Catherine McNeil | Page 618 | the Fashion Spot

Catherine McNeil

Missed seeing her immaculate walk this season. In the meantime there is her new YSL L'Homme fragrance commercial to enjoy. Such a HF money girl..tattoos or not. ;)
 
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S Moda July 2016


"Jugar con Otras Reglas"
Model: Catherine McNeil
Photographer: Henrique Gendre
Stylist: Francesca Rinciari
Hair & Makeup: Carol Guzmán




visualizing.fashion
 
I love her but damn, that's a lot of tattoos, I didn't realize her entire back was covered. It's got to limit her work, even at her level, no?
 
I love her but damn, that's a lot of tattoos, I didn't realize her entire back was covered. It's got to limit her work, even at her level, no?

She really has been adding a lot. I forget where I read it, but she did recently an interview about all her tattoos.

I figure she's at a stage of her career of "If I work, I work. If I don't, I don't"
 
She really has been adding a lot. I forget where I read it, but she did recently an interview about all her tattoos.

I figure she's at a stage of her career of "If I work, I work. If I don't, I don't"

Think she's probs at the level where they can afford to digital the body-art away if that's the look they want ie. Jimmy Choo and a number of her other recent campaigns/eds if i remember correctly? That being said cant help but wonder what she might have done minus the ink..? I do appreciate her fearless approach to it all. A truly individual beauty. ;)
 
Good to see this thread active again :)

That S Moda shoot is just great, she's sexy and expressive.

I think Victoria's Secret needs to get with the times and start using girls who are inked. They could even make a part of their catwalk show an 'Inked' special - use girls who have tattoos and also cover the 'nice', 'sweet' girls who DON'T have tattoos in fake ones. Gigi and Kendall and Taylor covered in tatts looking like goth/metal butterfly faeries queens would be amazing and give the show more publicity and edge. Victories Secret is just so boring - they need to sex it up more. Rihanna is covered in tatts for crying out loud and she's the hottest, sexiest and edgiest female pop star in the world at the moment. Yeah I've ranted about wanting to see Cat do VS before, but dammit they should cast her, and imo she should do it. Get that money and higher profile now woman. She could be the first inked and bi/queer/gender fluid/non-binary (just trying to cover all the bases here sorry, and if I've missed a model they have cast, whoops sorry) supermodel to walk for them, it would be amazing.
 
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^ YES :heart: Showstopper even with her eyebrow injury. Karl loves Cats :crush:
 
Dont think its been posted on tFS yet but Catherine has the Jimmy Choo fragrance campaign shot by Steven Klein. Hoping to see some more new work from McNeil stat.
 
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TOWEL SERIES 106, CATHERINE MCNEIL. MarioTestino #TowelSeries @catmcneil
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THE DIARY OF A TATTOO ADDICT
PHOTOGRAPHS SHAWN BRACKBILL
EDITOR CHRISTINA SULPIZIO
INTERVIEW RAY SIEGEL

Some models might be concerned that covering themselves with tattoos could turn out to be a bad career move, but the badass Cat McNeil isn't the type of model to concern herself with such things—or with much of anything, for that matter. In fact, her carefree attitude has the opposite effect: It's what makes her a stronger model. During a shoot with Cat for CR Fashion Book Issue 6, Carine was quite taken with Cat's wide range of tattoos, many of them clearly the product of a drunken night. But Cat doesn't regret a single one. Here, we capture her ease and almost every tattoo on her body (there's a few that we let her keep secret).

What’s your first memory of fashion?

"I remember when I first came to New York after I had just won a modeling competition. I came with my grandma and we went to H&M and I thought it was the coolest store in the whole entire world. I bought this really amazing skirt and I was like “oh my god, I need to go back to Australia to wear this.” Looking at it now it’s gross. It’s some fully retro, ‘70s skirt with a huge button and it was black and white. I think I only wore it four times."

