continued

   Having been in modelling for just under three years, Halina had toyed with the idea of appearing in television commercials. Her father arranged her appointment with the Agencie, who promptly put her on its books.
   She tells us that she looks forward to the first garment of the evening. ‘It's the most exciting one. The audience is out there waiting with anticipation.’ In contrast, the last one signals a disappointment for her audience, in her view.
   Single—answering whether she was courted with ‘Me, no!’ and dismissing the possibility of finding the “perfect guy” (‘If you look for him, you wouldn't find him’)—Halina has ambitions to travel the world, but does not think of herself as famous.
   She speaks highly of her fellow icon model, Matt Lamason—‘He's really nice. Very helpful,’ and we were to find out how accurate she was.
   During the interview with Lamason, the term ‘brains and looks’ came up more than once, but the Victoria University politics major dismisses that: ‘I don't see myself as an academic.’
   However, he confessed, during the rehearsal for the Designer Collection, that his mind was elsewhere, namely on his honours papers.
   Projects included observing MP Georgina Bayer, examining social capital and networks, ethnic representation and East Timor.
   Lamason recollects that he began in modelling when in London, doing a discipleship course with a youth church. Nicknamed the ‘Versace Boy’ by one of his fellow students, he was encouraged to have his photographs taken.
   ‘I had some really dumbass photos taken, kind of the ones you do of your family by the sky, out of the studio. They were terrible. I sent them off to an agency in London and they were keen to hook … up. But then I had to leave the country for financial reasons.’
   Another prompt sign-up by the Agencie saw Lamason on its books, but the model remains well-humoured about his sudden propulsion into the limelight.
   ‘It's quite cool as a joke with your friends. I like when people take the piss out of me 'cause I don't take this too seriously.
   ‘I was just thinking of the film Zoolander. I watched it last week and came in [to rehearsals] and thought, “This is so Zoolander.”’
   He takes the same approach to his friends who recognize him from the posters—and pretty much the only people to do so.
   Unlike Halina, Lamason is less anxious about the first garment, preferring to relax.
   He sees fashion shows as a chance to meet people. ‘I'm hoping today we'll just get a good vibe backstage with the guys and we'll be able to chat. What often happens at … fashion shows is that you [spend] seven hours [with people] so by the end of it, you run out of surface things to talk about. I like to come away and actually know someone a bit better.’
   Lamason only had one garment, by Giao, to model because of a dearth of male fashions at this collection. But he enjoys the fact that male models get less attention.
   During the evening Lucire TV caught the two icon models backstage, plus another male colleague, discussing moves and how best Halina could blow flowers from her palms for one outfit. The camaraderie was strongly there and it was refreshing, once again, to be reminded how the highest-profile talent have the nicest natures. Just as it almost always is—or at least should be. The modelling rules about having non-modelling aspirations and humility remain. • Jack Yan

Jack Yan is founding publisher of Lucire.