 2014 Australian edition.

In May 2016, Van Den Dungen walked for Toni Maticevski at Australian Fashion Week, her first runway appearance at the event since 2014.

Personal life

While filming Australia's Next Top Model, Van Den Dungen revealed that she was engaged to a 25-year-old bricklayer, Brad Saul, and had been living with him for a few months. Their son Drake (born September 2011), was born with a cleft palate and hearing loss.