Amanda Moore: From Nothing, to Gucci, to 'Got Milk?'
February 6, 2001
The fairy tale of the girl who accompanies her friend to a movie audition or modeling contest and gets discovered instead has turned into something of an industry cliché. But at the same time, most of us don't know anybody to whom it actually happened. Yet -- just like winning the lottery -- it does. That's how it happened to Amanda Moore.
"A friend of mine asked me to go to an open call at this modeling agency," Moore, 21, remembers.
"The people there told me to go to this big convention in Orlando but I didn't want to go -- I wanted to play basketball. But then I hurt my leg and so I went." The Orlando convention led to a life-changing trip to New York where she signed with her agency Next. Three years later, she's graced the cover of Italian Vogue, has done another cover for Vogue's Australian edition and has worked with everybody from Steven Meisel and David Sims to Fabien Baron. She has signed ad campaigns with DKNY and Costume National and walked the runway for 60 designers during the Spring 2001 collections last year. But a day before the casting for the Fall 2001 New York Fashion Week starts, Moore is nervous how this season will turn out for her.
Her almond-shaped eyes displaying a mix of horror and excitement, Moore remembers the Gucci show in Milan:
"It was so big. And I had done Jil Sander, Missoni and other big names but Gucci -- there was just so much hype, there were so many people and we were waiting backstage for four hours. I missed two other shows because of it and I had to send the designers flowers and apologize that they had to find another girl so last minute," she recalls.
"It was so big, the attention was unbelievable. And then, the runway was all mirrors and it was dark. You only had a spotlight following each girl. All you could see was your own reflection. It was the biggest and the scariest show."
"It's not insecurity, but it's just me stressing," Moore goes on. "If a model who makes good money for being beautiful is still bitching about how not beautiful she is, people don't accept it. But I do worry that I might have not been quite ready for some of the shows I did, and that I disappointed."
Sitting in her agency's office with only minimal make-up underlining her delicate features, her hair tied loosely in back, Moore is nothing like the tough, dark-haired vixen she often plays in editorials but more like herself: a former tomboy who broke her nose twice playing college basketball, whose family "was in debt all my life," and who is now trying to come to terms with her Cinderella story.
"I started college when I was 15 and I pushed myself very hard to excel in high school -- I gave up a lot of things to do that. Sometimes it's really hard to deal with the lack of 'academia' in my life now," Moore, dressed in gray trousers, a black baggy sweater and combat boots, says. "But this job gives girls the opportunity to make their own money and they don't have to struggle," she points out. "I don't want to sound like 'money, money, money,' but I came from nothing. And if you have it, money gives you freedom." And the chance to give back: With her first big paycheck, Moore bought her father a new pickup truck, which was one of the three goals she had when she came to New York. "To be able to give back to the world -- it's amazing and it's the most rewarding thing," explains Moore, who also gives donations to breast cancer charities, and is toying with the idea of studying law one day. But after initially enjoying the financial independence and the glamorous life of an in-demand model, time has come for her to re-evaluate things.
"I did the party scene for a while but you won't see me in clubs anymore," Moore says about her social life. "You get surrounded by the wrong people. In this industry you never know what people's intentions are, and you can't blame them because they might not even be aware of their own intentions. I've been hurt and I've been used; everyone likes me when I'm doing well. I changed my friends after I stopped partying."
Moore pauses before carefully choosing the words to describe where she's at right now. "I just want everyone to know I'm really struggling to be myself and to remember that [modeling] is just a job," she finally says. "There were times when I forgot to be grateful for what I have, and luckily I've been reminded of that. When I leave this world I want to be remembered as a person who had a good job and was good to people."
But -- god willing -- there's plenty of time before Moore leaves this world, and she blushes a little as she talks about the one career goal she's set for herself and which she hasn't accomplished yet. "I always wanted to be in the 'Got Milk?' ads," she reveals in a whisper. "Growing up I thought they were the coolest, funniest thing," she laughingly explains, her alto voice returning to an audible volume. "O.K., maybe they're tacky but at least you can say I'm unpredictable." Leaning back on the sofa, she adds: "And I want to find out what the white stuff is they put on their lips."
- Eri Kim
