Supermodel Erin O’Connor: 'In fashion you need more than just beauty or prettiness'
'I've metamorphosed into a strong-looking woman and there's no way I would consider Botox'
She’s one of the most iconic models of her generation and now Erin O’Connor is on the hunt for the supers of the future on Sky Living’s new reality show. Here she tells Judith Woods why she’ll be looking for spirit and charisma rather than physical perfection
SUPERMODELS? Pah! Everybody knows that catwalk beauties are a highly strung, high-maintenance nightmare, what with the pouty hair-tossing and the insistence on vintage Krug and the whole ‘mwah! mwah!’ air-kissing thing. Why, I expect Erin O’Connor will pitch up any moment with a haughty expression and an entire entourage of…
Oh, but here she is, with a cup of herbal tea, a streaming cold and a beaming smile. No lackeys, no attitude, no demands apart from a polite enquiry about tissues. In fact, you’d barely know she was a model, were it not for the fact she’s tall and as slender as the Shard (and twice as striking) with a strong nose and magnificent dark brows that would knock Cara Delevingne’s baby caterpillars into touch. ‘When I was growing up I used to pray that I would be blessed in the boob department, but instead it was my nose that just kept on growing,’ quips Erin coolly, a wry smile on her lips. ‘I think Cara is great; she’s got the whole “ultimate Brit model” buzz around her and it’s great to see another eyebrow diva out there.’
I had intended to ask the former Marks & Spencer cover girl what her unique selling point was, but I can see for myself – as she folds her 6ft Modigliani frame into a chair, there’s something sculptural, something immensely watchable about her. Her face radiates intelligence, every line of her body is sleek, every angle just so, the fluid tilt to her head, the upward sweep of her thick hair.
The Walsall-born model, who has strong Celtic links – and, indeed, looks – thanks to her Irish father, seems to have been around for ever, but is still only 35. By this watershed age, many of her peers have quietly retired or gone on to pursue other projects, but this A-lister, whom Karl Lagerfeld has described as ‘one of the best models in the world’, remains at the top of her game.
So much so that Erin is one of the judges on The Face, Sky Living’s new search-for-a-model show, which also stars Naomi Campbell on the panel. The third judge is Swedish model Caroline Winberg, making for a canny triumvirate: high-fashion Naomi, 43, street-fashion Caroline, 28, and if Erin isn’t exactly anti-fashion, then certainly she brings an offbeat, highly individualistic dimension to the proceedings.
‘To have a successful, lasting career in this industry you need more than just beauty or prettiness,’ says Erin, who was told on several occasions she needed rhinoplasty, but, having longed to get a nose job as a child, rejected the idea as an adult. ‘A girl must have an indefinable magic, real character, a strong sense of self. Her role is to respond to the brief of a photographer or communicate the vision of a designer – while making whatever she does look utterly effortless and whatever she wears utterly seamless. I’m not on the search for physical perfection, I want to see spirit and charisma; fire and force.’
'I treat my body the way an athlete would. I do weight-training three times a week'
Girls in the competition will range in age from late teens to mid-20s; in the now familiar reality-show format, they will be in groups, each mentored by one of the judges. Every week they will be set a task, and whether it’s taking part in a catwalk show, appearing in a commercial or a fashion shoot, the onus will be on each contestant to shine. ‘I take my mentoring responsibilities very seriously,’ declares Erin, straining forward. ‘These young girls are at the threshold of what can be an absolutely amazing, challenging, rewarding career, but in order to make it, they will need guts and determination and strength.’
When she says the word ‘strength’ it is with such emphasis that I belatedly realise that is precisely the quality she emanates herself. She is a size eight, with not a spare ounce of flesh on her elongated frame. Yet she looks lean and muscular rather than skinny and etiolated; she is delighted when I say as much aloud. ‘Yes! I want to look healthy, not anti-living, so I treat my body the way an athlete would. Recently I finally found my “thing”, the exercise that liberates my mind, detoxes my brain and keeps me fit: weight training. I do it three times a week and I’m getting better, but anything over 60kg is still a bit of an effort.’
