Behind the scenes at the Wellington Fashion Festival, we interview Halina and Matt Lamason, the two icon models of the event

by Jack Yan

Exclusive catwalk photography by Karl Priston
Also filmed for Lucire TV based on a concept by Sally-ann Moffat

HE WORLD’S most talented models seem to have two common traits. First, they have aspirations outside modelling. They could well have gone into other professions, but modelling proved to be an interesting sideline. Some have stayed, others have not. Second, they are exceedingly humble. They will never introduce themselves by their full names because they prefer to be everyday people. And in most respects they are: they are as human as you or me. The only difference is, in this gig, they are more in the public eye.
   Halina—surname not given on her comp card—and Matt Lamason, two models from the Agencie who were selected to be the icon models for the Wellington Fashion Festival, were certainly more in the public eye during September when their faces appeared on billboards all over the city. They became the most exposed two models for a few weeks, but actually never the most recognized. They told Lucire that hardly anyone actually did say to them, ‘Aren't you the model off those posters?’
   One reason might be because 18-year-old Halina has a more down-to-earth and friendly persona than her city sophisticate looks in the poster suggest.
   The model is charming and youthful—and the way we all pictured how our own 18-year-old daughters, younger sisters or nieces should be.
   ‘Most of the time I say, “This doesn't look like me,”’ she said. ‘Some people that I know don't recognize me. It's crazy.’
   Halina’s Polish ethnicity doesn't quite qualify her for girl-next-door looks because she has the modelling potential of a Paulina Porizkova or even an Estelle Skornik—though her ambitions lie, as was evident to the audience when she modelled Annah S. at the Designer Collection during the Festival, in dance.
   ‘I have thought of [modelling] as a career but I don't think it's something you have in your own hands. You can't say “I'm going to be a supermodel.” In everyday life I'm a dancer so I'd like to pursue that career,’ she told Lucire. Her dance steps on stage demonstrate her classical ballet training, but she also—as the author found out at the Deutz Ball that weekend—has modern dance to her credit.

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