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She may be Nicolas Ghesquière’s favourite right now and a recent Louis Vuitton campaign star, but Australia’s hottest modelling export Fernanda Ly says last night’s flawlessly-executed MYER Spring 16 extravaganza was the biggest (and probably trickiest) she’s ever done.
The Western Sydney-raised model with signature pink tresses, in town to visit family and walk for the department store in front of a thousand-strong VIP crowd, is no stranger to intense gigs (“the Vuitton Cruise show in Rio was soooo long – that’s why Nicolas designed those flat shoes for us all to wear”) but MYER had one major difference.
“Normally there are 40 looks in a regular runway show, but this one has around 300, which is a really crazy length and it’s all done so fast,” she told GRAZIA straight after the dress rehearsal. “The most outfits I’ve ever worn for a show is two max, usually just one, but I’m doing five tonight, which is SO many.”
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Not surprisingly, the change process between outfits is, in the 20-year-old’s own words seriously crazy. “The moment I get off the runway I’m running taking off my shoes telling people to get out of my way, then I get changed, then I run back to the line-up, and step out [trying to look] calm.” Then she did it again – four times over.
Guests at the celeb-studded, VIP-only event would have never guessed Ly’s panic though, given her pared down energy on the runway and that signature kooky-cool walk that’s propelled her at warp speed to the top of the industry.
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It’s been just three years since the Liverpool local was scouted while walking through a Sydney CBD shopping centre during her HSC exams. Since then she’s deferred her university degree (she started architecture, majoring in interiors and still dreams of being a set designer), moved to New York and is such hot demand shoot and campaign-wise, it’s almost impossible to find time to break for social holidays.
“Myer was like the store that everyone goes to as a kid,” she reflected after opening for the brand’s hugely anticipated Spring show, fronted by ambassador of 10 years, Jennifer Hawkins.
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While it wasn’t the first time she’s walked for the brand (“I did the show two years ago when I’d just started modelling, before I did all the Vuitton stuff, so I was just a nobody”) it was certainly her first opening it. “[To see] all these things lately with [the words] Fernanda Ly and Myer together in the same sentence [is still] so unexpected.”