Christabelle aims for Vogue cover and catwalks of the world

Former Wairarapa College pupil Christabelle Ray is climbing ladders in her quest to conquer the catwalk as an international model.
Ms Ray, 18, is in Wairarapa until the end of the month where she has been working at both Parkvale Mushrooms and at The Manor beauty salon in Masterton, and staying with her Carterton family over the holiday break.
She is now two-thirds through a three-year modelling contract with Nova Models in Auckland, which she won after placing fourth in the 2007 Dream Model national competition in Auckland.
Since then she has graduated as a beautician from the Wellington School of Beauty Therapy and has featured in several hair product flyers and fashion magazine spreads including Vanity Fair, stalked the catwalk for top Kiwi labels Karen Walker, Zambesi and Cybele during New Zealand Fashion Week last year, and become the face of the Cut Above Academy in the City of Sails.
"I really enjoyed doing some Tahitian theme shows last year cool outfits and food and music because I'm more into the catwalk than pictorial modelling.
"You get a mad as adrenaline rush, the music's pumping and the bass goes right through you as you're walking down the catwalk. I just love it."
Ms Ray is planning to return to Hamilton to live with partner, Mark Matiaha, and lay tactics for her campaign to model internationally and to "get on the cover of Vogue within the next five years".
After a trip last year to be with family in the Philippines where lays the heritage that helped mould her exotic Filipina, Spanish, and Irish "hard to know where you come from" looks she is also determined to win a place in the Pinoy Big Brother television show, which is, win or lose, almost guaranteed to capture celebrity "and work" for housemates.
Ms Ray, as a contract model, is this year barred from entering the New Zealand version of Next Top Model with Wellington and Wairarapa auditions set for Monday although she is more than happy to advise regional hopefuls "on posing and walking".
Her tips are simple and direct for Wairarapa entrants, who must compete without the advantage of a hometown model agency for help.
"Be confident, always keep your head up, and be yourself. And wear really cool out-of-it clothes to grab attention."
She said, after rubbing shoulders with the national fashion elite and fickle industry trendsetters in Auckland, that young Wairarapa women, especially in Masterton, tend to "cake on" their make-up and woefully boast "a blonde and trashy" dress sense.
"It's just my opinion, but it's trashy. I reckon they'd be best to not cake on the make-up and to stick to their natural hair colour because Barbie and Ken are so over come on, upgrade."
Ms Ray believes colourful clothes will be the hot fashion item for women this year, despite her loathing of floral prints still making the rounds from last year, and her fashion mantra: Accessorise.
Childhood friend Melissa McPhee, of Carterton, said the rarefied air of high Kiwi fashion has not changed Ms Ray at all or a personal belief that her long-time companion will overcome all obstacles. "If anything, she is way more confident but she's still my Christabelle. And I really believe she will be successful in whatever she wants if she puts her mind to it."