Lauri Paine: Face of Liverpool fashion

Upcoming Liverpool model Lauri Paine looks set to cause a sensation in the fashion industry, with her stunning looks, beautiful portfolio and down-to-earth attitude.

Lauri is 22 years old, and has lived in the city all her life, with her mum and two sisters. Recently, she auditioned for Britain’s Next Top Model, and made it to the top 50 out of 8,000, an achievement which she is rightfully proud of.

Even stood in front of me after a full day at work in local fashion store Resurrection, who she also models for, she looks every bit the model that she is. She’s wearing a pair of denim shorts over black leggings, with the best ankle boots I’ve seen in a while, and a tee-shirt printed with the face of the woman she later describes as her “all around, love-her-to-death fashion icon,” Kate Moss.

Ever since she can remember, she has wanted to be a model.

“I think with dressing up and stuff when I was younger, and being dead girly, I always knew I wanted to be a model. When you’re a little girl you always want to look dead princessy and stuff, and that made me want to model.”

Lauri explains that she started modelling about a year and a half ago. She says people always told her she could be a model, because she’s slim and tall, but she never really believed it.

Her first job was for Mac Cosmetics, as a live model in their store in Liverpool’s Met Quarter. She explains that she emailed over one picture, and they immediately closed the casting, and hired her.

“That was such a good feeling. It was really special, and out of the ordinary, for people I didn’t know to say “yes, she’s perfect,” so obviously after that, my confidence was on a high.”

But despite the confidence high that her first job provided, Lauri knows that she can’t get too full of herself.

 “You’ve got to be nice to everybody on your way up,” she says, earnestly “because you never know what’s going to happen, you might have to come back down, and crash into all of them on the way.”

So how does she keep her feet so firmly on the ground and what it is that keeps her from becoming a diva?

“You can’t get swept up in it. Being around people in the shop helps keep my feet on the ground. I have a down to earth family, so if I got a bit like a diva, my mum would be like “don’t you dare!” It would be a slap round the back of the head and get straight back to normal!”

Lauri plans to continue her work in Manchester and Preston for the time being, but eventually hopes to move to London, and then pursue her career dreams to fashion heaven New York, and it’s clear that Lauri has the potential to make ripples in the fashion world, locally, nationally and internationally.