Given that 60kg is almost nine and a half stone, that’s an awful lot of muscle power to be packing. But there’s another underlying reason why Erin wants to feel at her physical peak: she and her boyfriend, who shall remain nameless (despite my best efforts to tease it out of her), want to
start trying for a family. What she will divulge is that he’s Anglo-Irish and, at 6ft 3in, is her perfect height match. ‘He’s funny and interesting and wears a suit every day to work, which seems so exotic and outlandish to me that ironically it makes him my equivalent of wild rock’n’roll,’ she beams. ‘He’s also easy to love and I hope we’ll have a baby – lots of them, if we’re lucky – together. It’s a nice feeling to have found The One at long last. We have half a dozen godchildren between us, so I like to think we have some idea of what’s required for parenthood.’
Erin walking the walk for, from left, Hussein Chalayan and Givenchy, in 2000
Erin walking for Jean Paul Gaultier in 2003
The couple are based in West Village, New York, but on Erin’s frequent visits to Britain, she makes a beeline for her home town and her family. She has two sisters: Claire, aged 33, who works in office administration, and Kelly, 38, a teacher, who is married with two sons.
‘My parents don’t treat any of us differently; they’re just delighted each of us is doing what we want in life. My mum and dad are very smart but very humble, unassuming people, who have a tremendous work ethic. Dad worked in a factory and my mum was a cleaner and they instilled in all of us the ability to create and seize opportunity when it presents itself. I’ve always strived to be self-sufficient and to make my own money – the day I was able to buy my parents the council house where we grew up was a real highlight for me.’
Erin also bought her father a Mondeo. ‘I popped an Enya tape in the player and he thought he’d gone to heaven. Then I discovered he also had recordings of me playing my own compositions on the flute. I used to play in my early teens and intended to train as a music teacher, but fate intervened. That’s probably no bad thing as the pieces I composed had names like “The Unquiet Grave” and “Spread the Darkness”! But it’s so sweet to think that, to this day, my dad still intersperses me with Enya.’
As a child, Erin was a classic ugly duckling. Painfully shy and acutely aware of her androgynous looks, she hated crossing the road at traffic lights because she imagined stationary drivers watching her nose in profile and laughing. Pupils at her comprehensive school called her Morticia and would click their fingers to The Addams Family theme tune when she walked down hallways – but instead of turning in on herself, she became the class clown. ‘You can’t control how people perceive you, but you can react and exploit that perception and that’s what I did; I loved performing and I still do, whether on stage, in front of a camera or when I’m hosting a dinner party. To me that’s freedom,’ she says.
Erin was famously discovered by a talent scout when she attended The Clothes Show at Birmingham NEC. Aged just 16, with braces on her teeth, her potential nevertheless shone through. Moreover, her unusual look and theatricality led her down the Armani-Versace-Alexander McQueen route of high fashion. ‘I’ve been hoisted in the air in a harness, played an inmate in a lunatic asylum, walked through fire, been transformed into a 100-year-old woman and, on more than one occasion, a man,’ she says, eyes gleaming at the remembered thrill of it.
‘I’ve worn a lot of humdingers in my time, but as a model it’s my duty – my responsibility – to bring life to any garment. That can be challenging when it comes to high fashion, where the creations can be very eccentric, but I’ve gained a reputation for being the go-to girl who can pull it off. And, you know, I love, love, love my job when I’m on stage; I feel petrified beforehand and then I change – my diva takes over and it’s out of my hands.’
'It has been suggested in the past that I might want to pursue acting, but there's a lot of performance in my job already'
If that sounds a shade actressy then it’s counterbalanced by Erin’s keen sense of the absurd. She appeared on a first-class stamp wearing a stunning creation by couture hat-maker Pip Hackett as part of the magnificent millinery issue in 2001. ‘You can imagine the gags from friends about licking my backside, but it was a huge privilege.
