They’re the often-anonymous stars of New York Fashion Week — the models who walk the runways in designer clothes, looking mostly impassive and inevitably beautiful as they pose before cameras.
Their lives off the runways, however, remain for the most part a mystery.
They are young women such as Mari Agory, whose family fled the South Sudan for Egypt to escape civil war; Adesuwa Pariyapasat, who was discovered by a scout in Nigeria at 17; Abiah Hostvedt, whose life on the road sometimes makes him homesick for his native Jamaica.
AP photographers spoke backstage with models during New York Fashion Week. Here are their stories.
Amanda Murphy, 27, of Chicago, has her hair styled and gets a manicure backstage before modeling at the Jason Wu Spring 2015 collection show Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, during Fashion Week in New York. When she's not modeling, Murphy, who has four Italian Vogue covers to her name, works as a radiology technician in a Chicago clinic.
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Zhao Qinghe of Beijing waits backstage to rehearse before the Tim Coppens runway show Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014, during Fashion Week in New York. Zhao, 21, has only been modeling for a year since being discovered by an agency while attending college in his native China. Since then, he has traveled across the world, walking runways in Paris and Milan, in addition to New York. “I like New York,” Zhao says. “It’s a fashion city, I just enjoy.” The hardest part for Zhao can be managing his schedule between castings, fittings and shows. “It’s so busy,” he says. Currently dating a fashion design student, Zhao has ideas about one day creating looks of his own. Not ready to transition just yet, Zhao sees himself modeling for another three or four years. He says being photographed and walking in shows are his favorite parts of the job, explaining that, “You can show off to many people.”
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Hedvig Palm of Sweden, center, sits on the floor backstage before she models the DKNY Spring 2015 collection Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014, during Fashion Week in New York. This is Palm's seventh season modeling. Asked if she misses home, Palm said "Sometimes when I hear a song...I think of my family. I hear a song and I want to be with my friends and family and be comfortable."
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Canadian model Sophie Touchet has makeup applied before the DKNY Spring 2015 collection show Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014, during Fashion Week in New York. Touchet, 20, from a small town in Quebec, Canada, says she was working at a Best Buy electronics store when she was scouted by a photographer in January of this year. A month later she modeled in her first New York Fashion Week and ended up doing 43 shows in four big cities. She said, "My parents were freaking out. They were like 'What? You’re going to Milan?' and I was like 'Yeah, I don’t really know how it happened but I’m in Milan!' " She said she packed a bag for one week and ended up leaving home for more than two months, so when she got back home it was like having two lives, "I had my normal life and had my life when I was a model."
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Fashion model Yulia Musieichuk of Kiev, Ukraine, reacts as she is photographed from multiple angles while having her toenails painted backstage before the Rebecca Minkoff Spring 2015 collection show Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, during Fashion Week, in New York. Musieichuk, 22, who was scouted in her native Ukraine at age 16, has a mother, father, sister and nephew back home. "I like to be alone and traveling," she replied, when asked if she ever finds herself homesick. She feels the biggest misconception about modeling is that it's easy, saying that dealing with rejection is the biggest hurdle. With regards to casting, "It’s very hard after it’s 'no.' You can do it so many times and it’s no, no, no… it’s very hard emotionally... to stay in this and just to believe in yourself." As for her future in modeling, "I like it for now."
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Mona Matsuoka, 16, of Tokyo, has her hair and makeup done backstage before the Monique Lhuillier Spring 2015 collection show Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, during Fashion Week in New York. An only child born to a Japanese mother and American father, Matsuoka began modeling in her hometown of Tokyo at age 10. This is her first year modeling internationally. "I’m really homesick," she says, when asked about life on the road. Matsuoka doesn't like the uncertainty that permeates her essentially freelance lifestyle of modeling, but she views her career in the long-term. “I would like to do it my whole life if I can."
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Herieth Paul, 18, center, chats with other models before a rehearsal for the Tadashi Shoji runway show, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014, during fashion week in New York. Paul, who has been modeling since age 14, was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and raised in Ottawa, Canada. "I am expecting a lot of craziness, a lot of beautiful makeup, a lot of drama," said Paul, talking about Fashion Week and being a model. "We...are actually very intelligent. I am taking business in university right now, my bachelors and then masters, while working full time--and I am only 18 years old. So, we got brains and money."
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Stephanie Joy Field, centre, of Sydney, Australia, rehearses before the Prabal Gurung Spring 2015 collection show Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014, during Fashion Week in New York. Field, 19, who has only been modeling since January, was actually scouted in Australia at age 13 but decided to finish high school before beginning her career. Although her family remains back in Sydney, being homesick isn’t a problem for her. “I went to boarding school, so I’m kind of used to not being at home.” One aspect of modeling that does challenge her, however, is the constant scrutiny. “You always have to be...on show, and, like, presenting yourself right,” she explains, “because...everyone’s always watching you.” One thing she appreciates about modeling, though, is the people. “I love meeting...amazing people, and working with, like, some really amazing clients,” she says, adding, “and you get to have lots of fun while doing it.” Field plans to study university level law and psychology by correspondence next year.
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Fashion model Dasha Jold, 18, of Yekaterinburg, Russia, has her nails done backstage before the Monique Lhuillier Spring 2015 collection show Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, during Fashion Week in New York. Jold was scouted on the street in her native Russia, at age 17. Asked about the hardest aspect of modeling, she mentions the physical demands of the job. She explains that sometimes you just "need to recover, vacation, and then you can be fresh again - your skin, your head” and, she says laughing, “your feet.” Jold is guarded when speaking about her future in modeling, with evolving milestones. “This is my secret which I keep inside, and I’m trying to reach these things. I’m not trying to say, ‘Oh, I wanna do that, and when I will do that I will just stop modeling,’ ” she explains.
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