This Reminds Me Of...: They're Like Rabbits

I was strolling in Soho with a friend yesterday and I kept pointing out models to her, to whom she was completely oblivious. I've been in fashion for a while so I notice them the way a botanist probably notices rare plant strains when walking through central park. If you are downtown on a weekday morning you are bound to see a few--they are always dashing here and there in clothes that you and I would only wear to a party--well, a very sexy party where leather pants and ripped sweatshirts are de rigeur. Other telltale signs include being incredibly tall and gangly, like a baby deer who can barely stand on its own legs, looking eastern european also helps since so many of them hail from Estonia and other places that I couldn't point out on a map if you paid me. And of course--ding ding ding!!--the model portfolio sticking out of their super-expensive and label-less handbag.

So there I was on the 6 train on a random Tuesday seated across from Britt Maren. (Oh, and if you think that models are too fancy for public transport, you're wrong. Most of them live communally in tiny apartments and scrape by until they land advertising campaigns that allow them to be abusive to their housekeepers.) Britt is a relatively new face on the scene, but with her flawless complexion (another thing that models usually DON'T posess--all that makeup takes its toll), amazingly high cheekbones and portfolio sticking out of her Alexander Wang bag she is hard to miss. The twenty-year-old Texan made a splash in the spring 2010 shows by opening for Alexander Wang and rounding out the season at Balenciaga in a platinum-cropped 'do courtesy of hair genius Guido.

Britt Maren before Guido chopped her locks

Britt Maren, bleached and cropped

Britt Maren does Model Off Duty pretty damn well

Looking at her (from behind my oversized glasses, bien sur. I'm not a stalker, not openly at least) I was reminded of another young Texan who has made her name walking all the major shows--Erin Wasson. Wasson debuted in the spring of 2000 and is known for being the original ambassador of Model Off Duty style (cutoffs and boots that would make us look dirty and lazy make her look gorgeous). She is also muse to wunderkind designer Alexander Wang, has been the face of Maybelline for seven years and she designs collections for French label Zadig&Voltaire. I'll always remember her as the shy model we shot for Elle magazine with the word "shelter" tattooed on her back, who was married quite young (at 17!) and who used her looks as a launchpad for something much larger. She had this to say about being a model, “I have too much going on in my brain to just be a face, an image, without a voice behind it.”