Model Rainbow Warriors
From the mouths of babes… Supermodel quote of the day:
“What is important is to have values in life. What’s important is how you are, not how you look.”
— Valeria Mazza
If there’s one thing the modelling industry taught me, it’s that creativity comes in every imaginable shape, style, personality and fabulous outfit.
Fashion has long been home to an incredible LGBTQIA+ community—models, photographers, designers, makeup artists, hair stylists, bookers, producers and creatives who make the impossible somehow happen before lunchtime.
Quite honestly, I can’t imagine the industry without them.
Some of the funniest, kindest and most talented people I’ve ever worked with have been gay.
They’ve rescued impossible shoots, calmed nervous models, transformed ordinary faces into works of art and somehow kept smiling while running on three hours of sleep and industrial quantities of coffee.
Fashion backstage is its own wonderfully chaotic ecosystem.
There are steamers hissing.
Hairdryers roaring.
Someone is sewing a dress while it’s still being worn.
Someone else is searching frantically for a missing shoe.
The room smells faintly of hairspray, coffee and panic.
And somehow, against all odds, everything comes together just as the cameras start clicking.
It’s glorious chaos.
Perhaps that’s why the industry has always attracted people who aren’t afraid to express themselves.
The fashion world celebrates individuality.
Or at least it should.
One of my favourite things about working in the industry has always been the larger-than-life personalities.
The nicknames.
The quick wit.
The outrageous stories.
The laughter that somehow gets you through a fourteen-hour shoot when your feet have long since declared mutiny.
And yes…
The decorative cushions.
I’ve never been able to explain to my husband why scatter cushions matter quite so much.
Trying to justify them is probably about as successful as explaining high fashion to my dad.
Some things simply bring joy.
They don’t need defending.
Neither does love.
Watching Australia finally embrace marriage equality felt wonderfully overdue.
Love has never seemed like something that required permission.
It has simply been something worth celebrating.
Looking back over my years in modelling, I don’t remember the campaigns nearly as vividly as I remember the people.
The makeup artist who made everyone feel beautiful.
The stylist who could solve any wardrobe disaster with safety pins and optimism.
The photographer who could make an exhausted crew laugh after twelve hours on set.
The friends who became family.
That’s the real beauty of this industry.
Not the clothes.
Not the makeup.
Not even the photographs.
The people.
And that, thankfully, comes in every colour of the rainbow.