What was the first show that you walked in?

"I’ve been modeling since I was thirteen, but internationally since I was seventeen. I remember doing Australia and New Zealand fashion week, but the first big show I ever did was opening and closing for Cavalli. I remember being so nervous that I thought I was going to throw up everywhere."

Where did you get your first tattoo?

"At this place called Smith Street in Brooklyn. One of my friends had been tattooed there before, so I went back there with him and we both got a tattoo. That was my first one and then I just kept going back."

Do any of them have special meanings or are they all random?

"A few of them do. Some of them my friends have given to me and then some are from drunken nights when I got my sister’s name and a few friend’s names. Others are really completely random. For example, I was doing a shoot in a house in Carroll Gardens and they had a frog skeleton on their table and I was like 'oh I like that, I’m going to get one of those.' Come to think of it, I actually have a lot of bugs. I have a rhinoceros beetle because I used to see them in Australia when I was a kid a lot. I also have a moth, a bee, and a candle burning on both ends because I have a tendency to do exactly that."

Can you explain what you mean by that?

"It’s about not being able to find a balance—working too much and then partying too much."

Are there any tattoos that you regret or want to get removed?

"There’s one on my body that I absolutely hate, but it’s on my foot so I can’t see it. All of the tattoos tell stories, so I feel like that’s part of getting them. I have friend’s names that I’m not friends with anymore which can feel a bit weird, but luckily I never get any ex’s initials or anything like that."

Do you find the act of getting tattooed to be addictive?

"I think so. I don’t know if it’s the process because each person is different, but I was addicted after the first one. I have a friend who doesn’t even see his tattoos when he looks at himself in the mirror anymore, but he’s completely covered. It’s almost like a type of body dysmorphia. You just look at all the free skin and how empty it is."

Is there anything other than the tattoos that people would be surprised to know about you?

“Not really. I used to get asked the same stuff all the time like “what’s your beauty routine?” and “what do you do to stay healthy?” But it’s nice now because having the tattoos makes the questions different. I didn’t do it because of that, but you know you’re always getting told what to do with your hair. You can’t eat this and you can’t eat that. When people used to ask me that I always think: do you want the real answer or do you want me to lie about it? What works for some people doesn’t work for others.”

What would you do if you weren’t modeling?

“I get asked that all the time and I have no idea. I guess I should probably start thinking about it. I once had a normal job. I worked in a popcorn shop when I was about fifteen, but then I got fired.

You weren't very good at serving popcorn?

"No, I used to come in and eat it all."

Who would you love to work with?

“Mario Sorrenti is incredible. Other than him, I really want to work with Bruce Weber.”

What’s your advice for someone getting their first tattoo?

"You should be sure on what you’re getting. If you’re really not that sure, get it somewhere you can’t see it so you can’t look at it. Make sure you do your research and go to a good shop."

crfashionbook.com
 
The Edit by Net-A-Porter
August 11, 2016

A Different Beat
Model Catherine McNeil
Photographer Nick Dorey
Styling Morgan Pilcher



Wearing pre-fall’s ultra-cool leather jackets, distressed denim and cult-status boots, model Catherine McNeil talks tattoos, Testino and getting into trouble. By Emma Sells.

Catherine McNeil, also known as Cat, is not your average model. In an era where taking to the runway goes hand in hand with clean eating and healthy living, Australian McNeil, 27, is refreshingly rock’n’roll, a model in the mold of fun-loving Kate Moss, rather than meditating Gisele.

“I’m just being me,” says McNeil. “I don’t know how to be anything else.” She isn’t, she asserts, the hellraiser that her Instagram feed – filled with her partying and posing and generally having more fun than you – suggests. “Yeah, I get into trouble with my Instagram and I get told to take stuff down,” she grins. “It may seem like I’m partying all the time, but I’m a homebody. I’d rather be watching Netflix on my friends’ couches.”

