Model profile: Simona McIntyre

Last December, I had the opportunity to chat with up-and-coming Canadian model, Simona McIntyre. I was expecting a dim-witted young girl but was surprised when a soft-spoken, intelligent and witty woman came on the phone. We talked about many subjects; an illness in the family, her athletic activities, her favorite city to live in and how much she has learned from modeling. I got the chance to meet her in person at L'Oreal Fashion Week in March, where she opened for the Evan Biddell show. In person, she is even prettier and taller. We were backstage and she was being rushed by agent Chantale Nadeau to stand beside Biddell who was getting interviewed. Although we only spoke briefly, she was very courteous and sweet.
I've kept in contact with her and she's told me about her experiences and what jobs she's been getting. She just got back to her apartment in New York City after working for a couple weeks in Japan and is excited to do more work. I hope she succeeds and earns her dream job of landing the cover of Italian Vogue.

This profile is originally published on a new fashion networking site called Fashionistas so check it out! I've posted the first paragraph of the profile to give you a little taste:

Meet the New Face of Fashion

While 18-year-old Simona McIntyre was walking down the runway for the Marc Jacobs Spring 2008 show during New York Fashion Week, her mind wasn’t on the tense crowd who had been waiting for two hours, or the fact that she was in the first big runway show of her career. Instead, the newcomer was thinking “Wow, did I just walk that?”

Read the rest of my profile here.

UPDATE: Simona appears in an editorial in the August issue of FASHION magazine and she looks gorgeous. Pick it up now!

(Photo courtesy of Simona McIntyre)

Change in the fashion industry? Yes, at Givenchy

When I was flipping through the photos of the Givenchy Fall 2008 Couture collection, I thought there was some mistake. The first three models to walk the show were ethnic (Indian and Black.) After newcomer Sessilee Lopez walked, I had a second of madness where I thought the whole show would be filled with non-white models. Of course that didn't happen, and Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Lakshmi Menon were the only ethnic models in the show, but three is usually three or two ethnic models that shows usually have. And the fact that all three opened the show is really different and I hope a sign that the industry is finally listening to the rest of us: That there needs to be more ethnic models in Western fashion.
Let's see what happens when the ready-to-wear season begins. (Photos: Style.com)

Lakshmi Menon

Jourdan Dunn
Sessilee Lopez