Lisa Carter – Getting into modelling

So I also wanted to do modelling as well as acting and dancing, I wanted to do modelling and of gosh, I used to buy all the fashion magazines and pore through them and dream of … yeah I remember the shops, you couldn’t get the fashion on the Island at the time and I remember the very first New Look that came to Newport and everyone was talking about it, and I hated it (laughs). I remember thinking I will not be wearing that.

I like it now, but I think at the time it wasn’t what I was looking for, and yeah used to buy Vogue and everything, and so I remember I went to … my sister was at Upper Chine School, and she was in a Fashion Show and I asked to be in the Fashion Show with her, which I luckily managed to get in, even though I wasn’t at the school, and the designer of the hats, the Milliner, was Joseph Kohn, and he was lovely.

I remember kind of muffling my way in on this Fashion Show and saying to him, “You know I really want to do modelling” and I remember him kind of looking at me and he said, “There’s a thing about models,” he said, “You’re either beautiful and you’re beautiful on camera and you’re beautiful in person and they like you for that, or you’re a pig, but you’re a pig in lipstick but the camera loves you.”

He said, “You might be a pig in person” (laughs). I hope he doesn’t mind me quoting him like this (laughs) “but the camera loves you and you’re a model for that reason” kind of thing, and I remember thinking oh goodness, I wonder which one he thinks I am (laughs). And I put on one of his huge hats which had this big rim on it and I put it on my head and I could see the look on his face and he was like, “Oh hats, suit you” and I was like ‘oh, thank God for that, and so he got me modelling his big statement hats kind of thing, and so I got a taste for it at the Fashion Show.

And then I thought, oh what can I do on the Island? ‘Cos there are no Agency and I thought well, Elizabeth Pack has a Fashion Show so let me contact her and see if I can model for her and she already had an Agent that she used on the Mainland and models that would travel over to perform for her, but she said, “Well come in and we’ll have a chat” so I went in and met her and got me to try on some dresses and she said, “Yes, ok, you can join in” so there was little old me with these grown women who were so sweet and so welcoming.

I was so lucky that they weren’t you know hostile towards me, and I mean I was in awe of them. They were all so beautiful and you know, knew what they were doing and I learnt from them really. You know, you’re projecting the confidence and the slow walking and the turns and everything and I just absolutely loved it. It was so much fun.