After years of hot-ironing her hair, it was her “kinky, authentic” look that landed Stacy-Lee Warren her first big break after long trying to break into the modelling world.
Port Elizabeth-raised Warren, 31, says that at the age when most models retire, her career is just picking up, with her recent feature in US fashion and beauty print and online magazine Salysé.
Salysé is a photography magazine focusing on fashion, beauty and conceptual editorials.
Warren said she was back home in Port Elizabeth from New York when her agency told her she was on the cover.
“I had been working non-exclusively, doing shoots with various photographers where there is an agreement that I will do the photo shoot and get all the photos as payment to build my portfolio.”
Warren said she worked with New York photographer Nasra Nimaga in late 2018, after changing her image.
“I used to weave my hair straight and I started going natural in 2017,” Warren said.
Nimaga selected Warren during a lineup of models and they did a private photo shoot.
Nimaga later submitted the portrait photographs which were selected by Salysé.
“I had no idea that Nasra had sent through my photos as her work,” Warren said.
Nimaga had been featured in the magazine before.
“I was back [in Port Elizabeth] when I received the news that Salysé used me for January’s cover.”
She featured on the cover of Salysé with a profile about her change in image.
The beauty said that growing up in an education-centred and traditional family, she always knew she would not follow suit but rather pursue her passion for fashion.
“I started modelling when I was 16 [entering various pageants] and that is where it all started for me.
“In my last two years at Nelson Mandela University, my friends and I started the Glam Squad, which was all to do [with] fashion, and embracing our differences and cultures,” Warren said.
While doing her second degree in human resource management, she worked part-time at the university and in her final year felt she needed a fresh experience.
She interned at the municipality but “after that I wanted to do something completely different and out of my comfort zone and that’s when I moved abroad”.
Warren said she lived in New Jersey, which is a two-hour commute to New York City, and attended classes on American history and culture.
“Once I was exposed to the city, people started noticing how different I was, my accent, and that is how I was called back into modelling,” she said.
She worked three jobs a day, with her day starting at 5am and ending at 1am the following day, while juggling photo shoots.
“I would wake up and go to work at a spa as a receptionist.
“From there I would au pair for three hours until the family came back from work, and after that I would waiter at night where I would knock off at 1am, so I was sleeping for three hours a day,” Warren said.
“It took a good six years to get signed exclusively with the MMG agency in New York last year.
“You really do have to work hard. I’m not your typical 5’9” (1.75m) girl, I’m 5’8” and in New York that is entry level.
“But because of my look, I get to explore and be a diverse model.”
Warren said she was often disadvantaged because of her age.
But people had to put in time and effort to grow beyond their circumstances to realise their goals.
“No matter what your circumstances are, if you have the determination, the passion and the drive to do anything in life, then you can go at it.
“If I look at where I grew up and where I started in my life, I would never have thought that I would go abroad and I would have the opportunity that I had,” she said.
Warren said her biggest goal was to use her platform to be an example and to return to her Bay community to make changes and contribute.