Taking fame in her stride

By FIONA HAWTIN

Walking is anything but one random foot in front of the other for Nikki Phillips. As one of the most sought after models for this month's New Zealand Fashion Week, her walk is one of her biggest assets. While it's something that most of us do without thinking, it's a studied movement for Phillips.

Thankfully there is not much call at Fashion Week for what the 19-year-old refers to as the "horse walk", so called because the effect is similar to a high-stepping stallion. It's the preferred way of walking down the runway at Christian Dior shows but it's theatrical style can make models feel embarrassed rather than confident.

"I think it looks so bizarre, and you feel like such a dick doing it," says Phillips, who was one of more than 400 models who strutted their stuff in front of fashion designers at a Fashion Week casting session. During the day, models parade past the tables of the assembled fashion designers looking to find the models that will best show their clothes. Phillips dubs the session the "cattle call".

When her turn comes, the 19-year-old with six years' modelling experience, opts for the more conventional model walk.

The 75-odd Nova models at the casting have been advised by agency owner Caroline Barley to wear full hair and makeup and something that shows their figure. Ever the professional, Phillips, freezing in weather more suited for ducks, wears a sexy off-the-shoulder top with a teensy faded denim mini over the remnants of her LA tan and essential red Marc Jacobs stilettos. A model not able to handle 8cm heels should check herself into the weekly walking practices Barley organises in the lead-up to Fashion Week.

Phillips doesn't need classes. She wears heels without thinking. One foot goes in front of the other like walking on a white line and there's a slight lifting of the knee. There should be little arm movement, they should be kept to the side.

"You can't walk like that normally but it gives a better angle to your legs and more sophistication," says Phillips. "It's a strong walk. You put as much effort into your stride and your back's straight. You put both feet out and then turn a little bit as you pose and pause to face the cameras at the end of the catwalk."

She makes it all sound so easy. Variations include the pose with attitude. That's hands on hips.

Smiles aren't what designers tend to encourage these days. The direction before a show is usually a strong or sexy look.

"Sexy sort of." She pauses to demonstrate her I-know-you-want-me look.

"Your mouth is a little bit open and almost like a pout. Your face is straight and you talk through her eyes," she advises.

World designer Francis Hooper didn't need to see Phillips pull a strong look to know he wants her for his show. "She's fabulous. She's our princess. She's got personality. With the good models the designers have got to fight for them because they can only do a few shows [each day]. We've got to find out if she can do our show. She's got to choose," says Hooper.

Phillips has done the World show for the previous two Fashion Weeks and would dearly love to do it again, because she loves the theatre of it, but she does have to weigh up lost earnings. Previously, World models were needed for the whole day as complicated makeup involving a multitude of Swarovski crystals means a model can't do another couple of shows that day. The long preparation time will be necessary again this year. Normally, a model is required two hours before a show, meaning they can do about three or four shows each day.

"I love the way he [Hooper] makes you feel like you're in character, like you're doing a drama show."

Because of her experience including the Dolce & Gabbana show in Germany this year, Nova is billing her as an international model. That means her rate is $300 a show, as opposed to the $200 for an established local.

If you believe in destiny, it really was Phillips' fate to model. When she was 13 and in Canada for a few months with her father, she was spotted in the street just the way modelling superstars Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell got their breaks. Phillips' father, however, told them where to go. Then, in Honolulu, on the way back to New Zealand from Canada, she was spotted by another talent scout. Her father's reaction was much the same.

But he wasn't with her the day she was getting her hair cut at Servilles salon at the same time as a magazine fashion editor. She asked her to model. Her mother agreed and didn't tell her father until they had the magazine in hand. His reaction? "Wow, you look gorgeous."

It's a far cry from being a nurse, which was what Phillips really wanted to be, but she loves modelling and has been doing it on and off since she left school at the end of sixth form in between bursts of part-time work at hip clothing store Workshop. She loves modelling but does get tired of the misconception that models are dumb.

"It's so much fun, great for your confidence. You learn how to really get along with people, how to speak to people, how to make friends, how to be by yourself [when you're working overseas].

"You're the only person who can make those friends for you, so you just learn social skills."

Plum jobs are TV commercials where the fee starts at $3000. Advertising campaigns are also good money and even better for her profile. Recently, Phillips did a Farmers campaign for its new lingerie line Acapella. Suddenly, she's on billboards all over the place.

Modelling lingerie is not as easy as you'd think.

"You're always going to be a little bit conscious of yourself lying there in your knickers waiting for the camera to click."

To model full-time means a lot of time away from home. Last year she spent time in Germany and Hong Kong and has been to Los Angeles four times this year. She even landed a lead role in the romantic comedy The Last Run, starring New York's "It" girl Paris Hilton. Visa problems meant she couldn't do it, although she did manage a couple of walk-on parts and will be back in LA next year for an acting course.

Right now though, she's holed up at her parents' home in St Heliers. Free rent. And they look after her dog when she's overseas.

As Fashion Week approaches Phillips will be watching what she eats, trying to forgo her daily weakness for Caramello chocolate, opting for fruit instead to maintain her weight at 58kg. That means cutting down on carbohydrates at dinner, running about 7km in the morning, walking the dog at night, cleansing with Clinique Facial Shower Gel and using plenty of moisturiser. The perfectly even features, the bee-stung lips which prompt some to ask where she "had them done" (they're untouched by collagen) and the long, well-behaved brunette hair, give or take the odd colour, are all God-given and need little attention.

Come Fashion Week, she will have traipsed all over Auckland to have fittings by the designers whose shows she'll be in. This is to avert the disaster of having ill-fitting clothes in show, something that happened to her at Australian Fashion Week earlier this year.

"I arrived and put my outfit on and the pants didn't fit. I had to hold them up so they grabbed a rope from outside on the wharf and tied my pants up. Then as I was walking I could feel it unwinding. I grabbed them. I felt like such a dork."

There are designers who believe in purposely showing all, like the garment that came under her breasts at the Dolce & Gabbana show in Germany.

"I said to the guy do I have a camisole or something?" No, was the answer so she put on a straight face with a hint of sexy. "Everyone's got boobs at the end of the day."

Depending on how many shows she is booked for, she'll turn up at the Auckland Town Hall around 8am with clean hair and face and every model's compulsory uniform - a flesh coloured bra and G-string. By the end of the four days she will have drunk litres of water, had her makeup applied, removed and reapplied so many times her eyes will be itchy, her hair done so much it feels like it is about to fall out, changed in and out of outfits in a flash thanks to the valiant efforts of a dresser, and climbed into bed exhausted for an early night at the end of each long day.

She'll be happy if she makes two grand. The rest of us will be happy if we look half as good in what she's paraded down the catwalk.

Herald Feature: New Zealand Fashion Week

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