‘It has been suggested in the past that I might want to pursue acting, but there’s a lot of performance in my job already. It’s very collaborative and I get a lot of input into every project. I fear acting would be a narcissistic step too far – apart from which, I’m far too tall for most leading men!’
She would, however, leap at the chance of a walk-on part in EastEnders. ‘I adore it – it’s so fabulously depressing! – and my all-time favourite character is Dot Cotton. A couple of years ago I mocked up a Christmas card on which I played Dot, dressed in her housecoat at the launderette. It was meant as a homage and I sent her one, but I never received a reply.’ Fortunately for Planet Fashion, she took the blow firmly on the chin and hasn’t let it affect her self-esteem.
Erin shooting The Face in Paris with Naomi
As she helps herself to three croissants (they are mini ones, so it’s not quite as excessive as it sounds) she mentions that she usually has a hearty bowl of porridge for breakfast.
‘I eat organic food if I can, but I’m a nomad travelling a lot so it can be difficult to manage my diet. Because I work out three or four times a week I can pretty much eat what I like – I don’t ever want to deprive myself of Jaffa Cakes or Maltesers or a glass of wine.’
The need to eat properly – in fact to eat, full stop – has been something of a crusade for Erin, who set up the Model Sanctuary, a place teenage models can go to during Fashion Week to be looked after. ‘They can come and have a meal; they are adolescents, some six foot, who are running around all day. You have to keep them going in terms of nutrition.’
In her then role as vice-chair of the British Fashion Council, she was also part of the panel involved in the 2007 Model Health Inquiry and remains a keen exponent of keeping the size-zero debate omnipresent in the media. She also spearheaded All Walks Beyond the Catwalk, a foundation that works with designers to encourage ‘individuality and diversity’.
And if there’s one supermodel synonymous with unapologetic individuality and instant recognisability, it’s Erin O’Connor. ‘When I’m back in Ireland visiting family, I’m known as “that beauty queen” and everyone asks whether I’ve met Eamonn Holmes and Daniel Day Lewis and, disappointingly, I have to break it to them that I haven’t.’ She has, however, crammed a lifetime’s worth of glitz and glamour into her career thus far, with more to come; she’s just been named as the face of iconic handbag firm Radley. Predictably, her involvement is motivated by genuine interest.
'I eat organic food if I can, but I'm a nomad travelling a lot so it can be difficult to manage my diet'
Erin with co-presenters Caroline and Naomi
‘I love the integrity and strong British heritage of the brand, combined with a passion to be truly original and innovative. The bags are beautifully made and almost works of art in themselves; something precious you really want to own, which made working on the new campaign a real opportunity for me to capture this expressively.’
Another ongoing project is She Died of Beauty, a range of ethically and organically produced T-shirts, bearing slogans such as She Died of Kisses and She Died of Glory, sold online at shediedofbeauty.com. Erin’s role on The Face will heighten her public profile even more. Teaming up with Naomi Campbell was ‘like a school reunion’; the pair worked together many years ago at Milan Fashion Week and became friends. ‘She once invited me to go to South Africa with her and we sat in Nelson Mandela’s garden, drinking tea with him. Naomi’s long-standing friendship with him and her involvement in his charity, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, show a caring, committed side to her – that’s the woman
I know and admire. Yes, she has a reputation and she’s aware of it as much as everybody else, but if you want a job doing, Naomi’s your girl and we’ve had a few laughs sharing memories of various incidents down the years.’ Both women are still stunning, albeit in very different ways. Erin admits that having grown into her looks, she feels more bien dans sa peau, as the French would say – happy in her skin.
‘I’ve metamorphosed into a strong-looking woman and there’s no way I would consider Botox because a frozen face can’t communicate emotion and that, for me, is what it’s all about. When I was younger I used to hide behind very extreme characters on fashion shoots, but now I’m more comfortable with myself and more prepared to be open. I feel more relaxed, less anarchic.’
And on cue, ‘that beauty queen’ gives a dazzlingly wide grin, whisks another tiny croissant off the plate and stalks off to let loose her diva for the camera.
- The Face starts on Sky Living HD on Monday 30 September
