For my last meal I'd want an Irish breakfast with soda bread and one of my dad's omelettes with three or four eggs. Erin O'Connor More Quotes by Erin O'Connor More Quotes From Erin O'Connor When I first began modeling, I was very conventional looking. I had hair down to my waist in a side parting - almost church-like. But beneath the sheath of hair lay this Amazonian, strong-looking frame. Erin O'Connor looking down modeling hair It's like recycling: selling old clothes to help make new ones. Erin O'Connor help new like clothes Cycling is a great way to learn about your city. I love being outdoors, especially in good weather, but I'm not a fair weather cyclist. I'm happy to get a red nose in the cold. Erin O'Connor good red happy love It makes me cross when I hear people say, 'It's so last season.' I always say, 'It's vintage.' Erin O'Connor people-say me vintage people I am aware it's easy and may be fashionable to pose with a slum child, and the irony of getting the media along means that it can come across as disingenuous. But you take these things on board, and you hope you mean it whenever you get stuck into something. Erin O'Connor i-am child you hope It's not about hiding your imperfections on a shoot; it's about embracing them and being unapologetic about them. Erin O'Connor imperfections shoot your being I understood early on that I was not the best-looking girl in the room. But I knew my advantage was a hard work ethic and I was ambitious: I knew I could be a great model. Erin O'Connor great hard-work girl work Someone once referred to modeling as being like winning the lottery gene pool. It's such an odd way to put things, but what is different about modelling is that the industry often picks you. Erin O'Connor you modeling winning way As I began to get a deeper understanding of the vital life-saving work Save the Children does, I felt compelled to help in any way I could. This is about safe-keeping, inspiring and empowering a future generation - to facilitate them to make their own lives a little bit better. Erin O'Connor better future work children My perfect bag would be practical but also have the stylish element to it; it would be bold and colourful. I would actually be able to open and close it. That would be a first. Erin O'Connor bold bag stylish perfect I can play the flute. Music was my favourite A-level, and I used to love composing my and stylising my voice to sound like 90's singing sensation Tori Amos. Erin O'Connor singing music voice love I've been on both sides: the victim and the villain. I was the victimised model, and everything from my weight to my fertility was held up for discussion. And then I was the person that could garner some kind of positive outcome, by taking on the role of vice chairman of the British Fashion Council and becoming an activist of body image. Erin O'Connor villain fashion body positive I seem to disappoint people a bit. They want the full regalia - but I don't walk around in a corset the whole time. Erin O'Connor walk want time people In my career, which has been fairly two-dimensional, people make decisions based on your persona. Erin O'Connor decisions your career people The model sanctuary was borne of a complex, political, societal debate. It was proposed to us from various bodies that we give models medicals once a year, and if they didn't pass that medical, there's a chance they'd legally lose their right to work. Erin O'Connor debate medical chance work The Model Sanctuary is not about self-indulgence - it's about reminding and allowing them to become self-sufficient human beings. I wanted to alert people to the fact that we're not the victims, but nor are we the villains. We want fair practice and positive, sustainable change, working with the fashion industry, not against it. Erin O'Connor fashion change positive people Fashion is intoxicating, and it plays a part in all of our everyday lives. A lot of people use it as a form of escape, of realising a fantasy, and in some ways that becomes an unobtainable norm. Erin O'Connor escape fantasy fashion people With high fashion, it's a performance. You're trying to interpret a fantasy in a very physical way, and you really are playing a character. I've played men, dead people, famous people, historical icons, and it's no mean feat. It's quite an insular experience even though the crowd is in front of you and there's an expectation. Erin O'Connor you experience character men 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. Erin O'Connor vision girl self character