McNeil’s androgynous style helps fuel her wild-child image, too. When we meet in her London hotel, the morning after The Edit’s shoot, she’s barefaced – she didn’t own any makeup until she bought some for a red-carpet event last week – wearing an oversized black T-shirt, skinny leather pants and clumpy lace-up boots, her hands laden with an impressive collection of rings that range from the delicate to the knuckle dusting.

Then, of course, there are the tattoos, arguably McNeil’s defining feature. You see plenty of them on Instagram, too. She got her first the day before her 18th birthday, just to see if she could, then another the next day, and hasn’t looked back since. Now the model has so many that she’s lost count; they cover her back and the palms of her hands, her ears and her toes. The inky collection of creatures across her back are a two-year project, but most are souvenirs collected from around the world. Her current favorite is also the most recent – a panther that stretches down her side. On most people they would be a statement; on a model, they’re an act of defiance. “You’re always told you have to look this way and have your hair like that,” she says, “so this is my way of taking my body back. Sure, there are jobs I haven’t got because of them, and covering them up takes a really long time, but I’m not bothered. I’m just thankful for all the stuff that I have done and am doing.”

McNeil grew up just outside of Brisbane, Australia, surrounded by chickens and horses in acres of wide open space. Fashion wasn’t remotely on her radar. “I was a bit of a tomboy,” she says. “I grew up playing around in the mud, climbing trees. Actually, I still do all of that now. My grandma says that I haven’t changed a bit, so that’s good.”

It was her grandmother, Sandra, and her mother, Melissa, who signed a reluctant 13-year-old McNeil up to the magazine competition that started her career in 2003. And, when she moved to New York aged 17, Sandra went with her, staying in her shared model apartment for three weeks to help her settle in. “She’s kind of like my rock,” says McNeil. “I’ve flown her on jobs, she comes to fashion week, Mario [Testino] threw her a 60th birthday party... Her life is a million miles away from mine, but she’s very involved and I love that.”

The model’s career skyrocketed once she moved stateside: the aforementioned Testino booked her on an editorial exclusive for six months; she walked for Alexander McQueen and John Galliano; and landed campaigns with Louis Vuitton and Givenchy. Then, in 2009, aged 20, she stunned everyone by walking away from it all. “I’d been doing it since I was 13, I needed a break,” she explains. “I needed to experience life outside of fashion.” She moved to Islington, London, and spent two years quietly being normal until, much to her surprise, she realized that she missed her old life. “I enjoyed it a lot more once I came back,” she says. “I thought basically that my career would be over; I’m very lucky that everyone has given me another chance.”

McNeil is friendly but guarded; she’s happy to talk about her beloved five-year-old Harrier hound, Harvey (“My baby”), and to confess that she ill-advisedly pierced her own nipple as a teenager (“Worst idea ever”), but you get the feeling she is uncomfortable giving too much of herself away in a situation where she can’t control the end result. In part that’s because, while what you see is what you get with her, not everything you read about her is true. Past relationships with model Freja Beha Erichsen and actress Ruby Rose mean that her love life generates a significant number of column inches, some more factually accurate than others. Even her Models.com page boasts a myth: that she fixes up cars in her spare time. “This is something that has haunted me since I was 13,” she groans. “I wanted to be a mechanic before I knew anything else because I grew up with a lot of boys who rode motorbikes. But no, that never happened. My grandfather let me bleed the brakes on his car when I was 15 and that’s it.”

In reality, she spends her time at home in Brooklyn with Harvey, or going on road trip adventures with friends like fellow models Lexi Boling and Issa Lish. Last week they went to Trampoline World, where they were the oldest people bouncing around by far. Maybe Cat McNeil is having more fun than you, after all.
net-a-porter
 
^ KARMA! Love her done up rockabilly style. Werq McNeil.
 
New cover for Numéro Russia (October 2016). Photographed by An Le.



instagram/numerorussia
 

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