– Model of the Moment –

JOAN SMALLS

Is it Cara? Is it Kate? Candice or our own Doutzen? No, Joan Smalls is the model of the moment. In fact, the Puerto Rican beauty is the model of the year. For over 12 months, the 25-year-old Joanji, as her friends call her, has topped the list of the most sought-after models in the world. Vogue, Victoria’s Secret, V magazine, i-D, H&M, there is no cover or campaign that she hasn't landed. Thanks to the mega deal she signed with Estée Lauder – the first Latina face for the American cosmetics brand ever – she seems to be assured of that number 1 position for a while longer.

Joan grew up in the small village of Hatillo in Puerto Rico where she regularly participated in local modeling competitions as a teenager. She never won, as they considered her ‘too thin, too tall or too dark’ on the Caribbean island. Once in New York, she could make a living as a catalog model, but her big breakthrough came in 2010 when Ricardo Tisci booked her exclusively for the Givenchy haute couture show. Campaigns for Cavalli, Gucci, Chanel, Stella McCartney, and Lacoste followed. Looking back on that moment, she says: “I really thought: This is my moment. My chance to shine.” And she is still shining.

“I really thought: This is my moment. My chance to SHINE.”

From Karl Lagerfeld to Steven Meisel to Carine Roitfeld, everyone has wrapped this exotic lady around their finger, as have her 250,000 Instagram followers. And she is also particularly sympathetic. When asked what she did with her first serious earnings, she replies: “I wanted to give something back to my parents because they have always sacrificed so much for me and my sisters. I bought my father a pickup truck. My mother's biggest wish was to renovate the kitchen, but whenever she saved for it, something more important always came up. So last year, I gave her the kitchen of her dreams.”