Swedish-born, Houston-bred Britt Maren — Britt is actually her middle name, and Maren is after her great-great-grandmother — is just coming off her breakout runway season. Alexander Wang handpicked her to work exclusively with him before his Spring 2011 show — which she then opened — and they produced a short film series together. By the time she got to Paris, she had walked for Marc Jacobs, Rodarte, Roberto Cavalli, Fendi . . . and Guido Palau cut off eight inches of her dirty blonde hair and dyed it platinum for the Balenciaga show. 20-year-old Maren is featured in W’s newest issue, as captured by Paolo Roversi; we caught up with her to get the lowdown on all that’s happened since she moved from Houston to New York just a few short months ago.
Where are you right now?
At my apartment, I just got back from walking my dog. He’s a puggle, and his name is Zeus — my boyfriend named him.
What neighborhood do you call home?
Lower Chelsea/Meatpacking.
And your favorite place in New York?
I like going to the park on a nice day, to walk my dog. I love going to bakeries in Chinatown — they’re not the typical bakery with cupcakes — for the steamed buns that have pumpkin or sesame or chestnuts or red beans inside. And there’s this cool bar, Apotheke, that my boyfriend took me to in Chinatown: it’s on a teeny little street where you would never expect it, and they have mixologists and chefs working there, mixing fruit and vegetable-infused drinks.
From left: Chanel, spring 2011; Balenciaga, spring 2011
You just did the Lanvin x H&M show! How was it?
They told us to have fun with it on the runway — stop however many times you want, smile, laugh, engage with audience. And there were a ton of fresh flowers — it was freezing backstage because of the flowers, they had to crank up the AC to keep them fresh. I really liked the clothes, too — I loved my yellow dress — but I couldn’t take it home because they’re auctioning it off. I have to work tomorrow — I’m shooting with Love for the first time — but maybe on Sunday I can go try to get something from the collection at H&M.
Any other fun shoots recently?
I did American Vogue a couple of days ago — it was a Gangs of New York theme, and in my group, there were five of us platinum blonde girls in Calvin Klein, jumping — they shot us all mid-air.
Backstage, Missoni, spring 2011
Tell us a little bit about your relationship with Alexander Wang. How did you meet?
My bookers are close with him, so they sent me over to meet him personally — I think castings for his show were already going on at the time. Afterward, he called the agency and asked them to keep me under wraps instead of sending me out to other castings. I spent the next week doing looks with him and [his show stylist] Karl Templer at his studio. I was an Alexander Wang fan before — I always really liked his clothes and shows — so it was a dream come true to live that. He’s so personable and fun. It was all very spur of the moment, I had just joined [my agency] Women a few days before that.
From left: Marc Jacobs, spring 2011; Donna Karen, spring 2011
What aspirations do you have outside of modeling?
I’ve done some classes in college through UT-Austin, but it was more just credits, so I want to go back and finish school. After high school, I deferred at NYU and UT-Austin, and for a while I considered doing both [modeling and school] at the same time, but I want to wait to be able to give it my full focus.
Any guilty pleasures?
I love baking. Carrot cake is my favorite — or anything chocolate. My boyfriend’s a chef, so I’m spoiled in that sense; he’s an amazing cook, definitely better than me. He works at the [restaurant] Fat Radish, so I’ve been going there a bunch. It’s really good. Marc Jacobs has been in a few times — even in the fashion world it’s a hit place, which is funny.
And you like surfing, right?
My dad surfs in the Galveston area, so he taught me; both my brothers surf as well. My family takes a trip to Fiji every year, but I haven’t been recently. Sometimes I have to wait for the waves to get a little smaller because waves there get so big and can be really dangerous. My dad has been going for 12 or 13 years, he actually just emailed me about finalizing dates for Fiji — hopefully this summer when they go again I’ll be on the trip.
Backstage, Balmain, spring 2011
How did you come to find out that they were going to cut off and bleach your hair for Balenciaga?
I had heard at Balenciaga they were probably going to do something to my hair, but there were just a lot of ideas being thrown around. I thought they were just going to give me lighter blonde highlights or shorter hair. They did it the day before the show, with five or six of us getting a dramatic change. I just remember the hairstylist went through 10 bottles of bleach that day — my hair was bleached three times to get the right shade. I was white blonde as a baby, but it was such a shocking change. I was worried about showing pictures to my mom and boyfriend, but they both love it. It’s so easy now, I don’t have to do anything to my hair. Even just walking down the street, people stop me and say they like the haircut or color.
You keep mentioning your boyfriend — how long have you been together?
Three years in January. We met in Barcelona, it was a quick introduction by chance. He used to model but wanted to move on, so he went to culinary school, and has been at Fat Radish since before it opened.
Any fun holiday plans?
For Christmas, I’m going home to Houston — I haven’t been home since March. Maybe I’ll go for Thanksgiving too, but Derek my boyfriend doesn’t get that much time off because of the restaurant — only Christmas day and Thanksgiving day — so since I knew I’d be leaving him here for Christmas, we may drive down to DC, where his dad lives. I want to see Love and Other Drugs — it’s not out yet, but I might make my boyfriend go see it on Thanksgiving.
And any plans for tonight?
I might go into the Fat Radish, but I’m working tomorrow so I probably won’t make it too late a night. I TiVoed The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, Outsourced, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia . . . so I have all those recorded from yesterday to watch.
By Tommye Fitzpatrick
I prefer old Britt!
