“If I had the option to do a shoot naked, I wouldn’t do it,” said Amilna Estevao, the 26-year old, multilingual model, who’s equally in demand for runway as she is for beauty editorials and advertising. “Well maybe a little from the side. I’d never say never. But not all nude.”
Luckily, the fashion industry adores Estevao well enough with her clothes on. Or to be more precise, with their clothes on. The list of top design houses the Angolan struck a pose for includes Michael Kors, Giorgio Armani, Prada, Thom Brown, Givenchy, Philipp Plein, Monse, Moschino and Hermes.
Despite the expanded globalization of models, few have a story like Estevao; nor do they have her baby face, toothy smile and endless legs.
Born in Angola, the teenage Estevao spoke not a word of English when she was whisked off to the West’s fashion capitals – London, New York, Milan and Paris.
She was just two months old, offspring of a 16 year-old Mom and an 18 year-old Dad, when she went to live with her paternal grandmother in Angola’s capital Luanda Kawako, while her father went off to university. “I was the eldest of my mother and father,” she noted.
Her mother died when Amilna Estevao was 12. “I really didn’t get to know her too well,” she said, her voice getting soft. Meanwhile, her father’s marriage brought her a stepmother and siblings, five by her father and three on her mother’s side of the family.
Estevao dreamt of being a flight attendant; women who traveled the world and looked sharp doing it. “I didn’t know much about it,” she recalled laughing at the memory. But “I thought their uniforms were super cute!
“They wore a little jacket, long dresses and skirts, a button up shirt, with a bow and high heels. I remember they wore blue and orange.”
While she imagined herself in a flight attendant’s uniform, folks around her noted her advancing height. “I’d always been supertall for my age – and skinny,” said Amilna Estevao. “People would always say, ‘don’t you want to become a model?’”
“I’d never seen myself being a model,” she said. But after two years on the decision bubble, she decided, “I’ll try it”.
At age 14, she entered the Elite Model Look Angola competition and won. In the global contest, which has minted successes like Cindy Crawford and Gisele Bindchen, Estevao became the first Black African model to make it into the top three.
In a flash, Da Banda Model Management swooped in and scooped her up. Based in Luanda, with an office in Lisbon, Da Banda specializes in scouting and developing models. The agency recommended Amilna Estevao head to Portugal for development. Unsurprisingly, her father and grandmother were hesitant. She was, after all, a young teenager. Eventually, encouraged by her stepmother, they relented.
In Portugal, she underwent a model bootcamp. “I had to learn how to walk, present myself, things like that,” she said.
But plans to immediately begin her fashion ascent in London short circuited when, reacting to public outcry about the use of underage models on runways, designers and organizations worldwide like the Council of Fashion Designers of America, directed that models must be 16 years or older to walk in shows. Estavao was 15.
“So I had to wait until 16,” she said.
She cooled her heels in London where she studied English, participated in test shoots (exploratory photo sessions with photographers) and visited Paris. In 2015, she arrived in New York, ready to work. “Then the madness started!” she said smiling.
It was good madness, of course. Amilna Estevao, by her count, modeled in 38 shows that season, traveling to New York, London, Milan and Paris – the four major fashion capitals, and later China. “There were so many things I didn’t know. I barely knew how to speak English,” she said. “I barely knew how to schedule for myself. I left home so early. It was me teaching myself.”
One of her first shows was Alexander Wang. ”I remember we had some big platforms. I didn’t know how to walk on big platform (shoes). You put some heels on me – done! Those are the easiest for me. But big platforms. Wow.”
Since then, she’s grown from a child who left home almost a decade ago into a woman and world-class model.She comes across as both deeply wise and disarmingly innocent. Aware of her complexity, she describes herself thus. “I’m reserved, but sometimes I can be funny and goofy,” she said, grinning.
As a model, the 5’10” Estevao translates this personality into being a master chameleon. In one situation, she embodies high fashion, European luxury; in another she’s giving you edgy tomboy in the mold of a modified Grace Jones.
“I don’t see it as just modeling,” she said. “It’s more than that. Fashion is so beautiful. It’s like art.”
Among the greats, she’s inspired by South African Elite model Candice Swanepoel and thee Naomi Campbell, her African roots ever present, even as she spreads and grows branches in her adopted home.
Amilna Estevao last visited Angola three and a half years ago. Her now-fluent English is still fragranced with accents of her native Portuguese. She speaks Spanish “and I can understand a little Italian and French. They’re all Latin-based languages,” she pointed out. It comes in handy as she travels for work, but Manhattan is home now.
She admires the duality of New York City – the harshness, the noise, its fast pace and brusqueness juxtaposed with the welcome, the variety, the possibilities, and hustle culture.
“If you hear someone say, ‘it’s the city of your dreams’,” she said, she understands what that means now. “You can find so many opportunities. Not that it’s easy. But it’s a city that has a lot, a lot, a lot of opportunities for every kind of person. I love New York City.”
Delight and a broad smile light up her face, when I tell her about students I met with at The High School of Fashion Industries who aspire to model.
Her advice: Believe in yourself. “Keep going,” she said.
“I’m very independent,” Estevao explained. “I would never tell anyone to stop doing something. Follow your dreams. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.”
With a fellow model, Amilna Estevao developed a clothing collection which she hopes to introduce this year. It’s limited to hoodies, hairbands and T-shirts for the moment.
Singing relaxes her and she’s trying her hand at writing songs with her boyfriend, a musician.
We‘ll undoubtedly see a lot more of Estevao as she continues her inspiring journey, and she has those strong words to share too. “Confidence is key when it comes to every single thing,” she said. “You can always follow your dreams. And if it doesn’t work out. A failure is way better than nothing. “You can fail and get up and start all over from the first step. But if you decide to stay down, that’s it!” she says, emphatically.
“There’s always an opportunity to try, try, try – 99 times,” said Estevao. “Maybe one time it will work.” Tony Robbins, watch out. Competition may come from the woman who left Angola at 15 to try her luck as an international model.
