“Competitive is an understatement,” said model Hannah Locsin during her shoot with To be You in early September. A familiar name and face in our fashion stories, she was describing her experience modeling in Europe.

 

“You cannot imagine how many models there are. That’s why it’s very, very competitive,” she pointed out. “There are models from all over the world and their expectations are very high as well.”

 

She recalled a moment when she was close to being part of the show of a Paris fashion house. “I was already at the designer’s office for a fitting,” she said, “but sadly, I didn’t make the final cut.”

 

Freaking out

 

It was 10:30 p.m. (Manila time) last Sept. 22 when, to our surprise, we caught Locsin via livestream strutting down the runway of the Gucci Spring-Summer 2020 fashion show in Milan. She wore a long apple-green dress and sported latex gloves and oversized sunnies.

 

 

“I was freaking out!” Locsin later messaged us, recalling the moment when she found out she was walking for Gucci. She was the first Filipino model to walk the Gucci runway. “It was a mix of excitement and nervousness.”

 

Last month, she had another scheduled shoot for To be You, but she declined because she said she needed to fly back to Milan. All the while, she was mum about her Gucci gig.

 

“I didn’t want to say anything yet because I was scared it might get canceled,” she said.

 

Why Not, the modeling agency in Milan which represents her, landed her the Gucci show.

 

“It was so exciting,” she said of the atmosphere at the  Gucci show. “They take care of every little detail. And the models are super nice and diverse.”

 

Locsin has been modeling in Europe for a year now. She was first based in Paris, then spent a couple of months in London. Her working hours, she said, are unpredictable. “I only get my schedule for the next day the night before.”

 

She remembered that when she moved to Europe, she had difficulty landing jobs because there were just so many models. Among Asians, she added, it was the Chinese who got the jobs.

 

 

Locsin’s features are not typical East Asian. When she was trying to figure out how she could stand out and look different from the rest, her Paris agency, Women Paris, suggested she change her hairstyle.

 

This resulted in her now famous bowl cut seen at Gucci.

 

Just try to show them your personality and confidence, Locsin said.

 

Before moving to Europe, Locsin had done quite a number of shoots for To be You. She  even hosted To be You’s “Street Style” fashion show in 2016.

 

Locsin went to St. Pedro Poveda for high school and finished communication arts at De La Salle University. She’s a member of the Professional Models Association of the Philippines.

 

Locsin is a food lover, and  has a sweet tooth, but due to the demands of modeling, she has had to control her cravings. “In preparation for fashion week, I was more careful with what I ate,” she said. “But it’s so hard to resist sometimes!”

 

Gucci is distributed by Stores Specialists Inc., with stores in Greenbelt 4 Makati and Shangri-La Plaza.